Headlines Sunday 18th January 2009

Killing continues despite imminent Israeli ceasefire
While Israel considers a ceasefire in Gaza, a Palestinian doctor working in the Jewish state mourns the death of his three daughters, killed by an Israeli shell.
update - Mission complete: Israel announces ceasefire in Gaza
Israel has called an end to its assault on Gaza, saying it has more than accomplished its mission to strike a heavy blow to the heart of Hamas.
update 2 - Barrage of rockets as Hamas rejects Israeli ceasefire
Palestinian militants launched at barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip following Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement of a unilateral ceasefire, according to the military.
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Pokies rake in Rudd's stimulus bonus
Poker machines seem to be the big winners out of the Rudd government's Christmas stimulus package, with $15 million apparently going straight into a pokie revenue boost in Queensland.
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Teenager charged over sister's stabbing
A 16-year-old girl has been charged with stabbing her 18-year-old sister six times in the arm and chest in Sydney's inner-west.
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Blast hits German embassy in Kabul
A blast believed to have been triggered by a suicide bomber wounded at least seven Afghans near the German embassy in Kabul on Saturday, officials said.
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First visas for Rudd's new asylum policy
There is a push for more refugees to be allowed to live in Australia even after the government granted permanent visas to the first group of asylum seekers processed under its new migration policies.
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Opposition demand budget bank balance
The true state of the nation's economy needs to be shown, according to the Federal Opposition, as Wayne Swan admits he may have overestimated the growth of the economy in 2009.
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Mother hands in son over tourist rape
A mother has handed her son over to police after recognising her kitchen knife, which he allegedly used to rape a Dutch tourist, in a photograph.
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Sartor speaks out: I'm not after Rees' job
Nathan Rees has one less MP after his job with former front bencher Frank Sartor declaring he's not planning to unseat the embattled premier.
update - 'Stop faffing around': Sartor tells Labor to get behind Rees
Former NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor has dismissed rumours he is looking to take the top job from Nathan Rees, telling his Labor colleagues to stop "faffing around" with leadership speculation and focus on the job.
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Missing engines add to plane crash mystery
Coles forced to drop deceptive logos
Churches push to change child sex laws
One dead, one missing after late-night swim
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and from news.com.au
Lunar Rover to drive Obama's parade
A PROTOTYPE Moon Kombi - a lunar rover with beds and a toilet - will ride in Barack Obama's inauguration parade.
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Pop star jailed for tying up, beating escort
BOY George has been jailed for holding a male escort captive after a nude photo shoot.
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Jobs' cancer may have recurred - doctors
EXPERTS say Apple boss Steve Jobs' cancer may have returned, after the tech wizard took six months sick leave.
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Melbourne's Daily Planet brothel accused of 'secret door'
By Keith Moor
A RAID on Melbourne's Daily Planet brothel revealed beds for up to 20 prostitutes were illegally set up in the building next door.
An adjoining wall was smashed through and a door installed to illegally link the two properties in Horne St, Elsternwick.

News of the discovery could affect Daily Planet building owner John Trimble's plans to open a bar next door to the brothel, the Herald Sun reports.

It is illegal for brothels to serve alcohol.
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Polls favour O’Farrell
Piers Akerman
One has to admit the slogan - Jovial Joe for Premier - has a certain ring to it, but at this stage, two years out from an election, it may owe more to wishful thinking than political reality. - Talk of Liberal disunity is desired by the ALP who desperately need to give their supporters some good news. I think the current team is doing a magnificent job for the Liberals. I think the current government is desperate. O’Farrell’s decision to block electricity sale was the right one at the time. He didn’t block it out of pique, but for the sensible reason that if it is to be sold, it should be sold for an appropriate amount.
Indeed, it could have been sold for twenty times the current government estimate of $3 billion in the mid 90’s, but ALP didn’t want the previous Lib government to look good. Now the ALP were wanting to sell it with no floor to the asking price.
Hockey is very good, and very good where he is. He may well be PM in the near future .. with a Liberal NSW government beside him .. not wishing to suggest anything will happen to Turnbull either.
I just think the ALP are looking at old ways to get good news. In Queensland’s last state election the ALP used the ridiculous, but accepted, argument that the Lib/Nats were in disunity because they wanted to unify. The problem for the ALP is that mainstream media can lie for them, but it looks like lies when everything East of WA is ALP .. and failing badly. - ed.
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PROVE YOUR HAMAS HAMWORTHINESS
Tim Blair
Take the Super Hamas Fanboy Multiple Choice Quiz!
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KEEP ON CHANGIN’
Tim Blair
He promised change, and change he delivers. For example, Barack Obama has completely changed his “biggest national security priority”:
“We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority,” Obama said during the presidential debate on October 7.
But now:
“My preference obviously would be to capture or kill him,” he said. “But if we have so tightened the noose that he’s in a cave somewhere and can’t even communicate with his operatives then we will meet our goal of protecting America.”
Change! Obama’s also changed his timetable for closing Gitmo.
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DEAD DEBATE RAGES
Tim Blair
The debate is over! Over over over! But nobody told the SMH:
Our addiction to cheap coal is under pressure as the climate debate rages and business tries to profit from alternatives
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ROCKETS ROLLED
Tim Blair
The delivery of modest, home-made rockets into Israel has been slowed for some reason
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RAVEY DAVIES
Tim Blair
“Seriously,” asks James Morrow, “how much functional difference is there between Anne Davies’s puff piece on Obama today and this?”

Well, they are similar, but the latter does seem a little more restrained. Also, it was possibly written by someone who isn’t completely shameless.

UPDATE. It’s the Joe Biden Commemorative Plate:

UPDATE II. As reader Muzz Grey observes, Davies claims that George W. Bush leaves behind “a warming planet”. This is exactly wrong. The planet cooled under Bush. Davies lies! Earth unfries!
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GREAT AUSTRALIAN
Tim Blair
The first Australian winner of the Victoria Cross since 1969:
With enemy fire whizzing and thudding all around, Trooper Mark Donaldson was faced with a choice - to save himself or to risk his life to save his wounded comrade.

Caught in a Taliban ambush of rockets and machine guns, “Donno” Donaldson had already deliberately put himself in the firing line to draw enemy fire away from the wounded.

But as he and his SAS mates instigated a fighting withdrawal, he realised a badly wounded Afghan interpreter had been left behind.

What he did next won him the Victoria Cross - the first awarded to an Australian for nearly 40 years.
Donaldson joins only ten surviving VC winners.
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ANDREW WYETH
Tim Blair
Painter Andrew Wyeth has died at 91. “Art critics mostly heaped abuse on his work,” reports the NYT, “saying he gave realism a bad name.”
About his most famous work:
Wyeth had seen Christina Olson, crippled from the waist down, dragging herself across a Maine field, “like a crab on a New England shore,” he recalled. To him she was a model of dignity who refused to use a wheelchair and preferred to live in squalor rather than be beholden to anyone.
UPDATE. In earlier art news:
A Melbourne gallery has been embarrassed after it emerged that vivid artworks it chose to display in a forthcoming exhibition were actually created by a two-year-old.
The gallery is in Brunswick Street. - I guess the children get their revenge on all that nude art work. - ed.
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UNAFFILIATED PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS IN TROUBLE
Tim Blair
A politician from some kind of nameless mystery party faces child sex assault charges.
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BIOHAZARD
Tim Blair
First it turned out that Toyota’s Prius is useless in snow, and now:
The Bloomington School District is closing schools Friday, after extremely cold temperatures caused the biodiesel fuel in school buses to clog.
Add biodiesel to the list of warmy cures that don’t work.