Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Headlines Tuesday 1st September 2009

Church massacre trial begins
A MAN has gone on trial for allegedly ordering bulldozers to demolish a church where 2000 Tutsis had sought shelter.

Minister quits amid sex scandal
JOHN Della Bosca quits, hours after he was revealed to have been embroiled in a sex scandal. - he has still failed to account for his actions over the death of Hamidur Rahman. - ed.

'Poor decisions' sink Della Bosca
John Della Bosca says "poor personal decisions" led him into an illicit affair which has crushed his hopes of becoming NSW Premier. - update, a second affair is being revealed. - ed.

Health handed back to Hatzistergos
The troubled NSW health system will be headed by its fifth minister in four years, with John......

Serial US paedophile faces sex tourist charges
Notorious US paedophile Jack Louis Sporich, who authorities say has molested more than 500 children, is facing new charges after his extradition from Cambodia.

Bligh Obfuscates on Corruption
The Queensland Government has embarrassed itself after failing to answer an accusation of a museum misusing a grant to repay an arm of the Labor Party.

Teen to be charged over deadly robbery
A 16-year-old is expected to be charged over an armed robbery at Canley Heights in which his co-accused was shot dead by police.

Sex-slave accused a serial killer, says dad
PHILLIP Garrido is a sex addict who killed prostitutes and other young women, his dad says.

Parents used daughter as sex toy
A husband and wife who used their daughter as a sex toy have lost their bid to appeal against their lengthy jail terms.

MP still lost in freezing highlands
A Victorian government minister faces a second night missing in the freezing high country as his family clings to the hope he will be found alive. - he survived his bout against global cooling - ed.

Stannies priest gets bail, more charges
66-year-old former St Stanislaus school chaplain Brian Spillane will walk free despite the fact the court heard students were forced into group sex as part of numerous child sex allegations against Spillane and others.

Man uses baseball bat to kill flatmates
A Singaporean scholarship student is accused of murdering his two flatmates by bludgeoning them with a baseball bat and stabbing them, a jury has been told.

'Bitten teenager's ear fed to seagull'
A MAN accused of biting off half of another man's ear "fed the kid's ear to a seagull", a court heard. - if this had been Rudd who did the deed, he would have been applauded - ed.

Dawn Fraser fights off would-be intruder
Olympic great Dawn Fraser says she fought off and helped capture a man who tried to rob her home.

Long-term couples say 'I do' to divorce
MORE long-term marriages are ending in divorce as unhappy couples become increasingly prepared to call it quits. - Rudd's economic policy has made it harder for everyone. - ed.

NRL star charged over hotel rampage
Sydney Roosters utility Seitamata Sa will be hauled before the NRL club's board to explain why his playing contract should not be torn up after he was charged with four offences following an alleged incident at a Sydney hotel on Sunday night.

Australian doctors paid 'per cure'
DOCTORS paid for making patients healthier rather than the number they see, as part of a Rudd medical remedy. - this is not a policy, but a half baked idea that may well endanger the lives of many. - ed
=== Comments ===
PM’s abuse apology ignores rape scandal

Piers Akerman
THE hypocrisy of the Rudd Government’s announcement that it would apologise to Australians robbed of their innocence in state and church institutions is beyond breathtaking. - It has become standard practice for Rudd to sidestep responsibility and be applauded for it. It is family lore that my family on my mother's side has Aboriginal ancestry and there are incredible allegations, including allegations of murder and a father who raped his daughters. But none of them were stolen and so no apology, neither the previous sorry, nor the contemplated one addresses it. Yet people applaud.
Worse, actual cases of ministerial abuse are ignored. Although there is the outstanding case of Hamidur Rahman and a whistleblower who reported on the suspect open finding of the NSW state coroner, the whistleblower has been threatened by two state ALP ministers (one who recently resigned without specifying their guilt on the issue) the whistleblower had been sandbagged by their local federal member (ALP). The whistleblower has clean hands on the issue, and incredibly the local press won't report on it because the ALP members involved do not have clean hands on the issue and so the reporting of the corruption would expose the ALP who clearly did not commit the (possible) murder .. merely covered it up. When this finally gets published it may claim several successive ALP governments.
AS can be seen with Rudd, who is clearly involved in the Ozcar scandal and yet the whistleblowers are attacked. As can be seen with Heiner and the AWB. I get it that the chortling left leaning press admire the Machiavellian spirit in endorsing Rudd. However it exposes a failure of the press corp to faithfully execute their function. - ed.

