Sydney Morning Herald
Nobel peace prize goes to Gore and UN climate panel
OSLO: The former US vice president, Al Gore, and the United Nations panel on climate change have shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness of the threat of global warming.
Since leaving office in 2001, Mr Gore has lectured extensively on the threat, and starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to warn of the dangers of climate change.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the Nobel committee said of Mr Gore in its award citation.
The prize increases pressure on him to launch a late bid for the presidency, but advisers said he is showing no signs of interest.
A long-time adviser, Carter Eskew, said: "I don't think he's going to run. He has said technically he hasn't ruled it out. But I can tell you he's making no moves and no sounds to indicate to me that he's going to run."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/nobel-peace-prize-goes-to-gore-and-un-climate-panel/2007/10/12/1191696176456.html
China forced to move 4m to safety
CHINA is planning to move another 4 million people away from the controversial Three Gorges dam reservoir to prevent an environmental disaster as the magnitude of problems with the world's biggest hydroelectric project is revealed.
The unprecedented relocation was approved last month by Beijing but made public only yesterday, as part of the planning strategy for Chongqing, one of China's biggest and fastest growing cities.
The vice-mayor of Chongqing, Yu Yuanmu, said more than 4 million people living on hillsides along the dam's 600 kilometre-long reservoir needed to be moved for the "ecological safety" of the area. At least 2 million people will be resettled to new towns on the outskirts of Chongqing, a city of 31 million about 500 kilometres west of the dam, within the next five years. But the total move could take up to 15 years to complete, Mr Yu said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/china-forced-to-move-4m-to-safety/2007/10/12/1191696173922.html
Mother accused of framing daughter for murder of husbands
IF WHAT is said of her is true, Stacey Castor committed the perfect murder when she killed her first husband by dosing him with anti-freeze seven years ago.
Her mistake was to repeat it five years later with her second husband, passing off his death as suicide.
As callous as that may be, what has shocked this upstate New York town is what she did once she knew police suspected her: drugging her daughter to fake the young woman's suicide and have her "confess" to killing both men.
Prosecutors say Castor last month doped 20-year-old Ashley Wallace with an overdose of painkillers, and placed an unsigned suicide note beside her comatose body.
In the computer-generated note, Ms Wallace "confessed" to killing her father, Michael, in January 2000, and to killing her stepfather, David Castor, in August 2005. She was 12 at the time of her father's death.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mother-accused-of-framing-daughter/2007/10/12/1191696173925.html
Only I can pass it: PM
Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent
October 13, 2007
JOHN HOWARD has turned his newfound embrace of symbolic reconciliation with Aborigines into an election issue by claiming only his Government can draw together the opposing camps to muster a yes vote at his proposed referendum.
Although Labor has long supported constitutional recognition of indigenous people, Mr Howard said yesterday that for the referendum to succeed, voters with conservative views needed to be convinced. "I don't believe Labor could unite conservative and progressive Australia on this issue," he said.
With the election expected to be called any day, Mr Howard has promised that, if re-elected, he would usher in an era of "new reconciliation" with a referendum proposing to change the preamble of the constitution to recognise indigenous Australia's culture, heritage, and status as the nation's first inhabitants.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/federalelection2007news/only-i-can-pass-it-pm/2007/10/12/1191696173757.html
Two a day safe limit on drinks
ADULTS will be advised that more than two drinks a day is a health risk, and teenagers and pregnant women will be warned not to drink at all under sweeping changes to Australia's alcohol guidelines.
Amid estimates that 2 million Australians are risking brain damage through dangerous drinking, the new Federal Government advice will be released today. Anti-alcohol campaigners have heralded the changes as "the most stringent safe-drinking guidelines in the world".
Until now, men have been told they could have six drinks a day, and women four, without risking long-term harm.
But the National Health and Medical Research Council's revised guidelines say both men and women should limit themselves to two drinks a day.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/two-a-day-safe-limit-on-drinks/2007/10/12/1191696173751.html
Staying sober while pregnant 'is not much to ask'
ASK a woman about not drinking during pregnancy, and most say it is no problem.
