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Monday, June 24, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Infants in Fukushima face greater risk of cancer: WHO
Infants in Japan's Fukushima prefecture are at greater risk of developing cancer after the March 2011 accident at the Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant, the World Health Organization says in a report released here on Thursday.
People living near Dai-Ichi were exposed to radiation when the plant
suffered severe damage from the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that struck northeastern Japan March 11, 2011.
Inhabitants of the worst-affected area who were infants at the time of exposure face additional risks of developing cancer in comparison with Fukushima residents who lived farther from the plant and with people in other parts of Japan, the WHO experts concluded.
For girls in the target area, the chances of having thyroid cancer over the course of their lifetimes are 70 per cent greater, while the boys face a 7 per cent higher risk of leukemia, the report says.
Japanese girls in general have a 0.75 per cent probability of thyroid cancer and those in the hardest-hit part of Fukushima must contend with an additional risk of 0.5 per cent, the researchers said.
"Outside the geographical areas most-affected by radiation, even in locations within Fukushima prefecture, the predicted risks remain low, and no observable increases in cancer above natural variation in baseline rates are anticipated," the WHO said.
Inhabitants of the worst-affected area who were infants at the time of exposure face additional risks of developing cancer in comparison with Fukushima residents who lived farther from the plant and with people in other parts of Japan, the WHO experts concluded.
For girls in the target area, the chances of having thyroid cancer over the course of their lifetimes are 70 per cent greater, while the boys face a 7 per cent higher risk of leukemia, the report says.
Japanese girls in general have a 0.75 per cent probability of thyroid cancer and those in the hardest-hit part of Fukushima must contend with an additional risk of 0.5 per cent, the researchers said.
"Outside the geographical areas most-affected by radiation, even in locations within Fukushima prefecture, the predicted risks remain low, and no observable increases in cancer above natural variation in baseline rates are anticipated," the WHO said.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Guitar business bill hits flat note
A WOMAN who helped her partner market his guitar business in
exchange for lessons sent him a $26,000 bill for the work after they
split up, a tribunal has heard.
When the two-year relationship came to an end in November 2010, the
woman calculated the cost of guitar lessons for herself and her children
and offset that against what she assessed to be the value of her
contribution to the marketing of the business.
She sent her ex-partner an invoice for $26,415 which he refused to pay because he argued there had been no contract.
She filed a dispute in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).
However, an adjudicator ruled against her in January this year after seeing emails from her rejecting offers of payment.
She
sought leave to appeal this decision, but senior QCAT member Richard
Oliver, in a judgment published this week, refused the request.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Banks would struggle to fund recovery: NAB
Australia's banks may struggle to provide enough business credit if borrowing levels recover, NAB says.
Major banks would struggle to cope if borrowing levels recovered, the National Australia Bank has told a Senate inquiry.
NAB's
chief financial officer Mark Joiner says Australia is still mired in
the global financial crisis and would continue to be "for some time".
In
this environment, he said NAB was "finding it quite difficult" to move
away from safe-haven and fixed-income assets like bonds as financial
market volatility continued.
Unstable sharemarkets were making investors "fearful" and encouraging them to put their superannuation into cash.
He
added that wholesale money market volatility and strong competition for
deposits among Australia's major banks meant these lenders may not have
sufficient funds to provide business credit in the event of a borrowing
recovery.
"The Australian banks would struggle to go along with
the demand for credit," Mr Joiner told the Senate economics committee
inquiry in Sydney.
"It can be solved. We're not in a position to
solve it very easily at the moment, but it can be can solved by
strengthening the ability to distribute (banking) assets to
superannuation funds."
Commonwealth Bank-owned subsidiary BankWest
was under fire at the hearing for bringing in receivers to cheaply wind
up a rural NSW hotel and property developments in NSW and Queensland
that had appeared to be solvent.
BankWest managing director Rob De
Luca repeatedly said, in the presence of hostile audience members at
NSW Parliament House, that it was not in the bank's interest to default
on business loans.
"It's in our interests for the customers to be
viable and to be able to repay the debt," Mr De Luca said, adding those
who filed complaints made up just 0.01 per cent of its customers.
"There was no benefit either to BankWest or to CBA in defaulting customers or causing losses to customers.
"In fact any losses that arose were borne by BankWest."
