Headlines Friday 23rd January 2009

Obama signs Guantanamo death warrant
President Barack Obama ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison within a year and banned the use of torture in terror interrogations....
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Rees demands loyalty from top Labor ministers
NSW Premier Nathan Rees has called four senior ministers to his office to put an end to leadership rumblings once and for all....
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Murder investigation leads to explosives stockpile
The army and bomb squad have been called in to dispose of a stockpile of explosives found in a home in Sydney's north shore by detectives investigating seven unsolved murders.
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Aussie tourists arrested after Rome brawl
Four Australian tourists have reportedly been arrested by Italian police following a brawl outside a Rome pub that left a policeman seriously injured.
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Student decapitated at Virginia Tech
A female Chinese graduate student has been decapitated by a fellow student at Virginia Tech, the scene of the worst school shooting in US history in 2007, police said on Thursday.
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Govt should protect jobs, not property: Turnbull
The federal government should be more concerned with protecting businesses and jobs rather than propping up commercial property, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says.
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Gone: All super savings since 2006 lost
Australians have lost every cent they invested in balanced superannuation funds since 2006.
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New drug to revolutionise contraceptive pill
A new contraceptive pill is in the pipelines, and could spell the end of all pre-menstrual pain and discomfort....
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Aussies hooked on booze, whoring - cleric
NOW Islamic cleric Abu Hamza says Aussies are hooked on alcohol, gambling and prostitutes.
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Debt collectors chasing unpaid school fees
THE impact of the economic downturn has moved from the boardroom to the classroom, with a big jump in the number of parents unable to pay school fees.
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MP Theo Theophanous in court to defend rape charges
SENIOR Victorian MP Theo Theophanous has appeared in court to defend rape charges.
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In comments
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NSW Labor to reward a backstabber
With Nathan Rees set to introduce former union heavyweight John Robertson into the NSW Labor Party, the legends of the once proud party must be turning in their graves, writes Alan Jones.
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DROWNTOWN
Tim Blair
A beautiful coastal property for sale in Queensland:

Note the shore’s deadly proximity, however. But don’t let that stop you. Buy it before you’re forced to.
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DON’T BRUISE ‘EM
Tim Blair
Islamic cleric Samir Abu Hamza explains the keys to a successful marriage:
Mr Hamza said Islamic law allowed men to hit their wives as a last resort, but they were not to make them bleed or become bruised.

He said under Islamic law, as described in a koranic verse, it was a man’s right to demand sex from his wife whenever he felt like it.

“If the husband was to ask her for a sexual relationship and she is preparing the bread on the stove she must leave it and come and respond to her husband, she must respond,” Mr Hamza told his male followers on the video sermon …

Mr Hamza runs the Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia on Sydney Rd, Coburg, which offers spiritual advice, prayer facilities and boxing, karate and gym classes for Muslims.
The traditional excuse follows:
Coburg mosque cleric Samir Abu Hamza has told a confidant his message has been taken out of context and that he was referring to hitting wives in a metaphorical sense.
UPDATE. Reader Bill condemns Lebanese immigants who make video speeches condoning rape and wife-beating:
… the least educated, most bigoted dregs able to muster the brain-cells needed for computer usage, basic typing skills, and of course, the fundamental ability to communicate in the English language.
No, wait. He’s actually referring to commenters at this site. Too bad we’re not a race; then we could sue him.
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CRY FREEDOM
Tim Blair
With George W. Bush gone, it’s safe for liberals to emerge from hiding and tell their horrible stories of repression. Victor Davis Hanson urges full disclosure:
Please list, cite, name just one instance from 2002-8 in which you lost your freedom, or you were censored on the library internet, or you were followed around by the FBI, or your letter to the editor earned a wiretap, or even one instance of the loss of any freedom under Bush—and if so, just one example of how the election of Obama has once again restored your lost liberty. Nothing in the abstract, please—something concrete, an example both real and personal.
Speak up, frightened ones. Nobody will hurt you now.
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SHY WINNERS
Tim Blair
The first line in a report from ABC Middle East correspondent Ben Knight:
The political leader of Hamas has declared that his organisation won the recent war in the Gaza Strip.
And the final line:
The Hamas leadership is still in hiding.
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Some comments from yesterday;
In all truth I think Obama will not be judged on his actions until after he has failed as a President .. possibly for the second term. The liberal press sustained the attack on President Bush for 8 years over a phony Gore failing to behave responsibly .. in some ways, the problems the US has experienced are directly related to Gore’s divisive, wrong headed stance.
Let the healing begin, is the cry used by Obama supporters, but they are still backstabbing and they are still snubbing. I think the words of Obama are frequently fine. I think his actions despicable. Sadly, I think Obama has failed already .. the world just doesn’t see it, yet.

David Ball of Carramar/Sydney (Reply)
Thu 22 Jan 09 (12:39am)
Sketch replied to David Ball
Thu 22 Jan 09 (08:19am)
Wow, failed after 1 day as president. Its people like you David who hold back the world from progressing. You sound like you are apart of the problem as opposed to apart of the solution in getting this world restored to some sort of peace.

Greg replied to David Ball
Thu 22 Jan 09 (03:00pm)
Oh, please! GORE behaving irresponsibly? Who backed down for the sake of the country when in reality he could have challenged the legitimacy of voting in Florida, where Jeb BUSH was governor? Bush always was, always will be, a fraud of a President. Good ridance to him!

David Ball replied to David Ball
Thu 22 Jan 09 (09:01pm)
Sketch and Greg, glad to see you got a handle on what Obama means by change .. means rhetoric and device as usual.
Day one, and Obama is planning on talking with Hamas (change from Bush’s position, as Bush wouldn’t negotiate with terrorists). Obama keeps the Gitmo inmates locked up and deprives them of a justice way out. Obama re takes the oath he flubbed the first time.
Like Rudd, Obama has begun with empty rhetoric and broken promises.

Michael Stipe replied to David Ball
Fri 23 Jan 09 (10:36am)
Actually david, I was not Obama who flubbed his oath, it was the Chief Justice who recited one of the words in the wrong order.

CHECK YOUR FACTS!!!!
Michael, I checked my facts. Because Obama flubbed his lines, he needed to take the oath again so as to ensure the constitutionality of his Presidency would not be challenged.
Also in update, Obama has not only denied the Gitmo inmates access to justice through the current arrangement, he has signed that Gitmo must close in a year. This means some of the inmates may be forced to return to nations who have promised to execute them. Of course, some of the nations promise to release them, too. It all sounds so promising.