Sydney Morning Herald
Storm smashes Sydney tea party
December 9, 2007 - 8:35PM
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Thirty people were treated for injuries caused by the latest in a string of thunderstorms to lash Sydney this summer.
Hailstones up to seven centimetres in diameter and damaging winds tore through an outdoor tea party at Kemps Creek on Sydney's western outskirts injuring 30 women, who were treated by ambulance officers, at about 4.30pm (AEDT) today, the Seven Network has reported.
"It looked like the end of the world. I've never seen anything like it," one woman told Seven.
Another woman told Seven that the winds lifted slabs of concrete.
Residents in Sydney's west and north made more than 100 calls to the State Emergency Service for help with flash flooding and fallen trees.
Electricity was cut to about 10,000 homes.
Flights at Sydney airport were disrupted by the storm and further delays were expected.
A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman said: "We've had lots of reports of hail of golf-ball size and we've had a few reports of hail up to seven centimetres in a couple of places."
Sydney has been lashed by a fierce afternoon thunderstorm almost every day during this summer's hot and humid weather.
Meanwhile, police today released the name and an image of a man killed by a shop awning collapse during a storm at Balgowlah on Sydney's northern beaches on Friday afternoon.
Craig Taylor, 53, was crushed by the awning and bricks that fell from the shop's facade.
He died at the scene.
Mr Taylor's family thanked the community for its support following the accident.
"Craig was deeply loved by everyone who knew him, especially by his wife and children. He was tirelessly devoted to his family," the family said in a statement.
AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/storm-smashes-sydney-tea-party/2007/12/09/1197135277464.html
Shark sightings force beach closures
December 9, 2007 - 4:41PM
Sightings of four hammerhead sharks forced the closure of two beaches in Sydney's south today.
The sharks were spotted by an aerial patrol about 30 metres from shore between Wanda and Cronulla beaches this morning.
One shark, estimated to be 2.5 metres long, was seen just five metres from surfers.
Lifeguards were alerted and used an inflatable rescue boat to drive the sharks out to sea.
Aerial Patrol general manager Harry Mitchell said sharks were sighted in a similar area last weekend.
"Water temperatures are up and sharks are doing what they often do, come in closer in search of food," he said.
"Beachgoers are urged to heed warnings from the aircraft and beach safety providers with shark sightings anticipated until at least March of next year."
The beaches were closed while surfers and swimmers were called out of the water and the sharks driven off.
Both beaches were reopened a short time later.
AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/shark-sightings-force-beach-closures/2007/12/09/1197135274654.html
Golfer hospitalised after snake attack
December 9, 2007 - 4:42PM
A golfer has been hospitalised after being bitten by a snake when he went to retrieve a wayward golf ball on a course in Melbourne's southeast.
The man, in his 30s, was playing with friends on the 7th hole at the Centenary Park Golf Club, near Frankston, when he was bitten, around 1.30pm today.
A Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS) spokesman said the golfer was walking down towards a creek in search of his ball when the snake - possibly a brown snake - lashed out, biting him on the lower left leg.
"The guy said he saw the creature but couldn't say for sure that it was a brown snake," MAS spokesman Ray Rowe said.
"In terms of treating the wound, they did everything right. They kept him still and calm while another went up to the clubhouse to get help."
Staff then drove a golf buggy down to the hole to pick the injured golfer up before taking him back to the clubhouse where his wound was bandaged.
Paramedics then took him to Frankston Hospital, where he was said to be in a satisfactory condition this afternoon.
"Apparently, the gentleman's only recently taken up golf again after a long break but I don't expect him to be playing again for a while," Mr Rowe said.
"With the hot weather meaning snakes are out and about, we'd urge people to be extra careful when outdoors and observe the correct first aid steps: keep the patient still and calm, don't wash the wound with water but bandage the affected limb from top to bottom.
"It's also a help if people can try to identify the snake so hospital staff know exactly how to treat the patient."
AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/golfer-hospitalised-after-snake-attack/2007/12/09/1197135274733.html
Inspections urged as six hurt in balcony collapse
Harriet Alexander
December 10, 2007
Killed … Craig Taylor, 53, was crushed under an awning.
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OLD-STYLE terraces in Sydney should be inspected, local authorities and planning experts have warned, after a spate of crumbling buildings killed one person and injured six at the weekend.
Six people were hurt on Saturday night when a balcony on a Surry Hills terrace collapsed, and a man died in Balgowlah on Friday when an awning fell on him during a storm.
The incidents follow the demolition of an Indian takeaway restaurant on Crown Street, Surry Hills after the building began
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/six-hurt-in-surry-hills-balcony-collapse/2007/12/09/1197135289397.html
Millions lost in fierce legal war on the poor
Debra Jopson and Adele Horin
December 10, 2007
AUSTRALIA'S poorest people have been pursued in an unprecedented and aggressive legal campaign over welfare payments - and the workplace relations department is under fire for running up lawyers' bills chasing small amounts of money or cases so weak they never reach court.
The number of cases pushed through the courts by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations has soared almost 20-fold over three years in one court alone, as pension payments are challenged and moves made to recover amounts as low $1300.
In a campaign welfare advocates describe as harsh and punitive, the department has spent millions of dollars taking its social security "customers" to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and then, in some cases, the Federal Court. The department pursues such legal action at a far higher rate than other departments overseeing government pensions.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/millions-lost-in-war-on-the-poor/2007/12/09/1197135289361.html
Earthquake rocks Brazil
December 10, 2007 - 6:06AM
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An earthquake shook two small towns in south-eastern Brazil early on Sunday, killing a child and injuring six other people, civil defence said.
The quake, which hit shortly after midnight local time, had a magnitude of 4.9, according to the US Geological Survey.
About 60 people were evacuated from their homes because of fear that the quake may have caused structural damage, Minas Gerais State Civil Defence Sub-Lieutenant Israel Cabral said by telephone from the state capital of Belo Horizonte.
Five-year-old Jeissiane Oliveira da Silva died when a wall collapsed in the room where she was sleeping with her twin sister, who was hospitalised. Their seven-year-old brother escaped unharmed, Cabral said.
In all, about six house collapsed as a result of the quake, Cabral said.
The region where the quake hit is a poor one and the houses are often precarious structures, Cabral said. Residents in the region have been reporting small tremors over the past two months, local media reported.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/earthquake-rocks-brazil/2007/12/10/1197135315140.html
Shooter opens fire in Christian missionary massacre
December 10, 2007 - 6:06AM
A gunman walked into a dormitory for young Christian missionaries in training in the US state of Colorado early on Sunday and opened fire, killing two people and wounding two others.
The gunman is still missing.
The shooting occurred just after midnight at the Youth With a Mission centre, police spokeswoman Susan Medina said. About 45 people were evacuated from the dormitory in this Denver suburb.
Medina said a man and a woman in their mid-20s died, and two men aged 22 and 23 were wounded.
Paul Filidis, a spokesman for Youth With a Mission, said all four of the victims were staff members. One of the injured men was in critical condition, he said.
Witnesses told police the gunman was a 20-year-old white male, wearing a dark jacket and skull cap. He may have glasses or a beard.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/two-gunned-down-at-christian-mission/2007/12/10/1197135315137.html
US bipartisan group knew of torture
Joby Warrick and Dan Eggen in Washington
December 10, 2007
IN SEPTEMBER 2002, four members of the US Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects.
For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included the future Democratic House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas "detention" sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning that is an extreme and widely condemned practice that a few years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two politicians in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two officials said.
