Police assumed Kellie Carmichaell's death was a suicide
IT WAS a reaction that stunned John Carmichael and his wife Margaret when they arrived at Katoomba to look for their missing daughter Kellie.
Australian contractor killed in Iraq
AN Australian security contractor - described by his daughter as the best dad in the world - has been shot dead in Iraq.
US commander says Taliban gaining upper hand
The top US military commander in Afghanistan says the Taliban have gained the upper hand in the country, forcing the United States to change its strategy by increasing the number of troops in heavily populated areas, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
Millionaire's yacht linked to Maddie
A YACHT owned by an Australian property tycoon may have been involved in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Diver missing after shark sighting
A MAJOR search is underway for a 31-year-old experienced diver who has gone missing amid reports of shark sightings.
Auction punch-ups as real esate soars
PANIC has set into the residential property market, even sparking violence at auctions.
England v Australia, fourth Ashes Test at Headingley, day three
Australia mop up England, claiming the final two wickets shortly after lunch on day three to win the fourth Ashes Test by an innings and 80 runs. - since when is a one sided contest a thriller? - ed.
Mass evacuation as typhoon slams coast
CHINA has rushed nearly one million people out of harm's way as a typhoon triggered Taiwan's worst flooding in 50 years.
Bomb explodes in restaurant
A BOMB has exploded in a beachfront restaurant in the capital of the island of Mallorca, Spanish government officials said, following a phone warning in the name of Basque separatist group ETA.
Snatched toddler returned, dad arrested
A toddler has been reunited with his mother after being taken from her Sydney home late yesterday. The boy's father has been arrested.
Tests confirm Jakarta bomber still alive
Fingerprint analysis has confirmed that a man killed by Indonesian police at the weekend was not fugitive terror suspect Noordin Mohammed Top.
60 minutes to fight ban on suicide story
60 Minutes will fight a court order banning them from broadcasting a story about the suicide deaths of four students at a Geelong school, claiming it "needs to be told".
=== Comments ===
SHOT CLAIMED
Tim Blair
Although I clearly identify him as a Scots sniper, Guy Rundle seems to think that Corporal Christopher Reynolds is a member of the Australian armed forces. Oh, well; can’t blame the big bloke for being patriotic.
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SCUZE ME WHILE I KILL THIS GUY
Tim Blair
It’s the 40th anniversary of the definitive hippie event of the 1960s.
And also Woodstock.
===
CARBON RUDDUCTION
Tim Blair
The appearance in Canberra of big giant puppet heads foretells of grim events:
Australian lawmakers will this week vote in the upper house on the government’s Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
Among those who’ll vote against it:
“I don’t think people will be happy when they realize it hasn’t changed the temperature of the globe,” National Party lawmaker Barnaby Joyce, who opposes the program, said today on Ten Network Holdings Ltd.’s Meet the Press television program. “It’s just a piece of rubbish.”
Which is how the government’s carbon reduction target was previously described by Australia’s people of care, who’d expected a more carbontacular effort from Kevin Rudd after being suckered by end-of-the-planet election campaigning. Barack Obama is now following Rudd’s example, according to a disappointed academic:
During the presidential campaign of 2008, Barack Obama distinguished himself on the economics of climate change, speaking far more sensibly about the issue than most of his rivals. Unfortunately, now that he is president, Mr. Obama may sign a climate bill that falls far short of his aspirations. Indeed, the legislation making its way to his desk could well be worse than nothing at all.
But … but … what happened to the momentum that was supposed to be kick-started by the symbols and rhetoric that were meant to herald a new dawn? Time to fetch those protest sandbags, Obama voters.
===
STEVEN HUTCHISON
Tim Blair
“He was the most liberal man I know,” recalled his niece Laurie Hutchison. “Everybody said, ‘Why are you going back into the military to fight for this cause that most liberals wouldn’t be for?’ But he had a bleeding heart for all those Iraqi and Afghani people, and he felt passionately that many people don’t see the human side of why we’re there.”
===
Bigotry detected
Andrew Bolt
At first I thought this was outrageous meddling by government into our freedom to choose our own company:
Attorney-General Rob Hulls is under pressure to make reforms after the Law Institute of Victoria, community legal advocates and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission recommended narrowing religious groups’ discrimination rights.
They say existing exemptions are too broad and allow widespread discrimination, particularly against people such as gay teachers in religious schools, and female teachers and staff members who become pregnant out of wedlock.
But then one religious group went far too far in discriminating against other potential employees who did not share its fundamentalist faith:
Greenpeace Australia Pacific is seeking a Senior Online Producer to spearhead the design and delivery of our online communications – inspiring and motivating the public, and giving a powerful voice to our fragile earth… To apply for this position you should have at least five years’ experience in the project management of dynamic interactive web sites and an understanding of branding, online design and usability issues. You will also need a commitment to the Greenpeace ideals...
The Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission will be onto this bigotry in a flash, you wait.
===
Drugs or children. They choose
Andrew Bolt
Your heart sinks, knowing how little hope the children of such a woman have. But you also wonder if we should have done more than dole out more drugs:
A drug-addled mother who allowed her young children to sit and eat fast food in the middle of a busy road has been given immediate parole.
The 32-year-old woman, who cannot be named, took her boys, aged one and four, out for McDonald’s on November 11 last year, the Brisbane District Court was told on Tuesday. The court heard the mother bought the children food then led them halfway across a busy road at Calamvale in Brisbane’s south. She sat down to eat with the youngsters on the median strip, causing concerned McDonald’s staff to call the police.
The woman, who has been on a methadone program since 1995, told police she had taken Valium before their outing.
The woman has been on a government-sponsored methadone program for 14 years? And until now, she’s also been allowed to keep her children?
What good has either decision actually achieved?
===
Only racist if whites are punching, not punched
Andrew Bolt
We have protests and fine speeches against racism when we (mistakenly) think white ferals are attacking, say, Indians.
But why no protests from anti-racists over these attacks, reported today, which seem to more clearly fit the racism bill?
One:
They were part of a gang called the Noble Park Bosnians which attacked up to 12 victims during two nights in Carrum, Highett and Parkdale.
One of the gang held a bottle to a girl’s face and told her: ”You f---ing slut, we’re the Noble Park Bosnians - you’d better remember.” Another girl was smashed on the head with a bottle and punched.
The County Court heard that the gang’s offending involved mindless violence, feral tendencies and considerable cowardice.
Two:
THE latest victim of CBD brutality remains in a coma after being attacked by a gang hours before police announced a new push against violent street crime. The brother of tourist Jeff Pooler said police had described him as an “innocent bystander” when he was knocked to the ground then kicked and stomped in a vicious attack…
The self-employed carpenter had been walking back to his hotel after enjoying farewell drinks when a mob, one allegedly aged 15, rounded on him in Little Collins St at 2.45am. The Herald Sun understands a group of men had moments earlier left an Asian night held at a nearby bar, where they had fought with security staff.
Are we only worried about racist violence when it’s done by Anglos? And isn’t that ... racist?
===
Brazen hypocrite
Andrew Bolt
More on the amazing green spirituality of Sir Richard Brazen:
“No Thanks. I’ll take the train,” said Sir Richard Branson, turning down the offer of a limousine as he arrived at Shanghai airport. It was the best he could do after flying for 12 hours from London on a Virgin Atlantic jet to talk to Shanghai’s mayor about green business. But, even as an environmental gesture, it soon seemed futile…
That’s the problem with being an entrepreneur with green pretensions. However much you profess to love the planet, the planet has a habit of catching you out. You want to help tackle global warming but — oh no — you run, or have stakes in, five airlines and operate trains that spew tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere…
The Virgin boss, who is valued at £1.2 billion in The Sunday Times Rich List, has spent £100m buying stakes in clean-fuel companies… He started with coconut oil — flying a Boeing 747 from London to Amsterdam last year with one engine running on the stuff — but gave up when he realised there weren’t enough coconuts to fuel an airline. It didn’t help that a recent holiday in India was ruined by people trying to sell him coconuts everywhere he went. He moved on to ethanol but dumped that when it became clear that it freezes at 15,000ft....
Branson is an unlikely green. It’s not just that he runs planes and trains, supports the third runway at Heathrow and sponsors the environmentally-unfriendly sport of Formula One....
He pledged that any profits paid to the Virgin Group, his holding company, by his transport businesses, would go to help fund the development of alternative fuels. The figure would total £1.6 billion between 2006 and 2016, he predicted. Wired magazine this month reveals that, so far, thanks to the credit crunch, only £110m in profit has materialised.
The claim has given ammunition to Branson’s critics who say that he is guilty of making big announcements and then beating a muted retreat when nobody is looking.
===
The children aren’t the only truants
Andrew Bolt
Not a single one? Astonishing:
Monash University professor Chris Goddard told a conference in Brisbane although there were hundreds of interstate prosecutions of parents whose kids skipped school, Victorian authorities had failed to prosecute any parents.
“… In NSW it is reported that there were more than 400 prosecutions in one year. In Victoria, however, we could not find one recent prosecution of a parent for non-school attendance of a child, even though teachers tell us many vulnerable children are truanting,” Prof Goddard told a gathering of welfare workers on Friday.
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