Prisoner of fear
David Hicks walks free but is plagued by fears his life is in peril.
Freedom ... David Hicks being driven away from Yatala Labour Prison yesterday morning at the completion of his sentence.
Photo: Shannon Morris
David Hicks released from prison
2007-12-29 12:39:25
Hicks's lawyer read a statement from the convicted terrorism supporter as he left prison in Adelaide today(02:11)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=34308
The Sydney Morning Herald interspersed with The International Herald Tribune
Scores missing after Java landslides
2007-12-30 10:07:14
Rescuers in Indonesia's Central Java Province search through rubble and mud after landslides leave many dead or missing.(01:11)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=34312
Mother and baby among dead pulled from mud of Indonesian landslides
The Associated Press
Published: December 28, 2007
LEDOKSARI, Indonesia: Rescuers pulled the lifeless bodies of a mother clutching her baby from an Indonesian village devastated by landslides, causing exhausted onlookers to break down in tears Friday, witnesses said.
At least 87 people were killed or feared dead after torrential rain sent hillsides crashing in several districts on Java island Wednesday. Burst river banks forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes.
Soldiers, police and villagers have worked around the clock to recover bodies. With flooding blocking heavy equipment from reaching the disaster zone, most were using their bare hands or shovels to dig.
"We hope to finish soon," said Heru Aji Pratomo, the head of the local disaster coordinating agency, as six more bodies were pulled from beneath crumpled homes in the hardest hit village of Ledoksari.
A 24-year-old mother clinging to her 7-month-old baby were among them, witnesses said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/28/asia/AS-GEN-Indonesia-Landslides.php
Campers queue to flee island as storm nears
Eamonn Duff, Sarah Price and AAP
December 30, 2007
THOUSANDS of campers fled Fraser Island yesterday in an attempt to beat the 90kmh winds and big swells expected to lash the Queensland coastline.
An intense low-pressure system about 480kilometres east-north-east of Fraser Island is forecast to produce abnormally high tides of up to six metres on the island today. Beaches on the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast were also expected to be hit.
Queensland Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts asked Fraser Island's 3000 campers to make an "orderly exit". Police were prepared to remove stragglers forcibly if necessary, he said.
Anita Cope, 30, was staying with eight others in a holiday house. Word reached them on Friday of the impending storm. "The caretaker came to the door and informed us that police were recommending we all depart immediately," she said.
"They said that if we left it to Saturday, tides could be too high and we might not get off the island in time. As we left, we could see everyone packing up. There was a massive line for the barges."
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gavin Holcombe said the low was expected to remain off Fraser Island until lunchtime today, then drift north-west, parallel to the coast.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/12/29/1198778769202.html
We're using less water than in 1974
Lisa Carty
December 30, 2007
SYDNEYSIDERS, take a bow - you're using less water now than you did way back in 1974 despite a booming population.
Startling new Sydney Water figures show its customers - the people of Sydney, the Illawarra and Blue Mountains - have had amazing success at cutting their water use, despite a population increase of 1.2million.
In 1974, daily use per person was 464litres. In 2006-07, it was 328litres.
In 2006-07, Sydney Water supplied households and businesses with 510billion litres, ninebillion litres less than it supplied in 1974.
Water Utilities Minister Nathan Rees praised the efforts of residents who have taken water conservation so seriously.
"We're using the same amount of water as we did a generation ago and that's testament to Sydneysiders' water awareness and sensitivity," Mr Rees said.
"There's been a major turnaround in the last 10 years from people thinking restrictions were an impost to people being very aware and supportive.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/sydney-takes-water-use-seriously/2007/12/29/1198778767616.html
Debtors face loss of home
Daniel Dasey
December 30, 2007
CONSUMERS who default on their post-Christmas credit-card bills could swiftly be declared bankrupt and have their homes auctioned to meet their debts as the banking sector tightens the screws.
Advocacy group, the Consumer Credit Legal Centre, has seen a rise in the number of cases where banks are shunning traditional ways of retrieving money, such as garnishing pay and repossessing goods.
Instead many lenders are immediately starting bankruptcy proceedings against defaulting customers, whose houses are seized and sold.
"It scares the hell out of me," said Katherine Lane, principal solicitor of the Consumer Credit Legal Centre. "If debt-collection practices become harsher, we're just going to see more desperate people."
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/12/29/1198778769217.html
2007 - the year for weak house prices in Sydney, especially out west
Sarah Price
December 30, 2007
AUSTRALIAN residential property prices continued to climb in 2007 but Sydney was a weak performer against other capital cities, with Adelaide and Brisbane outstripping it by more than double.