"The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," said a US official who witnessed the exchange.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-bipartisan-group-knew-of-torture/2007/12/09/1197135287734.html
New Zealand Herald
Lively bidding at New York rare spirit auction
2:00PM Sunday December 09, 2007
NEW YORK - Rare spirits went for record high prices at Christie's New York auction house on Saturday with one bottle of 1926 Macallan Scotch selling for US$54,000 ($70,486).
It became the most expensive bottle of Scotch whiskey ever sold by the auction house, said Christie's, which has been holding similar sales in Europe for a decade.
Bought by a private New York investor, the Macallan was bottled in 1986 after spending 60 years in a wooden barrel. It had originally been expected to sell from between $20,000 and $30,000.
Richard Brierley, head of wine and spirits sales for Christie's America, was asked at an earlier press briefing if anyone would actually drink such a Scotch.
"Absolutely. Something like this is bullet-proof," he said. "Unlike fine wines, which really after being opened are really something that should be consumed that night."
"These whiskeys can be enjoyed for years. You can open it up, have some, close the bottle and enjoy it again at your leisure. It's not going to spoil," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481303
Rescuers killed in mine tragedy
5:00AM Sunday December 09, 2007
About 50 people with no rescue training rushed to save colleagues trapped in an underground mine in north China but never resurfaced, resulting in a death toll of more than 100, state media said yesterday.
The bodies of at least 105 people have so far been recovered from the Xinyao mine in Hongtong county in coal-rich Shanxi province, which was hit by an explosion on Wednesday.
Police have detained 33 coal mine managers and officials after they delayed reporting the blast until five hours later. Authorities have also suspended the mine's licence and frozen its bank accounts.
Mine owners tried to launch their own rescue operation, which newspapers said probably increased casualties. Miner Yang Yingcai accused the authorities of attempting to cover up the accident. About 50 young miners and security guards "blindly" rushed to the rescue of their trapped colleagues, but never returned, the Beijing News said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481241
Torture videotapes destroyed by CIA
5:00AM Sunday December 09, 2007
American senators and congressmen are pressing for a criminal investigation of the CIA after it admitted destroying two videotapes showing apparently abusive interrogations of al Qaeda suspects in 2005.
The digital recordings apparently show a team of CIA agents subjecting Abu Zubayadh, the agency's first detainee, and another suspect to abusive interrogation. The tapes were apparently destroyed because CIA officers feared prosecution for torture, which is a felony under US law.
"We haven't seen anything like this since the 18-minute gap on the tapes of Richard Nixon," said Senator Edward Kennedy who accused the CIA of "a cover-up". A US expert on torture said he believed the digital recordings show CIA interrogation teams carrying out torture - including waterboarding or partial drowning of al Qaeda suspects, in detention centres not on American soil.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481217
Window washer clings to life after plummeting off skyscraper
1:20PM Sunday December 09, 2007
NEW YORK - A window washer clung to life Saturday after plummeting more than 40 stories from a skyscraper in a fall that killed his brother.
A scaffold broke free from the top of a Manhattan apartment tower Friday morning, sending Alcides Moreno, 37, and Edgar Moreno, 30, on a plunge to a plaza below.
Edgar was killed. Alcides remained hospitalised at New York Weill Cornell Medical Centre. A spokeswoman Saturday declined to release details on his condition, at the family's request.
The brothers were not wearing their safety harnesses when they fell from the swing scaffold, which was a permanent fixture on the 47-story building's roof.
The city Department of Buildings was investigating several issues in the accident, including whether the men were on the scaffold when it fell or trying to fasten cables to it when the hoist fell off the building.
A call to the City Wide Window Cleaning, which employed the brothers, was not returned Saturday.
- AP
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481301
Chilling surveillance images show Omaha guman's final minutes
3:46PM Saturday December 08, 2007
'Just think I'm gonna be ... famous,' Robert Hawkins wrote in a note to his parents, before gunning down eight shoppers in cold blood. Photo / AP Images
OMAHA, NEBRASKA - Chilling surveillance images of the gunman who killed eight people in an Omaha department store show a shaggy-haired, bespectacled Robert Hawkins taking aim at holiday shoppers.