BankWest
Business chief executive Ian Corfield denied a suggestion from
Nationals senator John Williams that BankWest had panicked.
"I
don't think so. The reality is that some of those markets dropped
between 50 and 80 per cent and they have not recovered," Mr Corfield
said.
CBA bought BankWest from struggling UK banking group HBOS for $2 billion in 2008 but took on $17 billion in funding liabilities.
Online
banking group ING Direct told the inquiry wholesale borrowing costs
were rising, and Australian consumers were gloomy despite weathering the
GFC with a triple-A credit rating.
"If you look at Australia, on
the macro scale, it has survived the GFC quite well," ING Direct's chief
risk officer Bart Hellemans said.
"It's one of the few triple-A
rated countries left in the world ... and yet people seem to still have a
feeling that the worst is to come.
"There's a lack of confidence and that actually impacts quite a lot on decision making, particularly upon the consumer."
Monday, October 24, 2011
Turkey earthquake: More aid pledged to worst-hit areas
The Turkish government has pledged more aid to thousands of people affected by Sunday's deadly earthquake in the east.
Officials said 12,000 more tents would be delivered to the cities of Ercis and Van and also to nearby villages.
Ankara has been accused of failing to help some of the most needy, who spent the second night in freezing conditions without heating and tents.
At least 279 people are now known to have died and some 1,300 were injured after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake.
Rescue teams with sniffer dogs continued through the night to search for survivors under the rubble of hundreds of collapsed buildings.
Cranes and other heavy equipment have been lifting slabs of concrete, and many residents have been joining in the rescue effort, digging with shovels.
But hopes of finding more survivors are fading, with no-one being pulled alive in the last seven to eight hours, the BBC's Tim Willcox in Ercis reports.
In one building, our correspondent adds, there are fears that up to 50 are missing - buried under the rubble.
Turkish officials are now warning that the death toll is expected to rise further.
'We're freezing'
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay, in charge of the relief operation, said late on Monday that "from today there will be nothing our people lack".
Officials were also setting up more field hospitals and kitchens to help the thousands left homeless or too afraid to return to their homes amid continuing aftershocks.
But some survivors in the ethnic Kurd areas complained that not enough help was reaching them.
"Tents will not be enough - we do not have food, no rescue teams have reached here yet," said Serif Tarakci, an official from the village of Halkali, about 50km (30 miles) from Van.
"It's cold at night, everybody is outside and we're freezing here," the New York Times quoted him as saying.
Another resident of Van said that even tents were in short supply.
"All the nylon tents are on the black market now," Ibrahim Baydar, a 40-year-old tradesman from Van, told Reuters news agency.
"We cannot find any. People are queuing for them. No tents were given to us whatsoever," he said.
Opposition politicians earlier decried what they called "a lack of crisis management", saying that many people still lacked food, heating and tents.
They also said Ankara was wrong to refuse offers of foreign aid.
Ercis, with a population of about 75,000, has been the worst hit - some 80 buildings have collapsed there.
The BBC's Daniel Sandford, in Ercis, says most of those destroyed buildings are apartment blocks with dozens of people missing at each site.
Both Ercis and the larger city of Van, about 100km (60 miles) to the south, lie on a high plateau surrounded by snow-capped mountains.
'Primitive tools'
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office said 970 buildings in the earthquake zone had been destroyed.
Mr Erdogan visited the area on Sunday and said many villages made of mud brick had been almost completely destroyed.
Some of the rescue workers have complained of a lack of adequate equipment, said the Hurriyet Daily News.
"We are working with primitive tools, we have no equipment," one rescuer told the Turkish newspaper.
Despite the difficulties, five people were pulled from the ruins of one collapsed building in Ercis on Monday after one of them called for help on his mobile phone, Anatolia news agency said.
Another man was rescued later on Monday, some 30 hours after the earthquake struck.
The earthquake struck at 13:41 (10:41 GMT) on Sunday at a depth of 20km (12 miles), with its epicentre 16km north-east of Van in eastern Turkey, the US Geological Survey said.
About 200 aftershocks have hit the region, it added, including one of magnitude 6.0 late on Sunday.
Turkey is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes because it sits on major geological fault lines.
Two earthquakes in 1999 with a magnitude of more than 7 killed almost 20,000 people in densely populated parts of the north-west of the country.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Rot in hell daughter to mother who killed brother
As a young girl, Melissa Ashfield watched as her brother John was murdered by her mother, Gunn-Britt Ashfield.