Nationally, house prices increased by 11.97percent over the past year to November and unit prices grew by 14.25percent, figures released by RP Data show.
In Sydney, house prices grew by 7.79percent while prices for units grew by 9.23percent. The eastern suburbs, inner city, lower northern Sydney, the North Shore and the northern beaches had the highest growth. But in Liverpool, Fairfield and outer western Sydney, prices remained flat, which RP Data attributed to "ongoing financial pressures in mortgage-belt areas".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/property-a-weak-performer/2007/12/29/1198778769173.html
Cyprus to join euro zone
2007-12-30 10:26:05
Cyprus joins the euro on January 1 but Cypriots have mixed views about the new currency.(01:29)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=34314
Cyprus' isolated north will be enthusiastic — if unofficial — euro users
The Associated Press
Published: December 28, 2007
NICOSIA, Cyprus: Cyprus' adoption of the euro on Tuesday will not officially apply to Turkish Cypriot clothing merchant Kemal Altuncuoglu — or to anyone else living in the breakaway north of the Mediterranean island.
But Altuncuoglu and his compatriots, chafing at decades of isolation, will be among the euro's most enthusiastic new users, even as the Turkish lira remains their primary currency when the Greek-speaking south adopts the euro on Jan. 1.
"We can give change in euros, no problem," the 44-year-old Altuncuolgu said, tapping on his calculator to convert the price of a blouse from lira to euros.
"We don't feel like we're being left out," Altuncuoglu said at his shop, tucked within the 16th-Century walled old city of Nicosia, the divided capital of both communities. "We feel European."
Businesses in the north — many of which already take euros or Greek Cypriot pounds, particulary the casinos — are taking a euro-friendly stance. Some have even called for unilaterally adopting the euro, which also goes into use in Malta on Jan. 1 to bring the number of countries using the currency to 15.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/28/business/EU-FIN-Cyprus-Euro.php>
Maltese still hoarding local currency ahead of euro adoption
29 December 2007, 23:59 CET
(VALLETTA) - Some 466 million euros (680 million dollars) in Maltese liri is being hoarded in people's homes, Malta's bank chief said Saturday, just two days before the island nation enters the eurozone.
Central bank governor Michael Bonello said one of the difficulties Malta had on its way to joining the euro was "the high volume of money in circulation."
"However from a high of 1,165 million euros worth of Maltese liri in circulation in 2005, over 656 million euros have entered again into the system," he said.
Joseph Zahra, chairman of the National Euro Changeover Committee (NECC), said he was satisfied even if "sometimes there was tension in the Committee between representatives of the consumers and those of the retailers."
http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/1198938722.01
Kenya's opposition claims victory
2007-12-30 10:22:49
Delays in Kenya's presidential election poll ignite ethnic violence and rows over vote rigging.(02:11)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=34314
Riots erupt across Kenya as rivals declare victory
By Jeffrey Gettleman
Published: December 29, 2007
NAIROBI, Kenya: With the results from Kenya's closely contested elections still up in the air and evidence growing of election mischief, riots erupted across the country on Saturday.
Columns of black smoke boiled up from the slums ringing Nairobi, the capital, as supporters of Raila Odinga, the leading presidential challenger, poured into the streets to protest what they said was a plot by the government to steal the vote.
The demonstrators clashed with police officers in riot gear and tore apart metal shanties with their bare hands. The scene replayed itself in Kisumu, Kakamega, Kajiado, Eldoret and other towns across Kenya, with several people killed.
Just 12 hours before, Odinga, a flamboyant politician and businessman, had been cruising to victory, according to preliminary results. He was leading Kenya's president, Mwai Kibaki, by about one million votes in an election that was predicted to be the most fiercely fought in Kenya's history and perhaps the greatest test yet of this young, multiparty democracy.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/29/africa/30kenya.php
Men told to get a wriggle on and end the sperm drought
Louise Hall Health Reporter
December 30, 2007
INFERTILE couples desperate to have children are facing agonising waits for donated sperm. The Royal Hospital for Women has had no new sperm donors for more than 12 months.
Reproductive specialists say attracting enough men to satisfy demand has always been difficult, and waiting lists are longer because of the growing number of childhood cancer survivors rendered infertile by treatment. The dwindling stocks are also sought by single women and same-sex couples.
