A Perth man has become the first person in Australia to contract a strain of swine flu which is resistant to the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
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Couple jailed for poison pasta murders
A French court has jailed Marie-Helene Martinez, 29, and her husband Jean-Paul Steijns, 39, for 20 and 10 years respectively for killing their two children with poisoned cannelloni.
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Man charged in two deaths, planned third
A man has fatally shot an anti-abortion activist near a Michigan high school, driven to a gravel pit and shot its owner to death and planned to kill a third man, but was arrested before he could act, a prosecutor says.
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Two cops on leave in Rihanna probe
Two police officers have been placed on leave as part of a probe into who leaked a photo of pop singer Rihanna's battered face after she was assaulted by her former boyfriend Chris Brown, the officers' lawyers say.
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Cops burst out on water bomb drug dealer
A man carrying an estimated $3,000 of heroin around Sydney's Kings Cross in water bombs has been arrested by police after months of surveillance.
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Doctor arrested after sexual assault
A doctor accused of sexually assaulting a female patient during an examination in Sydney's.....
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NSW bid restricts Boxing Day trading
The NSW government has toughened restrictions on major retailers opening on Boxing Day under new......
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Britain says sorry to gay computer pioneer
COMPUTER icon Alan Turing given posthumous apology for his persecution for being gay.
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'Racy' Twilight books banned from schools
IT may be the hottest teen read, but school libraries have banned the popular Twilight series.
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Bus driver was saving her 'family'
WITH a broken ankle, blood-soaked Anita Harper rescued 37 children from crashed bus.
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Ambos get TVs, not life-saving equipment
AMBULANCE service splashes out on big-screen TVs and lounges while paramedics go without critical equipment.
Afghans in Indonesia 'paid to return'
Afghan asylum seekers detained in Indonesia as they sought to reach Australia have been sent home after allegedly being offered a financial inducement.
=== Journalists Corner ===
FOX News Reporting:
9/11 Timeline of Terror
8 Years Later ... we remember.
From amazing survival stories to powerful White House reactions and more -- FOX News recalls the tragic morning that changed America forever.
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Live at Ground Zero
Honoring the heroes, remembering those lost. Neil's live at Ground Zero with Andy Card, Michael Bloomberg & Ed Rendell.
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Remembering 9/11
Bill and Beck pay tribute to all those who were lost. Plus, what does Charlie Sheen think really happened on September 11th?
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A Star-Studded Lineup!
Paula Deen opens up on Helping Hungry Homes. Plus, country music legend George Jones performs!
=== Comments ===
Reaction to Obama's Health Care Speech
By Bill O'Reilly
President Obama put a happy face on his health care vision Wednesday night, so it's hard for fair-minded folks to really know what's going on. Because "The Factor" does not play partisan games, we looked around for the best possible information about Obamacare, and I'm happy to report we found some very good stuff. So here we go.
According to the Lewin Group, an independent research firm owned by United Health, Obamacare would cost the country about $530 billion over the next 10 years. Not too bad. But after that, the costs explode, leading to a $2.4 trillion expenditure on health care over a 20-year period. However, state and local governments would save billions, as the costs shift to Washington.
Now, as you may know, President Obama says cutting down on waste and fraud would pay for health care reform, but "Talking Points" believes that is a complete fantasy. There's likely to be more fraud and waste as the federal program gets bigger.
As for you, families in which all members now have insurance would save about $175 a year on lower premiums. But families where people are not insured would have to spend about $1,400 on average to get on the rolls. The feds would pick up much of that tab.
Lewin says employers would have to pay about $300 more per worker if Obamacare passes. Of course, those costs would be passed on to we consumers. Also, with more Americans opting into a federal health marketplace, employer-based health insurance would fall by about 11 million workers. So some job place programs you have now would fold.
The key here is quality control. The president believes the feds can impose a more efficient system and hold private insurance companies accountable for misbehavior, which is unfortunately rampant, as you may know if you've had to spar for the insurance people to get reimbursement. I have.
"Talking Points" believes that strict government oversight is possible, but tough guys would have to be hired, and that would mean a large expansion of the federal bureaucracy, something conservative Americans loathe.
The strength of Obama's vision is controlling costs and eliminating the chaos that comes from 40 million uninsured Americans potentially using hospital emergency rooms for medical care. The weakness in Obamacare is the massive spending involved and the specter of rationing health care because there will not be enough doctors and nurses to handle all the new patients, so we're going to have to wait.
At this point, the president is basically dodging those two realities.
