Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto waves to her supporters and media from behind the barbed wire outside her residence in Islamabad.Photo: AFP
Sydney Morning Herald
Bhutto released from house arrest
November 10, 2007 - 11:51AM
Pakistan freed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto from house arrest, a senior interior ministry official said, after she was earlier blocked from leading a rally against emergency rule.
"It has been withdrawn," interior secretary Kamal Shah told AFP, referring to the house arrest order.
Speaking via a megaphone from behind coils of barbed wire earlier, Bhutto called in vain on officers stationed outside her Islamabad compound to let her lead the planned protest against President Pervez Musharraf's state of emergency.
"I am your sister fighting for democracy," she told them as police blocked her route with armoured personnel carriers.
Speaking with AFP by telephone from inside her bulletproof car, she said: "I am not afraid of these tactics. My struggle is for the people of Pakistan, for their rights and for an end to dictatorship."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bhutto-released-from-house-arrest/2007/11/10/1194329551252.html
Passengers up, but no extra buses for them
Linton Besser Transport Reporter
November 10, 2007
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THE number of new buses bought for Sydney has been an achievement of some pride for the Transport Minister, John Watkins.
But the number has been steadily shrinking.
Figures obtained by the Herald show the number the Government provided last financial year was 158 fewer than he told the public in May.
In contrast to the picture he paints of a rapidly expanding fleet, State Transit has not received one additional bus in the past three years.
"It is tantamount to misleading the community," said the Opposition transport spokeswoman, Gladys Berejiklian. "No wonder there is severe overcrowding."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/passengers-up-but-no-extra-buses-for-them/2007/11/09/1194329513075.html
Up your street: crime zones plotted
Catharine Munro Urban Affairs Editor
November 10, 2007
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STRIKE zones of pickpockets, car thieves and assailants can be pinpointed on a map as part of a new service that details the precise location of crime in any council area.
Previously, criminologists could not point to particular locations to help police and councils to boost patrols, improve lighting or put up warning signs to prevent crime.
It is now clear that parts of Sydney are more prone to some crimes than others. The City of Sydney, which extends from Glebe to Elizabeth Bay and south to Rosebery, is the first to be closely examined by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/up-your-street-crime-zones-plotted/2007/11/09/1194329512801.html
When medication harms, not heals
November 10, 2007
Antidepressants have saved countless lives, writes Kate Benson, but for a minority the side effects can be debilitating - or even fatal.
Shocking death … Charmaine Dragun with Simon Struthers.
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IT IS hard to fathom why the Channel Ten newsreader Charmaine Dragun killed herself last week. Hours before the 29-year-old jumped to her death at The Gap, she bought tickets to see Bjork perform on the Opera House steps in January. A day earlier she was chatting excitedly about her plans to show her adored nephew, Ayden, the sights of Sydney and Canberra when he visited at Christmas, swapping shifts to spend time with him.
She was planning to marry her longtime boyfriend, Simon Struthers, when they both turned 30 in March, and they had talked about having children. She was heading a prime-time news bulletin in her home city of Perth and was admired by viewers.
But Dragun, described by her family as "a beautiful ray of sunshine", had been quietly battling major depression for years, and had changed her antidepressant medication only a fortnight before her death. Days before she died, she had reportedly been feeling anxious and stressed, expressing concerns about how the medication was making her feel.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/when-medication-harms/2007/11/09/1194329512867.html
Back pain therapy is ineffective - study
Bellinda Kontominas Medical Reporter
November 10, 2007
GOING to a chiropractor or a physiotherapist to treat lower back pain may be a waste of time, according to research that shows having your spine manipulated does not speed recovery.
A study by the University of Sydney has shown that expensive and potentially risky treatments, such as spinal manipulation and the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as diclofenac or ibuprofen, are no more effective than paracetamol.
Current guidelines for acute lower back pain recommend as the first line of care that GPs advise patients to remain active and avoid bed rest, and that paracetamol be prescribed. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and spinal manipulative therapy are recommended as a second-tier option to speed recovery.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/back-pain-therapy-is-ineffective--study/2007/11/09/1194329512807.html
Europe still struggles to face up to reality
November 10, 2007
Despite the flare-ups migrants are essential to Europe's future, writes James Button in London.