The director of the hospital's department of reproductive medicine, Stephen Steigrad, said at least 20 men who had undergone aggressive cancer treatments requested donor insemination for their partners every year. Without new donors, the service would have to be stopped within six months.
The Centre for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Sydney Children's Hospital at Randwick says one in 900 Australians aged between 16 and 45 has survived childhood cancer.
Changes to NSW legislation this month requiring donors to register their names on a mandatory central register had turned potential donors off, said Professor Michael Chapman, from IVF Australia, which has a waiting list of two years.
The Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill guarantees children access to their father's name, date of birth, education and medical information once they turn 18. It may also require details of the donor's partner and other children to be listed.
"Previously men could donate knowing there was no way they were going to get a knock on their door," Professor Chapman said. "Now men are less likely to donate."
Dr Anne Clark, from Fertility First Hurstville, said the sperm shortage would be compounded by the new laws, which legislate that one man's sperm can go to only five families, down from 10.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/men-told-to-get-a-wriggle-on/2007/12/29/1198778769196.html
Swim with sharks in bite-proof suit
Taste test … sharks investigate the Neptunic C steel-mesh suit designed by Jeremiah Sullivan.
Photo: Austral Press
Advertisement
Frank Walker
December 30, 2007
IT'S the latest in high-tech shark protection for divers - and it's only $US20,000 ($22,886).
The makers of the Neptunic C Suit, made from steel mesh, titanium and hybrid laminates, say it can withstand shark bites. But they warn a bite may still cause broken bones.
This is not the first attempt at a shark-proof suit. In the early 1980s, famed Australian shark experts Ron and Valerie Taylor had a suit made from the steel mesh that butchers use to protect their hands.
The Neptunic's creator, diver and photographer Jeremiah Sullivan, said he consulted the Taylors, among others, early on in the project and they "took part in some preliminary trials".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/swim-with-sharks-in-biteproof-suit/2007/12/29/1198778769208.html
Rebels keep rescue teams guessing on hostages
Nelson Bocanegra Villavicencio, Colombia
December 30, 2007
VENEZUELAN helicopter rescue teams, which include filmmaker Oliver Stone, were waiting at the edge of a Colombian wilderness yesterday for permission from Marxist rebels to pick up three hostages held for years in secret jungle camps.
After weeks of promising to release two former politicians and the infant son born to one of them in captivity, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has still not revealed their location.
President Hugo Chavez of neighbouring Venezuela sent two helicopters into Colombia on Friday, but they remain grounded in Villavicencio, at the foot of the Andes in central Colombia.
Stone, who is making a documentary about Latin America, is with Mr Chavez to observe the mission. Although wary of Mr Chavez and his goal of uniting South America under socialism, Colombia's conservative Government let him fly Venezuelan aircraft painted with the colours of the Red Cross deep into its territory to collect the hostages.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rebels-keep-rescue-teams-guessing-on-hostages/2007/12/29/1198778769280.html
Bhutto assassination adds to global jitters
Robert Gavin
December 29, 2007
The assassination of the Pakistani Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is adding to recession fears already shaking investors in global financial and commodity markets.
With the US economy viewed as dangerously close to recession, analysts said any new shocks, such as another surge in energy prices, could tip it over the edge.
Ms Bhutto's killing in Pakistan on Thursday is another reminder of global instability helping to send fuel prices higher and stocks sharply lower.
"People want to believe the economy is going to be OK," said Nigel Gault, the US economist at Global Insight. "But any hint of bad news and fear takes over very quickly."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 200 points, or 1.4 per cent, on Thursday following Ms Bhutto's death at the hands of a suicide bomber and reports of weakness in US business spending and hiring.
http://business.smh.com.au/bhutto-assassination-adds-to-global-jitters/20071228-1jcz.html
Gold price to continue rising in 2008
December 29, 2007 - 7:27AM
The price of gold is set to remain high in 2008, putting it on track to break $US1,000 an ounce for the first time, as the yellow metal continues to offer investors a safe haven from volatile financial markets and supply remains tight.
During 2007, the price of gold has traded in a $US243.50 range, from a low of $US601.90 in January and a high of $845.40 in November, as investors sought a hedge against rising global inflation and equity, debt and foreign exchange markets wobbled.
In 2008, gold is tipped to rise to a 28-year high of $US850 in the first quarter as financial markets jitters prevail, and could reach as high as $US1,100 by December, market watchers say.
http://news.smh.com.au/gold-price-to-continue-rising-in-2008/20071229-1jev.html
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