Sydney Morning Herald
Suspects 'stopped near reactor'
Six of eight suspected Sydney terrorists attended jihad training camps in country NSW earlier this year, a NSW court document alleges.
Three of the eight men charged after last week's counter-terrorism raids in NSW were also stopped near Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in December 2004, the document says.
An access lock for a gate to a reservoir of the reactor had recently been cut, and the three gave different versions of the day's events to police, it says.
The men were also allegedly stockpiling hundreds of litres of chemicals used to manufacture a highly volatile explosive called TATP.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/suspects-stopped-near-reactor/2005/11/14/1131816839506.html?oneclick=true
Sedition provisions to stay in anti-terror laws
Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out removing sedition clauses from the government's counter-terrorism package, despite warnings they could limit free speech by the opposition and Labor premiers.
Their concerns were echoed today by legal and human rights groups at a Senate committee hearing on the anti-terror bill.
The sedition provisions make it an offence to promote ill-will or hostility between groups, urge violence against the government or assist "an enemy at war" with Australia.
Those convicted face up to seven years' jail.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sedition-provisions-to-stay/2005/11/14/1131951093907.html
Australia offers aid if North Korea abandons nukes
Australia is ready to provide North Korea with massive aid if the communist country gives up its nuclear program, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
"Once the North verifiably abandons its nuclear programs, Australia is willing to provide significant development aid, energy assistance and nuclear safeguards expertise to assist dismantlement," Mr Downer told a news conference in Seoul.
Mr Downer was in the South Korean capital en route to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Pusan, South Korea's second largest city.
Yesterday, he held talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/australia-offers-aid-if-north-korea-abandons-nukes/2005/11/14/1131951093357.html
Bouncer's assault costs club $37,000
The owners of a Brisbane nightclub have been ordered to pay more than $37,000 in damages to a customer assaulted by one of the club's bouncers.
In what is believed to be a precedent-setting judgment, The Beat nightclub has been ordered to pay 33-year-old Gavin Patrick Ryan $37,452 after one of its security guards - Vaivasa Aperu - king hit him.
Brisbane District Court judge Charles Brabazon today found The Beat should be held financially accountable for the actions of its employees.
"There is a finding of vicarious liability," said Judge Brabazon.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bouncers-assault-costs-club-37000/2005/11/14/1131816857410.html
Surfer bitten by shark off Florida coast
A surfer dangling his feet into the sea off Florida's east coast has been bitten by a shark.
The 18-year-old man was surfing in water up to 2.4 metres deep near the New Smyrna Beach jetty on Saturday when the shark swam up and bit him, Scott Petersohn, a spokesman for the Volusia County Beach Patrol, said.
"This was a case of mistaken identity," Petersohn told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
"The guy's foot dangling in the water looks a lot like a fish."
The man, who was not identified, suffered puncture wounds on his right foot, Petersohn said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/surfer-bitten-by-shark-off-florida-coast/2005/11/14/1131816852722.html
American tourist killed by elephant
An American tourist had been trampled to death by an elephant on a South African game farm, police said on Sunday.
The incident happened on Thursday evening on a private farm in the Vaalwaters region of the northern Limpopo province, police Superintendent Ronel Otto said.
The victim, identified as 31-year-old Loren Mummy, was on a game drive with two friends from Scotland, whose identities were not released.
The group, accompanied by a guide, spotted a herd of elephants and decided to approach on foot, Superintendent Otto said. Police suspect they got too close to an elephant calf and an adult female charged at them.
"The guide tried to intervene but apparently the elephant just pushed him away and trampled Mummy," she said.
Ms Mummy was born in South Africa but emigrated when she was 18. Superintendent Otto did not know her home town in the United States.
US embassy officials could not be reached for comment.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/american-tourist-killed-by-elephant/2005/11/14/1131816832731.html
Bird flu mutation more resistant
Hanoi: Scientists in Vietnam, where bird flu has killed 42 people, said the deadly H5N1 virus had mutated into a more dangerous form that could breed more effectively in mammals.