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GIOVANNA REGGIANI, the 47-year-old wife of a naval captain, was coming home from shopping in central Rome last week when a man attacked her near the Tor di Quinto train station on the city's edge. He took her purse, raped her, beat her so savagely that she fell into a coma, and left her body in a ditch. As she lay dying in hospital, Italy erupted.
The suspected killer, Romulus Nicolae Mailat, 24, is Romanian. He is also Roma, a Gypsy, and part of probably the most despised ethnic group in Italy. While a group of young men attacked three Romanians with sticks and knives in a car park, police bulldozed the Gypsy camp near the Tor di Quinto station, where Mailat lived.
Moving along the Tiber River, they demolished more of the squalid camps, made up of flimsy huts and discarded furniture, as Gypsy families sat forlornly and watched. At the same time, the normally sclerotic Italian political system sprang into action.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/europe-still-struggles-to-face-up-to-reality/2007/11/09/1194329509963.html
Zuma's leadership bid hits another obstacle
Chris McGreal in Johannesburg
November 10, 2007
THE bitter power struggle between the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, and his former deputy, Jacob Zuma, for control of the ruling African National Congress intensified when a court opened the way for Mr Zuma to be charged with corruption over a multibillion-dollar weapons deal.
The court of appeal's ruling on Thursday that the police seizure of allegedly incriminating documents from Mr Zuma's home and office was legal was expected to undermine his campaign to unseat Mr Mbeki as party leader at an ANC meeting next month and so become the country's president in 2009.
The court also said investigators could have access to papers about a meeting between Mr Zuma and a French arms company, Thint, at which the payment of a substantial bribe was allegedly discussed.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/zumas-leadership-bid-hits-another-obstacle/2007/11/09/1194329510055.html
Bhutto under house arrest in bid to halt rally
Augustine Anthony in Islamabad
November 10, 2007
PAKISTANI police have placed the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest to stop her from holding her first rally since the President, Pervez Musharraf, imposed emergency rule.
A senior official in Islamabad said police had cordoned off Bhutto's home in the city yesterday, but claimed it was only for her protection. However, other officials said she would be stopped if she tried to attend the scheduled rally in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.
"She's free to go anywhere but if she tries to go to the rally she'll be stopped," the official said.
Sherry Rehman, spokeswoman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said police were blocking all movement in and out. "It's virtual house arrest," she said.
Police have banned all rallies and thousands of Bhutto's party activists have been detained over the past few days.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bhutto-under-house-arrest-in-bid-to-halt-rally/2007/11/09/1194329509947.html
The $400 billion Australian
November 10, 2007
Big numbers, big passions … a decade ago BHP and Rio Tinto were talking friendly merger, now they're heading for the ring and a bloody bout between two of mining's heaviest hitters. Jamie Freed reports.
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Just over a week ago, the Rio Tinto chairman, Paul Skinner, was told a very important letter was about to land on his desk.
The sender wanted to ensure he was available to open the document in person. Once confirmation was made, a messenger was dispatched to Rio's head office in the posh Mayfair neighbourhood of London's West End with the precious parcel in hand.
What he found inside was formal notification from his BHP Billiton counterpart, Don Argus, that the Big Australian wanted his company. It was offering three BHP shares for each Rio share.
Although the letter served as a massive bombshell to the global financial market, it's fair to say Skinner wasn't exactly shocked. In fact, he was more than prepared.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/the-400-billion-australian/2007/11/09/1194329506801.html
US Presidential Primaries
http://www.smh.com.au/multimedia/2007/world/us-presidential-elections-south-carolina/index.html
Scandal of $60m wasted on Tcard
Alexandra Smith
November 10, 2007
TAXPAYERS will be left with a bill of more than $60 million after the Iemma Government admitted it would have to dump the troubled Tcard. Sydney must now start from scratch to create an integrated transport ticketing system.
The smart card was meant to be delivered in time for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but is now so unlikely to materialise that the Government has told ERG, the company responsible for introducing it, that it intends to terminate its contract.
ERG has until December 3 to implement Tcard for the entire rail network but it almost certainly will not meet that deadline.