This morning at her mother's Sydney parole hearing, Ms Ashfield told her mother: "You're sick and twisted and you can go to hell."
Ashfield, now known as Angelic Karstrom, and her then boyfriend, Austin Allan Hughes, beat John Ashfield, 6, to death with a hammer in August 1993 at their home in Nowra in southern NSW.
Ms Ashfield was three when she and her three other brothers saw her mother and Hughes beat the boy with a hammer and a phone book over a period of several hours.
He suffered a retinal haemorrhage and extensive bruising to his whole body, and died in hospital the next day.
Karstrom was sentenced to 19 years in jail.
Today, after serving 18 years, Karstrom was granted parole by the NSW parole authority under strict conditions that will apply for 12 months following her release next month.
The conditions include being electronically monitored, prevented from attending her victim's grave and forbidden from being in the company of children under 16.
The authority said it elected to release Karstrom a year before the end of her sentence so she could be closely monitored for the next 12 months.
Ms Ashfield opposed such a decision when giving an emotional witness impact statement at the hearing today.
Karstrom was on screen via video link from jail as her daughter yelled at her.
"She can rot in hell," she said. "The day I'll jump for you is the day you drop dead. And you can go to hell."
Ms Ashfield expressed disgust as the parole board chairman read his decision, holding up a picture of her dead brother and declaring to her mother "Look what you did you f---ing dog" before running, crying from the court.
Outside the parole hearing, Ms Ashfield, her aunt Annette and other family members gathered to speak to a throng of waiting media.
Ms Ashfield said she was angry and frustrated, denying that her mother was truly remorseful.
"They say this is in the best interests of everyone, but I want her to serve her full sentence," she said.
She was haunted daily by the memories of her brother's bashing and eventual death, she said.
"The day that - way before my brother's come home from school, it was a lot of tension, a lot of yelling, a lot of flaring.
"And before you know it, my brother was the target.
"They started hitting him, punching him.
"They both took turns putting the phone book on his head, smashing it with a hammer.
"They both bashed him for 2½ hours.
"My brother's screaming, saying: 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' and she kept going.
"She could've easily said: 'Stop.'
"But it went further. She let Austin put one of my dresses on my brother and mocked him before he got, before he was dead."
A long-standing family friend Annena Hallcroft said: "The memories live day to day as new as they were yesterday, as new as the day when her little brother was killed."
Source http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/rot-in-hell-daughter-to-mother-who-killed-brother-20110729-1i39c.html?from=smh_sb
This morning at her mother's Sydney parole hearing, Ms Ashfield told her mother: "You're sick and twisted and you can go to hell."
Ashfield, now known as Angelic Karstrom, and her then boyfriend, Austin Allan Hughes, beat John Ashfield, 6, to death with a hammer in August 1993 at their home in Nowra in southern NSW.
Ms Ashfield was three when she and her three other brothers saw her mother and Hughes beat the boy with a hammer and a phone book over a period of several hours.
He suffered a retinal haemorrhage and extensive bruising to his whole body, and died in hospital the next day.
Karstrom was sentenced to 19 years in jail.
Today, after serving 18 years, Karstrom was granted parole by the NSW parole authority under strict conditions that will apply for 12 months following her release next month.
The conditions include being electronically monitored, prevented from attending her victim's grave and forbidden from being in the company of children under 16.
The authority said it elected to release Karstrom a year before the end of her sentence so she could be closely monitored for the next 12 months.
Ms Ashfield opposed such a decision when giving an emotional witness impact statement at the hearing today.
Karstrom was on screen via video link from jail as her daughter yelled at her.
"She can rot in hell," she said. "The day I'll jump for you is the day you drop dead. And you can go to hell."
Ms Ashfield expressed disgust as the parole board chairman read his decision, holding up a picture of her dead brother and declaring to her mother "Look what you did you f---ing dog" before running, crying from the court.
Outside the parole hearing, Ms Ashfield, her aunt Annette and other family members gathered to speak to a throng of waiting media.
Ms Ashfield said she was angry and frustrated, denying that her mother was truly remorseful.
"They say this is in the best interests of everyone, but I want her to serve her full sentence," she said.
She was haunted daily by the memories of her brother's bashing and eventual death, she said.