The online newspaper VnExpress quoted Cao Bao Van, the director of the Molecule Biology Department of the Pasteur Institute, Vietnam's centre of bird flu research, as saying the decoding of 24 samples of the virus taken from poultry and humans showed significant antigen variation. An antigen is a foreign substance that stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies.
Dr Van said the study showed a shift involving significant antigenic changes of the influenza surface proteins, the HA and NA molecules.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/bird-flu-mutation-more-resistant/2005/11/13/1131816809180.html
Sculpture by the Sea
http://media.smh.com.au/?rid=17398&sy=smh&source=smh.com.au%2F&t=16L0ML&ie=1&player=wm7&rate=220&flash=1
Los Angeles Times
Judges' Inaction, Inattention Leave Many Seniors at Risk
Probate courts are supposed to watch conservators' conduct and discipline those who abuse their authority. They've failed dismally in this vital role.
By Jack Leonard, Robin Fields and Evelyn Larrubia, Times Staff Writers
Emmeline Frey was wheeled toward the bench, escorted by a family friend. She was 93 years old and frail, suffering from dementia and a broken hip.
In San Diego County's busy Probate Court, it was up to Judge Thomas R. Mitchell to decide how to preserve the $1 million she had amassed pinching pennies over a lifetime. On the recommendation of Frey's attorney, he appointed a professional conservator named Donna Daum.
Frey's affairs were now in the hands of a caretaker acting under court supervision. Her money should have been safe.
It was not.
Daum gave her son, a car salesman turned financial advisor, more than $500,000 of Frey's savings to invest. Over the next four years, the investments lost more than $100,000 in value while the son collected commissions.
Mitchell, who described himself as the "super father" of the seniors who entered his courtroom, never questioned what Daum was doing with her client's money or why her son was involved.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-conserve14nov14,0,3305612.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Guardians for Profit
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-conservators-series,0,7048390.special?coll=la-home-headlines
When a Family Matter Turns Into a Business
Conservators are supposed to protect the elderly and infirm. But some neglect their clients, isolate them -- even plunder their assets.
By Robin Fields, Evelyn Larrubia and Jack Leonard, Times Staff Writers
Helen Jones sits in a wheelchair, surrounded by strangers who control her life.
She is not allowed to answer the telephone. Her mail is screened. She cannot spend her own money.
A child of the Depression, Jones, 87, worked hard for decades, driving rivets into World War II fighter planes, making neckties, threading bristles into nail-polish brushes. She saved obsessively, putting away $560,000 for her old age.
Her life changed three years ago, when a woman named Melodie Scott told a court in San Bernardino that Jones was unable to manage for herself. Without asking Jones, a judge made Scott — someone she had never met — her legal guardian.
Scott is a professional conservator.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-conserve13nov13,0,2846858.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Once a Neocon always a Neocon. This could easily be as much a federal strategy as a California strategy to stimulate the economy. California's economic influence is considerable. If the federal government under the Repuglican leadership is running out of appropriation bills could be influencing the borrowing and spending patterns in Red States.
Massive State Bond Possible
At a cost some peg at $50 billion or more, Schwarzenegger seeks an infrastructure program reminiscent of the Pat Brown era.
By Evan Halper, Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO — Coming off a losing campaign to curb state spending, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promoting a statewide public works program that may be financed by a bond sale so large it would dwarf previous state borrowings.
The governor hopes to join with Democratic leaders and businesses to address Californians' growing frustration with clogged roadways, polluted water, hospital shortages, overcrowded schools and, in the wake of the devastation in New Orleans, inadequate disaster preparedness.
Schwarzenegger is seizing an issue with wide bipartisan support in an effort to restore his image as a moderate, although his plan threatens to cause tension with some conservative allies who have long warned against more government borrowing.
If he succeeds, Schwarzenegger could reposition himself in the model of former Gov. Pat Brown, who by the time he left office in 1967 had created a legacy of roads, waterways and universities that continue to help drive the state economy today.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sacto14nov14,0,6247774.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Five questions non-Muslims would like answered
By Dennis Prager, Dennis Prager's nationally syndicated radio show is heard daily in Los Angeles on KRLA-AM (870). He may be contacted through his website: www.dennisprager.com.