An embarrassed Transport Minister, John Watkins, would not speculate on the future of smart cards - a system that dozens of cities around the world have managed to implement - but said his Government was still determined to introduce integrated ticketing in Sydney.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/scandal-of-60m-wasted-on-tcard/2007/11/09/1194329512980.html
Russian model tops Kate Moss
Russian model Natalia Vodianova tops Harper's Bazaar's Best Dressed list while supermodel Kate Moss drops down to number 10.(00:39)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=33120
Cousins' LA cocaine binge
Gerard Wright in Los Angeles
November 10, 2007
Ben Cousins.
Photo: Steve Ferrier
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THE emergency early morning call to the Hermosa Beach Police Department last week described a 29-year-old man "on cocaine not acting right". Later, the caller added, the man "has been on cocaine for the past five days".
The caller was Susie Ela, a computer software sales manager. The man on the cocaine binge was Ben Cousins, the wayward former West Coast Eagles captain and star player, accused by his coach of sabotaging the reigning AFL premiers' season, and the centre of an unprecedented judicial inquiry into the troubled club.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ben-cousins-in-fiveday-la-cocaine-binge/2007/11/09/1194329512789.html
Lyrical terrorist whose grisly poem glorified beheading
Owen Bowcott in London
November 10, 2007
Samina Malik … burst into tears on hearing the verdict.
Photo: AP
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A YOUNG Muslim worker at London's Heathrow Airport who wrote poems about beheading non-believers has become the first woman to be convicted in Britain under new anti-terrorism laws.
Samina Malik, a 23-year-old from Southall, west London, who worked at an airport branch of the bookseller WH Smith, burst into tears in the dock at the Old Bailey criminal court in London when the jury returned its verdict.
By a majority of 10 to one they found Malik, who called herself the "lyrical terrorist", guilty under the Britain's Terrorism Act 2000 of possessing records likely to be useful in terrorism.
Poems discovered at her home included two entitled How to Behead and The Living Martyrs.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/lyrical-terrorist-whose-grisly-poem-glorified-beheading/2007/11/09/1194329509950.html
Oil up again over fear of supply breaks
Christian Schmollinger and Gavin Evans
November 10, 2007
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CRUDE oil rose for the first time in three days in New York on concern supply disruptions may hamper US efforts to store fuel for peak winter demand.
A fire at Valero Energy Corporation's refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the company's largest, left processing rates "somewhat reduced", a company spokesman said. Strong currents in the Gulf of Mexico are delaying the restart of the 150,000 barrel-a-day Mars platform, shut for maintenance since November 3, Royal Dutch Shell said.
"The supply situation seems serious so people are seeing this as a buying opportunity," said Tetsu Emori, a fund manager with Astmax Futures Ltd in Tokyo. "For the bullish players it's a good time to take a fresh long position."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/oil-up-again-over-fear-of-supply-breaks/2007/11/09/1194329506831.html
Jungle boys up to monkey business
Alan Ramsey
November 10, 2007
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The Government's Tarzan and Jane election routine isn't working. John Howard's vines aren't what they used to be and Peter Costello's pout is still a smirk. We are now all 11 months older since the accursed Kevin Rudd rudely bounded into the Prime Minister's election year miscalculations.
It has been a stressful time ever since for Howard and the deputy now fated never to make it. Two days ago, when they fronted up in Melbourne for their fourth joint press conference of the campaign, the strain was obvious.
Neither seemed comfortable, both were niggly with reporters and each continued to deliberately misunderstand plain English.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/government-monkey-business/2007/11/09/1194329506193.html
Greens push the yellow peril button, leaving farmers in the red
Michael Duffy
November 10, 2007
This week academics at the University of Melbourne released news of the latest victory in the environmental movement's war on Australia. The ban on growing genetically modified canola is costing our struggling farmers a whopping $157 million a year.
No green group has yet claimed credit for this triumph of economic terrorism, but no doubt one will soon. On its website, Greenpeace lists among its main achievements the decision by five states to impose moratoriums on the commercial release of the first proposed GM crop. The greens applied pressure on the states after both Australia's independent regulators, Food Standards Australia New Zealand and the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator, approved the general release of two types of GM canola in 2003.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/greens-push-the-yellow-peril-button-leaving-farmers-in-the-red/2007/11/09/1194329506200.html
Site not found: the failed online search for Steve Fossett
Stephen Hutcheon
November 9, 2007 - 9:50AM
Two months after adventurer Steve Fossett disappeared over the Nevada desert, the plug has been pulled on an experimental online search mission that harnessed the collective efforts of some 50,000 volunteers around the world.
