A PARLIAMENTARY inquiry into land dealings surrounding the McGurk affair descended into a murder hunt yesterday, as details of the slain businessman's mystery tape were finally revealed.
Plan to ban schoolies from balconies to crackdown on bad behaviour
SCHOOLIES face being banned from balconies at some Gold Coast apartments this year in a fresh crackdown on drunken and loutish behaviour. - ALP blame teens, but they still profit from alcohol sales. - ed.
Powerful quake, tsunami in Pacific
A POWERFUL 7.9 magnitude earthquake has struck in the Pacific, with reports of a tsunami hitting Samoa and American Samoa.
Super funds in $110bn recovery
AVERAGE Aussie's nest egg is worth about $7000 more as nation climbs out of crisis. - first state super in NSW is worth less - ed.
Terrorist calls for 'destruction of Australia'
A TERRORIST who helped plan attacks on two Indonesian hotels has vowed to 'destroy Australia'.
Road to true love takes unexpected turn
IT started as a bold declaration on a busy road, but this marriage proposal quickly turned nasty.
Boatload of boatpeople caught off coast
FORTY-three suspected asylum seekers have been captured off the Australian coast - the third boat intercepted in three days.
French support for Polanski stirs unease
GOVERNMENT ministers and much of France's cultural elite rush to defend director.
Australian farmer sent to the US
A CATTLE farmer from Guyra, north of Armidale, facing 25 years in a US jail has been secretly extradited to America to face rape charges.
=== Journalists Corner ===
How he plans to win the NJ Gubernatorial race...
And bring the GOP back to Washington!
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Health Insurance for Illegals?
There is a big difference in between being in this country illegally and legally. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and I had a different view about something last night ON THE RECORD at 10 pm - I like migrants and I want there to be more. I want them to have safety and I want them to have health care. I think the Republicans know how to achieve this, but the Democrats are pushing the poilitcs of envy, and getting credit for doing the oppositie of what they achieve. - ed.
=== Comments ===
ROMAN ROMAN THE RAPIST RAPIST
Tim Blair
There’s rape, according to Whoopi Goldberg, and then there’s “rape-rape”. Meanwhile, Troy Lennon wonders: “If Dennis Ferguson had made the film The Pianist …”
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ISLANDS HIT
Tim Blair
Dozens killed, many villages destroyed by a South Pacific tsunami:
Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning waters as survivors in the island nations of Samoa and American Samoa fled to high ground, where they remained huddled hours later. Hampered by power and communications outages, officials struggled to assess the casualties and damage.
Samoans living in Sydney are desperate for news, but communications are cut. Seven Australians are said to have been injured. The death toll could reach 100.
UPDATE. This didn’t take long:
The tragedy occurred merely a fortnight after the first major meeting of scientists researching the geological effects of climate change. Scientists at the conference warned that climate change may lead to more geological disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
“The whole Earth is an interactive system,” Professor Bill McGuire told Reuters, speaking from the conference in London. “In the political community people are almost completely unaware of any geological aspects to climate change.”
Professor McGuire believes we have just seven years left to save the earth. Or six, seeing as his book was published in 2008.
UPDATE II. An Australian woman is said to have been killed by the tsunami.
UPDATE III. Six other Australians are unaccounted for. The overall death toll is currently at 36.
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CREAN AND GREEN
Tim Blair
Following earlier news of Chinese clean-tech pollution, Reuters now reports:
One needs to look no further then the river that runs through Shangba to understand the extent of the heavy metals pollution that experts say has turned the hamlets in this region of southern China into cancer villages.
The river’s flow ranges from murky white to a bright shade of orange and the waters are so viscous that they barely ripple in the breeze. In Shangba, the river brings death, not sustenance …
Cancer casts a shadow over the villages in this region of China in southern Guangdong province, nestled among farmland contaminated by heavy metals used to make batteries, computer parts and other electronics devices.
Note: this is a Reuters piece, so claims of “death-bringing” should be subject to some doubt. That said, besides batteries, computer parts and other electronics devices, Guangdong province also produces solar panels, many of which are destined for Australia. Federal trade minister Simon Crean celebrated the area last year:
Guangdong is Australia’s largest provincial market in China …
Crean was speaking at a Clean Energy Seminar as part of an Australian Clean Energy delegation.
UPDATE. In other Chinese developments:
New York’s iconic Empire State Building will light up red and yellow Wednesday in honor of the 60th anniversary of communist China.
Sounds great. Maybe they’ll throw some dissidents off it, too.
===
CAR QUIZ
Tim Blair
Identify the make and model shown aflame:
Bonus carbon credits for listing more than one model name from different markets.
UPDATE. It’s a Mitsubishi Starion. A fine car, in their day.
===
STICK TRICKER NICKED?
Tim Blair
This, as many readers have noted, is very interesting.
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Iran and Afghanistan: a Test of Leadership for President Obama
By Bill O'Reilly
The Rasmussen Daily Tracking Poll out Monday has President Obama falling below 50 percent in job approval. The number is now 49 percent. The health care approval rating is 41 percent; 56 percent oppose. So obviously the president is having trouble.
This week negotiations begin with Iran, which continues to defy the world by developing nuclear weapons. After being chastised last week by President Obama and other world leaders, Iran responded by testing missiles this weekend, once again spitting in the eye of those nations who want nuclear controls.
The tyrant Ahmadinejad is clear on the issue, saying this about a possible attack on his country by Israel:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IRANIAN PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD (through translator): The Zionist regime is far too small and little to be able to engage in an act of aggression against Iran. It's not in their capacity to want to engage in anything.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": They could take out a nuclear facility. They could.
AHMADINEJAD: They will not make this mistake, because the response they will get from us will be one which they will regret.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Many believe the USA, Great Britain and France are not going to be able to stop the mullahs from getting nukes. Few believe the West has the stomach for a world war. Certainly Iran believes that.
Once again, the Iranians can cause trouble all over the place: in the Persian Gulf, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Lebanon and on and on. So the arrogant mullahs are going to do what they want to do unless the world economically strangles them, and it doesn't look like that's going to happen thanks to our pals the Russians and Chinese, who refuse to clamp down on Iran. So President Obama is really up against it.
In Afghanistan there's chaos as well. The president still has not decided whether to send 40,000 additional U.S. troops to fill the request of his commanding general, Stanley McChrystal. Sunday night on "60 minutes" McChrystal delivered a stunning soundbite:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID MARTIN, "60 MINUTES" CORRESPONDENT: How often do you talk to the president?
GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: I have talked to the president since I have been here once.
MARTIN: You talked to him once in 70 days?
MCCHRYSTAL: That's correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
"Talking Points" is perplexed. The commander in chief doesn't talk to his commanding general in Afghanistan? What's that all about?
We called the White House Monday and they said the president formulates Afghan policy through Secretary of Defense Gates. That's the chain of command the Pentagon wants. But if it were me I'd be talking directly to my commander in the field on a weekly basis.
Both Afghanistan and Iran are extremely complicated, and it is worth noting that Iran is still holding three American hikers who wandered across the Kurdish border. That's been going on for two months and is basically kidnapping. But again, the mullahs don't care. They do not seem to fear America.
So this is truly a test of leadership for President Obama, just as President Carter was up against the mullahs during his unsuccessful term in office. If Mr. Obama challenges Iran, bad things will happen. If he does not, Iran becomes a nuclear power on his watch.
Same thing in Afghanistan. Either we defeat the Taliban or the country descends into chaos, just like Vietnam did.
History defines great leaders as those who defeat or diffuse great challenges. President Obama is certainly facing those.
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