His hand-scrawled suicide note, also released Friday, offers compassion for his friends and only contempt for his victims.
"I know everyone will remember me as some sort of monster, but please understand that I just don't want to be a burden on the ones that I care for my entire life," he wrote. "I just want to take a few pieces of (expletive) with me."
The 19-year-old gunman left the note at the suburban house where he lived Wednesday before going to Westroads Mall with an AK-47 and opening fire on the midday holiday shopping crowd, fatally shooting eight people at the Von Maur store before turning the gun on himself.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481187
Corby associates named as part of drug-ring: report
9:12AM Saturday December 08, 2007
SYDNEY - It's been revealed that four associates of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby were named in a police intelligence report as being part of a ring that transported drugs between Brisbane and Bali - three weeks before she was arrested at Denpasar Airport with cannabis in her boogie board bag.
Fairfax newspapers say a 2004 police intelligence report quotes a witness, Kim Moore, alleging the four people were involved in manufacturing amphetamines in Brisbane that were then transported in powder and tablet form to Bali in a "dark coloured suitcase surrounded by oily paper within a false bottom".
Corby, now 30, and her family have long claimed she was a victim and that her bag was used by drug smugglers. She is serving a 20-year sentence at Kerobokan prison in Bali.
Ms Moore, now 52, made her report to police on September 16, 2004, 22 days before Corby was arrested with cannabis in Bali on October 8.
The report has been obtained by the ABC radio programme PM, Fairfax says.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481173
Tiger's wife wins payout over fake porn pictures
9:02AM Saturday December 08, 2007
DUBLIN - The wife of the world's number one golfer, Tiger Woods, has won $239,700 in damages against an Irish magazine which published fake porn photos of her during the Ryder Cup.
The Dubliner magazine was forced to make a humble apology to Elin Nordegren Woods for superimposing the Swedish model's face on a picture of a semi-naked woman.
Ms Nordegren Woods is donating all the money to cancer support charities in memory of Irish golfer Darren Clarke's late wife, Heather.
The explicit photographs and article, which was titled Ryder Filth for Dublin, overshadowed the launch of the prestigious tournament at the K Club, Co Kildare, in September 2006.
At Dublin's Circuit Civil Court publisher Trevor White admitted the story was cheap, tasteless and deliberately offensive, and completely untrue.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481172
Child cancer risk higher near nuclear plants - study
9:29AM Sunday December 09, 2007
BERLIN - A German study has found that young children living near nuclear power plants have a significantly higher risk of developing leukaemia and other forms of cancer, a German newspaper reported on Saturday.
"Our study confirmed that in Germany a connection has been observed between the distance of a domicile to the nearest nuclear power plant .... and the risk of developing cancer, such as leukaemia, before the fifth birthday," Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper quoted the report as saying.
The newspaper said the study was done by the University of Mainz for Germany's Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BFS). A copy of the report was not immediately available.
The researchers found that 37 children within a 5-kilometre radius of nuclear power plants had developed leukaemia between 1980 and 2003, while the statistical average during this time period was 17, the paper said.
The newspaper cited an unnamed radiation protection expert familiar with the study who said its conclusions understated the problem. He said the data showed there was an increased cancer risk for children living within 50km of a reactor.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481290
Arrest warrant issued for actor Baldwin
8:26AM Sunday December 09, 2007
LOS ANGELES - A judge has revoked probation and issued an arrest warrant for actor Daniel Baldwin after he failed to appear in court for a progress report on his drug rehabilitation stemming from an arrest last year.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Millington issued the warrant after the actor failed to show up in court as scheduled yesterday, according to court papers.
Baldwin, 47, is the brother of actors Alec, William and Stephen Baldwin and has starred on numerous television shows, including Homicide: Life on the Street, and in movies.