Kylie McGeough, enjoying a beer with friends at Sussex Street's Shelbourne Hotel, said she thought avoiding alcohol while pregnant was "a kind of rule of thumb anyway".
Kelly Callaghan said she would not drink if pregnant.
"I don't think it's too much to ask," she said. "But I don't think it's going to kill you if you have one or two, once in a while. It's just something else for us to feel guilty about … I support it, but I don't think we should all have to be Mormons … We've got to have our poisons."
Anna Tudor, drinking wine in Sweeney's hotel said: "I might have had a few drinks when I was pregnant - it might have been four or five over the whole term … but I would listen to advice about it, definitely, if that's what the research says."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/staying-sober-while-pregnant-is-not-much-to-ask/2007/10/12/1191696173760.html
Captain at breakfast as ship sailed to doom
More than four months after the Pasha Bulker ran aground, the State Government sits on a report that reveals a trail of blunders. Robert Wainwright uncovers the details.
Advertisement
THE captain of the Pasha Bulker was having breakfast below deck as his 40,000-tonne bulk carrier plunged out of control toward Nobby's Beach near Newcastle under the panicked direction of junior crew.
The Herald has been told by those close to the investigation of the stunning admission made by the captain and acknowledged by his chief engineer three days after the June 8 grounding.
But neither the Government nor the ship's owners have told the public.
The trail of mistakes and incompetence began on the evening of June 7 when warnings about an approaching storm were issued to 56 ships anchored off Newcastle. The Pasha Bulker, waiting to load 58,000 tonnes of coal, was one of 10 ships whose captains chose to stay at anchor about 200 metres off Stockton Beach to assess the situation overnight.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/captain-at-breakfast-as-ship-floundered/2007/10/12/1191696173754.html
30 years of inspiring action
Greenpeace Australia Pacific turns 30 this year. To celebrate, we are holding a free retrospective photographic exhibition on until 13 October, at Sydney´s Carriageworks arts space.
The iconic photographs span 1977 to 2007 and show our inspirational, vibrant and controversial history of environmental campaigning in the Australia Pacific region. From the first anti-whaling campaign in Albany, Western Australia, which ignited Greenpeace in Australia during 1977, to early climate change protests and anti-nuclear campaigns.
http://www.greenpeace.org.au/sites/30-years-of-inspiring-action/home.html
Haunted by the hurt, memories and loss
WITH a grey sea and sombre rain clouds as backdrop, more than 200 people gathered yesterday on a peninsula overlooking Coogee Beach to mark the fifth anniversary of the Bali bombings.
Five years after 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed when blasts ripped apart two Bali nightclubs, the focus was on healing for those still alive.
"Just thinking about their last moments and how they knew they were going to die still haunts me," said a tearful Candice Buchan, who was 15 when she lost her parents, Gerardine and Stephen. "I still remember being in the Sari nightclub that night, when the bomb went off … I sometimes still wonder why I got out."
Others also spoke of dealing with loss. "There's no closure," said the Coogee Dolphins rugby league club president, Patrick Byrne. He left the Sari Club moments before an explosion killed six of his team members. Describing the night as "hell on Earth", Mr Byrne told the crowd, mainly family and friends of victims, that it had taken him years to understand he could not allow the men who killed his friends to control his life.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/haunted-by-the-hurt-memories-and-loss/2007/10/12/1191696173904.html
Jury shown suppressed photos of dying princess
PHOTOGRAPHS of the mortally injured Princess Diana, taken by paparazzi while she was trapped in the wreckage of her Mercedes limousine in a Paris underpass, have been shown to the jury at her inquest at the High Court in London.
Although the pictures were offered for sale immediately after the crash and before the princess's death, they have never been shown in public.
Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner, ordered that they not be released for publication.
The photographs, shown on Thursday on the seventh day of hearings, were pixelated to obscure the princess's face but showed her hair and her position on the floor of the car beside the back seat.
Other images shown to the jury depicted a photographer squatting beside the open door of the car. Some indicated that pictures were taken through the windows before the doors had been opened to reach the casualties.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/jury-shown-suppressed-photos/2007/10/12/1191696173943.html
US vote puts Turkish support on the line
TURKEY has reacted angrily to a US vote condemning the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as genocide, recalling its ambassador from Washington and threatening to withdraw its support for the Iraq war.