THE RIOTING IN France by primarily Muslim youths and the hotel bombings in Jordan are the latest events to prompt sincere questions that law-abiding Muslims need to answer for Islam's sake, as well as for the sake of worried non-Muslims.
Here are five of them:
(1) Why are you so quiet?
Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-prager13nov13,0,1142056.story?track=hpmostemailedlink
$500,000 question
What exactly can you get for L.A.'s median price of half-a-million bucks? Try a bidding war for a starter home in your second-choice neighborhood and a throbbing headache.
By Darrell Satzman, Special to The Times
HALF-a-million dollars doesn't buy what it used to.
Prospective buyers looking in that ballpark a decade ago were a semi-exclusive group with their pick of the best Los Angeles County neighborhoods and a huge inventory of lovely, single-family homes.
Nowadays, $500,000 is right around the median price of a home in the county — and buyers in that range know all too well that the middle of the road is not an easy place to be. In many neighborhoods, it buys only a starter home or condominium, and the competition for those properties is strong.
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-median13nov13,0,5413359.story?track=hpmostemailedlink
Your government on drugs
STARTING TUESDAY, RETIREES can sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. Besides some luck and patience, they'll need an actuarial advisor, a personal pharmacist, a high-speed computer connection and maybe a sharp 12-year-old to help them navigate the Medicare website.
Oh, and one more thing: They could also use a government with the sense to change the program if it doesn't work. It has the potential to be catastrophic for the U.S. Treasury, if not for retirees' health.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-medicare14nov14,0,891180.story?coll=la-home-oped
Fixing a mistake in Iraq
THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT THIS month belatedly got around to reversing one of the worst errors of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran the country after the invasion: the disbanding of the Iraqi army. Some officers had been called back into service earlier, but the transitional government issued a near-blanket invitation to officers up to the rank of major to apply for reinstatement.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-iraq14nov14,0,6193702.story?coll=la-home-oped
New Zealand Herald
DNA tests helping to save NZ dolphins
14.11.05
Research which analyses the DNA of New Zealand bottlenose dolphins may help with the long-term conservation of the species.
Gabriela de Tezanos Pinto, a PhD student based at the University of Auckland's School of Biological Sciences, said analysis of DNA would reveal if there were any connections between different populations of dolphins in New Zealand and around the Pacific Ocean and help with the management of the dolphins.
Three small and isolated populations had been identified in the coastal waters of New Zealand - Northland, Marlborough Sound and Fiordland.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10355002
Big British plans for bio-diesel in New Zealand
14.11.05 1.00pm
The company that created the world's largest biodiesel plant, is investigating building a biodiesel refinery in New Zealand.
Argent Energy vice-chairman Jim Walker told Glasgow's Sunday Herald that the company has scaled up plans to invest in a further two plants in the United Kingdom and possibly a third in New Zealand.
The company has just reactivated plans to float in the first half of 2006, following a new ruling that by 2010 about 5 per cent of fuel sold on UK forecourts must come from a renewable source.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10355129
Peters' first steps as Foreign Minister may surprise
14.11.05 1.00pm
By Ian Llewellyn
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is concerned about the decline in the number of Chinese students in New Zealand and will discuss the issue with China in one of his first overseas meetings in the new job.
Mr Peters arrives for the Apec (Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation) meeting in Pusan, South Korea, today along with Trade Ministers Phil Goff and Jim Sutton.
The New Zealand First leader has a popular image of being anti-immigration and in particular anti-Asian immigration, but he says this is misconstrued and is concerned about the decline in the number of Chinese students studying English in New Zealand over the past few years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10355128
French unrest seems to wane
14.11.05 1.00pm
By Sophie Louet
PARIS - France's worst rioting in nearly 40 years seemed to be waning today, police said, though youths torched vehicles in the southwestern city of Toulouse.
Cars set ablaze in France were down by a quarter on Saturday (Sunday morning NZT) on the previous night and fears that violence would grip central Paris proved unfounded after rallies were banned in the capital.