Last week, without warning, online retailer Amazon.com shut down the collaborative search it began hosting just days after the 63-year-old aviator failed to return from a routine flight on September 3.
Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) site enabled volunteers to pore over high-resolution photographs covering parts of the 44,000 square kilometres of uninhabited wilderness where the physical search mission has been taking place.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/fossett-search-misses-the-mark/2007/11/09/1194329456167.html
Worm gives uni students a wriggle on in lectures
Harriet Alexander
November 9, 2007
THE artful worm has slithered off the TV screen and into universities, where academics are evaluating its performance in making lectures more interactive.
As the number of students in lectures increases, universities are adopting hand-held devices that work in a similar fashion to Channel Nine's election worm, to ensure every student actively participates.
The University of Western Sydney is about to conclude an 18-month trial of the technology - known as a "student response units" - in select disciplines, which will likely result in it being rolled out to the rest of the university.
Roy Tasker, a chemistry lecturer in the school of natural sciences, said the devices were particularly useful in boosting participation among international students who were shy speaking English. Each student is given a machine like a calculator with numbered keys that allow them to punch in their answers to his multiple choice questions. Their responses are then transmitted to his laptop.
"It's very simple but extremely powerful," Associate Professor Tasker said. "When everybody's voted, I click on a button and up comes a bar graph showing the distribution of figures. The beauty about it is it's confidential, because a big problem with putting hands up is they turn around and see what the smartest student in the class is doing."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/worm-gives-uni-students-a-wriggle-on-in-lectures/2007/11/08/1194329471859.html
Lightning strikes Qantas flight
Craig Platt
November 8, 2007 - 4:54PM
Lightning struck a Qantas plane en route from Sydney to Melbourne this morning, causing flight cancellations.
Flight number QF409 arrived as scheduled at Melbourne Airport this morning but was unable to take off again until safety checks had been carried out after the lightning strike.
Qantas executive general manager of engineering David Cox said lightning occasionally strikes during flights and that aircraft are designed to withstand them.
He said the aircraft underwent a thorough inspection after landing in Melbourne and was back in service this afternoon. Two services on the Melbourne-Sydney route were cancelled as a result of the strike, with passengers accommodated on other flights.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/lightning-strikes-qantas-flight/2007/11/08/1194329397064.html
UK flood threat worst in decades
November 9, 2007 - 2:10PM
The Netherlands and Britain, facing the worst flood threat in decades, closed surge barriers and evacuated people from homes as a North Sea storm threatened to inundate low-lying areas.
Authorities compared the approaching conditions to those in 1953 when floods killed more than 2,000 people in both countries.
The massive storm surge barrier near the Dutch port city of Rotterdam was closed for the first time since its construction in the 1990s.
At 11pm last night (0900 AEDT Friday), the two arc-shaped steel doors of the Maeslant barrier edged into the waterway that connects Rotterdam to the North Sea.
As spectators braved rain and wind to watch from a narrow headland, it took about half an hour for the two doors to meet in the Nieuwe Waterweg, about 360 metres wide.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/articles/2007/11/09/1194329501429.html?s_rid=smh:top5
Solar power -- worth it or not?
Of course it is. (Video)
Could installing solar power in a home be an expensive load of hot (greenhouse-free) air?
With generous federal government rebates of up to $8000 for householders to install solar panels (sometimes called solar PV or a solar array), converting may seem attractive.
Yet the average solar power system still costs between $7000 to $12,000 -- even with the generous rebates -- which is something only a gold-plated Greenie could afford. And though solar power is free, renewable and can supply power back to the grid, EnergyAustralia says it is unlikely the installation cost of solar would pay back within 24 years.
What's more, experts are divided on the value in household solar panels reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
http://blogs.smh.com.au/lifestyle/renovationnation/archives/2007/11/solar_power_gre.html?s_rid=smh:top5
Evicted suicide service goes on road
Michael Leidig in Vienna and Henry Samuel in Paris
November 10, 2007
A CONTROVERSIAL Swiss suicide charity is now helping people to die in car parks after being forced out of its premises.