===
FAMOUS FISK
Tim Blair
Robert Fisk finally makes it to the Collins English Dictionary:
Among the more colourful additions is the verb “to fisk”, meaning to criticise an article or argument point by point. It is named after Robert Fisk, a former Times journalist who now works for The Independent, whose stories have been subjected to criticism.
Glad to be of help, Bobby.
===
MINISTER ALIVE
Tim Blair
Victorian water minister Tim Holding has been found alive after getting lost during a mountain walk.

UPDATE. A helicopter is going to winch him out.
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OUSTER OUSTED
Tim Blair
The mood may have been a little tense overnight in the Della Bosca household:
Health Minister John Della Bosca resigned last night, just hours after he was revealed to have been embroiled in a sex scandal.

Mr Della Bosca decided to quit as Health Minister after The Daily Telegraph put a list of questions to him outlining a six-month affair he had this year with a 26-year-old woman.

Late last night Mr Della Bosca, who has campaigned hard behind the scenes to oust Premier Nathan Rees, issued a statement that he had resigned as a Minister and the Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council.

“I regret some personal decisions I made and I am deeply sorry for the hurt I have caused my family,” he said.
The woman was born ten years after Della Bosca joined the Labor Party. Further from the Daily Telegraph‘s Rhett Watson, who absolutely owns this story:
John Della Bosca’s affair with a 26-year-old woman was just weeks old when he announced to her that he believed he had the numbers to become premier …

It was an ambition he discussed often with the woman, even sharing his dislike for Premier Nathan Rees whom she said he called a “freckle-faced Latham” and for right-wing powerbroker Joe Tripodi, who Mr Della Bosca considered his enemy.
Beaten to a scoop, the Sydney Morning Herald contacts Belinda Neal, Della Bosca’s wife:
When telephoned at Mr Della Bosca’s home last night, Ms Neal threatened to call the police. ‘’How dare you ring at this time of night? I am going to the police,’’ Ms Neal said.
Nathan Rees – the “freckle-faced Latham” – suddenly seems far more secure as NSW Premier.
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CASH FOR NO COMMENT
Tim Blair
Strategic genius Mike Carlton furiously declines to read an ad, thus generating masses more publicity for the rejected client.
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TWO BILLION UNITED
Tim Blair
Concern about global warming brings developing nations together:
India and China have a “complete convergence” of views heading into the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December …
Gorelings: “Yay!” “The people have spoken!” “It’s a consensus!” “High five!”
India and China have maintained that they will not accept legally-binding emissions reduction targets …
Gorelings: “ … “
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VARIED MO-TIVATIONS
Tim Blair
The brilliantly-named Crystal Ja reports:
An Australian sociologist who has compiled a comprehensive database of suicide attacks claims bombers “are not mad” and there appears to be no set demographics for potential attackers.

Suicide attacks are usually carried out by young and vengeful men, who are completely sane, sociologist Professor Riaz Hassan says …

Prof Hassan, from South Australia’s Flinders University, said after analysing the data, there appeared to be no set demographics for potential bombers.
None at all? Not even militant Presbyterianism, with its promise of 72 Calvins in the afterlife?
The majority were young men, but their driving factors were widely varied, from personal motivations to societal conditions to being directed by others …

Prof Hassan believes suicide bombing is mostly a desperate action to right social wrongs.
Such as “too many Jews”.
It would be impossible to stamp out suicide attacks unless real changes were made to improve social conditions in countries around the world, Prof Hassan said.
It would be interesting to know what social conditions Friday’s arse blaster was aiming to improve. Women’s rights? Gay rights? Freedom of religion?
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CURIOUS AUSTRALIAN LINKS TO OLD CALIFORNIAN MURDERS
Tim Blair
In part one of this one-part series, we examine a sequence of killings from the early 1980s:
[Brandon] Tholmer was convicted in July of four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstance allegations for the slayings of Dorothy Fain, 72, in August, 1983; Mary Pauquette, 72, in September, 1982; Woolloomooloo Woodcock, 66, in August, 1982, and Rose Lederman, 80, in August, 1981. The killings occurred in the East Hollywood and Silver Lake areas.
This has been episode one of Curious Australian Links to Old Californian Murders. Remain vigilant.

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