In uncharacteristically strong language, the Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, criticised the vote, by the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, and warned that the decision could work against the US.
"Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games," Mr Gul said.
The House vote comes at a particularly inopportune time. Washington has called on Turkey to show restraint as the Turkish military mobilises on the border with Iraq, threatening an incursion against Kurdish insurgents. On Thursday Turkish warplanes were reported to be flying close to the border, but not crossing it.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-vote-puts-turkish-support-on-the-line/2007/10/12/1191696173946.html
Symonds racially abused
THE ugly spectre of racism has returned to cricket, with sections of the Vadodara crowd subjecting Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds to monkey chants during yesterday's one-day international at the IPCL Sports Complex.
The incident occurred in the second half of the Indian innings when Symonds was fielding on the boundary. An unspecified number of spectators taunted Symonds with the monkey noises, which have been the scourge of European football for years.
In a separate crowd incident yesterday, play was halted for several minutes after a section of the crowd pelted the playing surface with bottles as Australia's batsmen, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, closed in on a nine-wicket victory. But it is the taunting of Symonds that most upset the Australians.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/11/1191696085722.html
Tasmania freezes horse movement after EI test
TASMANIAN racing authorities remain on high alert after conflicting results from a recreational horse tested for equine influenza.
The horse was suspected to be positive to the highly contagious disease on Thursday and two tests conducted at the Mt Pleasant laboratory in Tasmania produced positive results to EI. However, the Tasmanian Thoroughbred Racing Council was told yesterday that testing at Geelong in Victoria came back negative.
"The horse in question is being tested again to seek absolute confirmation," Australian Racing Board chief executive Andrew Harding said last night.
Harding said the standstill on the movement of horses within Tasmania remained in place but the TTRC was working with the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water to try to go ahead with meetings this weekend.
Meanwhile, horse movement resumed at the EI-affected Warwick Farm yesterday after the NSW DPI announced on Thursday the area had been included in the purple zone for EI purposes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/horseracing/tasmania-freezes-horse-movement-after-ei-test/2007/10/12/1191696175127.html
Fears Japan's glamour sport is losing its appeal
ONLY 20 years ago, Japan's roaming sumo scouts could be sure of a ready supply of willing, thick-set young recruits from poorer country towns.
Posters of popular wrestlers, such as Chiyonofuji "The Wolf" Mitsugu, and brothers Takanohana Koji and Wakanohana Masaru, adorned bedroom walls. And the rustic teenage males sleeping beneath them dreamt of nothing but joining their idols at a communal sumo stable, where they could devote their working lives to a charter of austere and sometimes brutal ancient rituals.
But times have ushered in big social shifts for Japan and these days, lookouts representing the country's 53 stables are finding that work is thin on the ground.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fears-japans-glamour-sport-is-losing-its-appeal/2007/10/12/1191696175189.html
Vatican suspends gay cleric after TV interview
The Vatican has suspended a senior cleric who confessed his homosexuality on a television program, even though his face and voice were made unrecognisable, a spokesman was quoted as saying on Saturday.
"His superiors are treating this situation with the required discretion and respect due to the person concerned, even if this person has committed errors," Federico Lombardi told the Italian news agency ANSA.
The daily La Repubblica identified the priest concerned, who was not named, as an official aged around 60 in the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican department which manages the 400,000 Catholic priests across the world.
"The authorities are obliged to act with the necessary severity against behaviour that is incompatible with religious service and the mission of the Holy See," Lombardi said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/vatican-suspends-gay-cleric-after-tv-interview/2007/10/13/1191696244891.html
Branson bids to save UK bank on the rocks
Roland Jackson London
October 14, 2007
VIRGIN Group, controlled by British billionaire Richard Branson, has spearheaded an international consortium offering to rescue troubled bank Northern Rock and rebrand it under the Virgin name.
But the consortium, which includes US and Asian investment groups, has demanded it should not be forced to make a full takeover offer.
"A consortium led by Virgin Group has today submitted a non-binding indication of interest to the board of Northern Rock which, if consummated, will see the consortium inject substantial new equity into Northern Rock," Virgin said in an official statement on Friday.