"Things could calm down very, very quickly," national police service chief Michel Gaudin told reporters in Paris.
But in Toulouse, scene of serious clashes with police last week, attackers torched seven vehicles and partly destroyed a school, driving a burning car against its gate, police said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10355135
Coroner hears details of death of youngster at CYF camp
14.11.05 4.00pm
The disappearance of an Auckland teenager at a Child Youth and Family camp last year went unreported to police for four days because camp coordinators thought he had just run away to family, a South Auckland coroners court heard today.
Otis Auelua, 13, was found dead in the sea off Matauri Bay, Northland, on December 15. He disappeared on December 9 but was not reported missing for four days.
Witness Niki Elkington, a camp coordinator who had taught Otis and five others to snorkel the morning of Otis' disappearance, said he and three other coordinators searched for Otis after he failed to turn up for lunch.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10355158
Wellington scuttled in Cook Strait
14.11.05
It took just under two minutes to turn a frigate into an artificial reef yesterday - around about the time the HMNZS Wellington took to sink gracefully to the sea floor off the coast of its namesake city.
The flag on the bow was the last thing to sink out of sight into the churning water - ending a history of three decades afloat as a ship in both the Royal Navy and the Royal New Zealand Navy.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10355094
Immunisation race starts in quake-hit Pakistan
14.11.05 1.00pm
By Zeeshan Haider
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - Doctors in earthquake struck Kashmir have begun a campaign to immunise 800,000 children against potentially killer diseases, measles, tetanus, whooping cough, diptheria and polio before the bitter Himalayan winter bites.
Children living in remote mountain villages, cut off by landslides, were particularly vulnerable due to malnutrition because they have access to inadequate food supplies.
"We're doing everything we can to immunise every child in the region," Dr. Tamur Mueenuddin, in charge of health issues for UNICEF in Muzaffarabad, said from the ruined capital of Pakistani Kashmir.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10355131
African leaders tell Liberia to shun violence
14.11.05 11.20am
MONROVIA - African leaders appealed to the people of Liberia to stay peaceful and shun violence in a dispute over a presidential run-off in which Harvard-trained economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf finished first.
The 67-year-old former finance minister is poised to become Africa's first elected female head of state after official voting returns showed her obtaining an unbeatable lead over millionaire soccer star George Weah in a poll last week.
But former AC Milan striker Weah, 39, whose supporters stoned police in Monrovia on the weekend, is calling for a rerun. He says the run-off vote was riddled with fraud.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10355132
Namibia to rebury hundreds found in mass graves
14.11.05 8.20am
WINDHOEK - Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba visited on Sunday the site of two apartheid-era mass graves discovered last week and said the remains would be given a dignified reburial.
Pohamba said he wanted those who served in apartheid South Africa's occupation army and their Namibian collaborators to come forward with any information that could help identify the bodies, buried close to the northern town of Eenhana, near the Angolan border.
Dozens of people, possibly hundreds, were in the graves, a senior government official said. However, a final figure could only be given once forensic teams finished examining the graves.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10355110
Jordan hotel bomber confesses on TV
14.11.05 8.00am
AMMAN - An Iraqi woman confessed on Jordanian television on Sunday that she had tried to blow herself up alongside her husband in an Amman hotel last week in one of three attacks that killed more than 50 people.
The woman, identified by police as Sajida al-Rishawi, appeared in a headscarf and a long black coat describing her attempts to detonate an explosives-laden belt at a wedding celebration in the Radisson hotel.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10355106
Report exposes fishing piracy
14.11.05
By Kathy Marks
SYDNEY - The world's fish stocks are being plundered by pirates using "flags of convenience" to mask their illicit activities, according to a joint report by environmentalists and unionists.
Fishing vessels using those flags - often purchased online for less than $1000 - are responsible for illegal fishing worth $1.7 billion a year, the report concludes. They also endanger the marine environment and treat their crews inhumanely, sometimes keeping them in chains while at sea.
The report - commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Australian Government and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) - found that 15 per cent of the world's large-scale fishing fleet - or 2800 vessels - flies a flag of convenience or of unknown origin.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10355003
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