===
STARE OF DREAD
Tim Blair
The fear can be overwhelming:
There is the dread of leaving the house that morning. People might stare, or worse, yell insults.
But every time I somehow survive each Insiders broadcast. I’m on again in a couple of weeks, by the way.
UPDATE. Some further lines from the above-linked AP piece:
It is now common in U.S. mosques for Muslims to preface public remarks by saying they know the government is eavesdropping but Muslims have nothing to hide.
Relax. It’s probably just Obama listening in for some talking points. And:
A significant number of U.S. Muslims contend that no one of their faith could have perpetrated the hijackings.
So they’d be …Truthlams? Muthers? Truthlamics? Islamotruthers?
===
WHIP SNIPPED
Tim Blair
Paul Kent on new Australian horse-racing rules, which limit whip use:
Not every horse is Kingston Town, ridden hands and heels to famous victories. Instead, as Australian racing debates the new whip laws and the best way to make their case, it is worth remembering that most racehorses respond under the whip and that we, the punters and fans alike, respond to that.
So much of the beauty of racing is linked to the whip.
It is generally not until the jockey pulls the whip that the crowd, seeing his urgency, come into the race.
And when the whip is pulled the horse digs down and works, and suddenly it means something.
Further on the new rules here. Jockeys aren’t happy.
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RENAULT HITS BACK
Tim Blair
Latest developments in Formula One’s soap opera sideshow:
Renault team principal Flavio Briatore started criminal proceedings in Paris against the team’s former driver and his father Nelson, a three-time world champion, for making allegations that it ordered the Brazilian driver to crash into a wall to help the team secure a victory.
Briatore is talking blackmail! Meanwhile, slowest of the field after the first day of practice at Monza is Giancarlo Fisichella, who has abandoned Force India for Ferrari. Fastest? Force India’s Adrian Sutil.
===
THE COLOUR OF MONEY
Tim Blair
He played the poverty card. No takers. He played the race card. Interest: zero. And then Van Jones played the green card:
At the annual Bioneers convention in 2007, Van Jones described to an audience of scientists, activists and environmentalists how he had spent 20 years trying to get Americans to pay attention to the urban poor. “We would call newspapers, television stations, saying kids are dying, we’re going to funerals every weekend. ‘Not interested.’ We’d say we’ve got kids going to school in Oakland, 30 kids in the classroom, six books, no chalk.’ ‘Not interested.’ “
Finally, the Yale Law School graduate turned community organizer told the crowd, “We said, ‘Well, we want green jobs and not jails for our youth.’ And they said, ‘Green? Green? Green!’ GIVE THAT MAN A MICROPHONE!’”
Van rode that scam all the way to the White House. Well, for a few months, anyway.
UPDATE. No green option for ACORN, who prefer a straight-up race play.
===
SPIN ZONE
Tim Blair
A moped-driven rotation experiment:
Comments suggest a fatal outcome. Not so.
UPDATE. Readers insist it’s a scooter, not a moped.
===
G-BUSINESS TIME
Tim Blair
Someone with the intriguing name “G-BIZ PADDY MANNING SUSTAINABLE INVESTING” believes that Australia has blown its chance to alleviate global warming:
The global financial crisis has passed. The climate crisis has not.
The collapse of Lehman Brothers brought the financial system to the brink, but a year later – not only in Australia, but also in China – the world is already dusting itself off.
Did the global financial crisis show how vital high finance is? Or how completely useless? I’m still not sure.
If G-Biz himself isn’t sure, what hope for the rest of us? Mr Sustainable Investing continues:
The world’s response to the crisis had the utmost gravity, with an estimated $US5000 billion in urgent bail-outs and ‘’stimulus’’ money to be spent by the governments of the G20 group of important industrialised and developing economies by the end of next year.
We had, but in Australia blew, the chance to spend that money on the energy and transport infrastructure needed to alleviate global warming, which will not only wreak real and lasting damage to our economy, but will slowly rob us and our children of something really valuable: the beauty and variety of the natural world.
G-Biz probably means our share of that $5000 billion, rather than the whole amount. Speaking of variety, this exotically-named pundit evidently works for a brand-new Australian media organisation:
paddy.manning@farifaxmedia.com.au
===
WE’RE NOT READY TO DIE
Tim Blair
September 11, 2001. Never forget.
UPDATE. “I remember opening my eyes at 8:46 a.m. in my downtown Manhattan apartment …”
UPDATE II. “My name is Betty Ong. I’m number 3 on Flight 11.”
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