The consortium also comprises US insurance group AIG, US investment group WL Ross and Co, Toscafund Asset Management of Britain and First Eastern Investment Group of Hong Kong.
Under the proposal, Virgin would take over the management under its Virgin Money brand, which already offers credit cards, home loans and insurance services.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/branson-bids-to-save-uk-bank-on-the-rocks/2007/10/13/1191696239563.html
Pushing back retirement heralds a new age of reason
So shoot me. Politicians and lobby groups have been fast to pooh-pooh the idea of lifting the pension age (I wonder if it has anything to do with the impending election). But that doesn't mean it's not worth a closer look.
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia stuck its neck out this week arguing that, as we're all living much longer than we were when the pension age was set a century or so back, it might be reasonable to expect us to work a bit longer. The average 65-year-old male can now expect to live to 83 and the average 65-year-old woman to 86, compared with 76 and 78 for their great-great-grandparents turning 65 in the early 1900s. That's an extra seven or eight years in "retirement" and the committee is asking them to forgo two years of age pension in return. That is, the think tank wants to push the pension age back to 67 for both men and women, but only if you were born from January 1, 1955.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/pushing-back-retirement-heralds-a-new-age-of-reason/2007/10/12/1191696177126.html
Let's not talk about sex
A new generation of dads may like to think they have a close relationship with their kids but they still find it hard to tell their sons about the facts of life.
This was not my sharpest moment as a parent. One Sunday morning, heading downstairs to the kitchen for an early coffee, I spotted a teenage girl slipping hurriedly out through the front door. As she left, she was followed by the unmistakeable tones of my son, a couple of paces behind her, hastening her on the way with a cheery: "Yeah, right, OK, see you."
For the adult witness there was no doubt what had just been observed. It was a first in our household, a coming-of-age moment for both father and son. Being a modern, up-to-speed, liberally inclined dad, however, there was no question of confrontation or moral panic or admonishment. Instead, after exchanging grunted greetings, I instructed the boy to sit down at the kitchen table while I gave him a few brief pointers on the need for care in these circumstances. He should realise, I told him, that he could ruin the poor girl's life if he didn't take precautions. He nodded, looked at the floor and vacated the room without uttering a word.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/parenting/lets-not-talk-about-sex/2007/10/03/1191091176416.html
Britney files new motion
+ Fullscreen
2007-10-12 08:22:24
Britney Spears filed an emergency court motion seeking to expand visitation rights with her children.(00:53)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Red%20Carpet&rid=32364
Killing undertaken by the state is still killing
After Bud Welch's daughter was killed in the bombing of a government building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, along with 167 others, he wanted the perpetrator "to fry".
When he saw Timothy McVeigh being led from the courthouse, he hoped someone in a high building with a rifle would "shoot him dead". It was the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history. Among the dead were 19 children who attended a day-care centre in the building, and 700 people suffered terrible injuries.
Welch, a garage owner, was moved, like so many other victims of abhorrent crimes, by an overpowering sense of rage and wish for revenge. "I'd have killed him myself if I'd had the chance," he writes.
Now in his 80s, Welch has become one of the most persuasive campaigners against the death penalty in the US, travelling with the famous abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean, whose life story is told in Dead Man Walking. His turnaround came when he understood "it was revenge and hate" that had motivated McVeigh to kill; he was obsessed with the US Government's murder of cult members at Waco, Texas, in 1993.
"I had to send my own [revenge and hate] in a different direction," he writes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/killing-undertaken-by-the-state-is-still-killing/2007/10/12/1191696170405.html
Gore gets a cold shoulder
ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.
His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."
At his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr Gore said: "We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/gore-gets-a-cold-shoulder/2007/10/13/1191696238792.html
Dr. Gray is a cracky old man and staunch Bush Republican that hasn't done relevant research for over a decade. He values the 'Utilitarian Model of Conseravation Biology' over any practice of excellance in the sciences. If Earth resources don't serve humans in every aspect of economy then he wants nothing to do with it. He could not care less whether the Spotted Owl had any Old Growth Forest to live in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. He is a horror.
continued...