Two German men aged 50 and 65 have used the "death on wheels" service of the Dignitas charity, which handed them lethal barbiturates last week in a car park near Zurich.
The deaths were only reported on Thursday, with a prosecutor confirming that both men had driven to a woodland parking area and overdosed in their cars.
The charity was forced to leave the flat in a Zurich suburb which had been its headquarters for the eight years - where the Australian John Elliott went to die in January - after residents campaigned to have it evicted. Locals complained of being traumatised by passing people going up in the lift, only to come across them hours later in body bags.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/evicted-suicide-service-goes-on-road/2007/11/09/1194329509959.html
Nic helps sister through tough times
November 10, 2007 - 2:45PM
Antonia Kidman and Angus Hawley in happier times.
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Antonia Kidman has had her famous big sister's shoulder to cry on during her high-profile split with husband Angus Hawley.
Nicole Kidman said she has been at Antonia's side and helped raise her nieces and nephews through the break-up, which has been littered with tell-all stories in Australian gossip magazines from Hawley's alleged lovers.
"She has been through a tough time recently, so I've been really blessed to be able to be there and help raise her kids, help with her children," Nicole told today's USA Today newspaper.
"I'm godparent to all of them.
"I'm Auntie DeeDee.
"Don't ask how I've gotten that name, either. I bought them a trampoline. I'm very popular at the moment."
Hawley and Antonia have four children, two boys and two girls, with the youngest, daughter Sybella, born in March.
Ironically, it was Antonia who comforted her Oscar winning sister when she split from husband Tom Cruise in 2001.
"She's my best friend," Nicole told the newspaper.
"My sister and I are just - I always say to her that I'm always there for her.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/nic-helps-sister-through-tough-times/2007/11/10/1194329555433.html
New hope for Vioxx claimants
November 10, 2007 - 3:27PM
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Australian victims of the anti-arthritis drug Vioxx have welcomed a breakthrough in the United States where American claimants who suffered heart attacks and strokes after using the drug have been offered a $US4.85 billion ($5.24 billion) settlement.
More than 1000 Australian former Vioxx users, in a class action spearheaded by law firm Slater & Gordon, say the breakthrough should expedite Australian settlement talks.
Lawyer James Higgins said the Australian class action was probably the most advanced Vioxx litigation outside the US, and the company also would rely on its expertise in settling the world-first settlement package for 3000 Australian women who used Dow Corning breast implants.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/new-hope-for-vioxx-claimants/2007/11/10/1194329556445.html
US Treasury Secretary backs $US, economy
November 10, 2007 - 3:04PM
US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has defended the US dollar's status as the world's reserve currency, saying the American economy's strength, openness and competitiveness would "shine through" the current market turmoil.
"The dollar has been the world's reserve currency since World War II and it's been that for a reason. We are the biggest economy in the world, we are as open as any economy to investment, to trade, and we've had stable economic policies ... we've had good productivity," Paulson told reporters at an impromptu news briefing.
Paulson repeated the administration's oft-stated mantra that a strong dollar is in US interests and that currency values should be set in a competitive marketplace.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/US-Treasury-Secretary-backs-US-economy/2007/11/10/1194329555953.html
New ways to whet the appetite
November 10, 2007
A change in drinking laws won't necessarily mean the transformation of a city's cultural make-up, writes Elizabeth Farrelly.
It's not just about alcohol. That would be complicated enough, in a booze-soaked society such as ours. No, the argument over liquor licensing in NSW takes in gambling, music, planning, health, competition and the creation, or not, of that mysterious nature-grappling device we call culture.
And although - this is the good news - there are three major liquor reforms under way in NSW, none seems likely to go the whole hog and line our streets with funky neighbourhood drinking holes a la Melbourne.
This sheets back to government, and the old, vexed question of whether we can trust it: not just to be honest, but to have our best interests at heart. The liquor issue is looking like an instructive microcosm of why democracy, Sussex Street-style, is unable to deliver even what we want - like a lively, interesting city - much less what we don't want, like any deviation from the climate-change lemming-walk.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/change-in-drinking-laws-wont-make-sydney-less-dull/2007/11/09/1194329512870.html
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