He ran afoul of authorities in April 2006 when he was arrested in a Los Angeles-area motel for possessing cocaine and drug paraphernalia.
Baldwin entered a drug rehabilitation programme in hopes of having the two charges dismissed. In February at a hearing on his progress, his attorney said the actor had completed various programmes and was continuing treatment.
Published reports said Baldwin was in Toronto shooting a movie, but that could not be confirmed. His attorney was unable to be reached for comment on Saturday.
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- REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481285
Hollywood screenwriters negotiations breakdown
5:15PM Saturday December 08, 2007
LOS ANGELES - Hollywood producers said negotiations with striking writers broke down after four consecutive days of talks.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers' announcement Friday came after both sides traded barbs over the five-week strike that has sidelined many prime-time and late-night shows.
The alliance blamed the breakdown on what it called an ongoing union strategy to delay or derail talks.
The Writers Guild of America had no immediate comment.
Earlier in the day, the guild accused the alliance of dragging its heels in putting new proposals on the table and cited possible schemes to sink the talks.
The alliance denied the allegations and claimed the union had failed to respond to proposals regarding key issues of new-media compensation.
- AP
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481189
Michelangelo find
5:15AM Saturday December 08, 2007
The Vatican said it had discovered a lost drawing by Renaissance master Michelangelo of a design for the dome of St Peter's Basilica.
The Vatican newspaper l'Osservatore Romano said the drawing, done in the spring of 1563 when Michelangelo was 88, was believed to be his last sketch before he died in 1564.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481081
Peace deal realistic says Blair
5:00AM Saturday December 08, 2007
By Tony Blair
Middle East envoy Tony Blair said yesterday a deal on Palestinian statehood by the end of next year is realistic as life on the Gaza Strip gets more desperate under Israeli sanctions.
Gas stations across Gaza have shut their pumps. Tens of thousands of people have no fresh water.
Hospitals have grounded ambulances, and bicycles are the favoured form of transport a month after Israel restricted fuel shipments to Gaza.
However, former British Prime Minister Blair said in an interview with France24 television: "I think a negotiated settlement is possible in 2008." But "it will take some time for that negotiated settlement to be put in place fully".
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed in Annapolis, Maryland, last week to try to reach a peace treaty creating a Palestinian state by the end of next year, although doubts remain over the plan's viability.
Gaza, though, is a problem for negotiators and under the rule of Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist group.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481088
Don't shake hands, Museveni tells Ebola-hit Uganda
9:18AM Sunday December 09, 2007
KAMPALA - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has urged his people to stop shaking hands to try halt a deadly epidemic of Ebola fever that has infected 101 people and caused 22 deaths, state media reported on Saturday.
"Ebola spreads through contact. For the time being, people should resort to jambo (waving)," Museveni was quoted in the state-owned newspaper New Vision as saying. "If I don't shake your hand, it doesn't mean I don't like you."
On Friday, the government said suspected cases of Ebola - most of them in western Bundibugyo district bordering Democratic Republic of the Congo - had risen to 101. They included two in Kampala, one of them a doctor who died.
Another 338 people were being monitored because they came into contact with those infected by the virulent haemorrhagic fever.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481289
At least 3 dead in Egypt university stampede
8:36AM Sunday December 09, 2007
CAIRO - At least three people were killed and more than 100 were injured in a stampede caused by an electrical fire in a university in Egypt's Nile Delta town of Zagazig on Saturday, security sources said.
The governor of Sharkia province Yehia Abdel Meguid told Egyptian television three people were killed, but security sources said the death toll could be as high as five.
The sources said students in the local branch of al-Azhar University's women's college panicked after a fire broke out in a packed lecture hall, and a stampede started with hundreds of students trying to exit the hall.
While the fire did not spread, the commotion led to a general panic throughout the college, and security sources said some of the students leapt from second floor windows to escape the building.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10481288
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