"The day that - way before my brother's come home from school, it was a lot of tension, a lot of yelling, a lot of flaring.
"And before you know it, my brother was the target.
"They started hitting him, punching him.
"They both took turns putting the phone book on his head, smashing it with a hammer.
"They both bashed him for 2½ hours.
"My brother's screaming, saying: 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' and she kept going.
"She could've easily said: 'Stop.'
"But it went further. She let Austin put one of my dresses on my brother and mocked him before he got, before he was dead."
A long-standing family friend Annena Hallcroft said: "The memories live day to day as new as they were yesterday, as new as the day when her little brother was killed."
Source http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/rot-in-hell-daughter-to-mother-who-killed-brother-20110729-1i39c.html?from=smh_sb
Friday, May 6, 2011
SMS service could have warned Lockyer
LOCKYER Valley residents could have been warned of a deadly creek surge if the council had used an alert system operating in Brisbane at the time, an inquiry has been told.
Early Warning Network's Kerry Plowright on Friday told the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry his service could have devised a warning for the Lockyer Valley before the freak flood which killed at least 17 people in January.
Brisbane City Council has a contract with Mr Plowright's company to send alerts by SMS, email and telephone to participating ratepayers warning them of coming storms and tidal surges.
Unlike the national alert system operated by Telstra, which waits for authorities to order SMS messages to be sent, Early Warning Network monitors the weather around the clock and can alert councils to developments as they arise.
The alerts it sends to subscribers are based predominantly on Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warnings.
But it also uses private meteorologists including Anthony Cornelius, whose Weather Watch service predicted the January 10 Lockyer Valley flash flood but had no powers to warn the public, Mr Plowright said.
"Our guys are monitoring those sort of events continuously," he said.
"Several of them were quite alarmed by what was starting to occur."
The company could thus have put out an alert in cooperation with Lockyer Valley Regional Council to warn residents in the area.
However, at the time of the January floods, only 19,000 Brisbane ratepayers had taken up the service.
The inquiry has also looked at how Brisbane residents fared when floodwaters hit the city from January 11, swamping more than 14,000 properties.
Brisbane City Council regional operations manager Sean Hodgson recounted how it became "impossible" for 250 council staff to warn people at every home that was at risk once the Wivenhoe Dam ramped up releases of water.
On January 11, staff set out to doorknock 10,000 properties at risk of flooding.
But the dam releases were scaled up the next day, and the number of properties blew out to 30,000.
Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Martin appeared at the inquiry on Friday to give his side of an exchange with Moggill MP Bruce Flegg about a food drop Mr Flegg organised for his flooded constituents on January 14.
The area was cut off from the rest of Brisbane by floodwaters, one of its supermarkets was flooded, and the other had been shut down by police after a scuffle between panic buyers.
Dr Flegg on Thursday told the inquiry he organised a private helicopter pilot to fly in supplies from the Sunshine Coast and he didn't understand why Mr Martin scuttled the plan.
Mr Martin said he was unsure he had the power to approve such a flight, which was "quite problematic", as he had no say over the flight path, or knowledge of the aircraft or pilot.
Far from being insensitive to the community's needs, official plans were already "well afoot" to get provisions in by army vehicle earlier than Dr Flegg's helicopter, he said.
Dr Flegg denied playing politics over the food drop, organised with another opposition MP.
But Mr Martin said he took a call from an ABC journalist 20 minutes after speaking to Dr Flegg, questioning why the drop had been refused.
"I gave an explanation to the journalist that we were well advanced with respect to our plans," he said.
"The journalist indicated to me that was different to what he had been told."
The inquiry resumes in Brisbane on Monday.
Source http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/sms-service-could-have-warned-lockyer/story-e6frf7jx-1226051331982
Early Warning Network's Kerry Plowright on Friday told the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry his service could have devised a warning for the Lockyer Valley before the freak flood which killed at least 17 people in January.
Brisbane City Council has a contract with Mr Plowright's company to send alerts by SMS, email and telephone to participating ratepayers warning them of coming storms and tidal surges.
Unlike the national alert system operated by Telstra, which waits for authorities to order SMS messages to be sent, Early Warning Network monitors the weather around the clock and can alert councils to developments as they arise.
The alerts it sends to subscribers are based predominantly on Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warnings.
But it also uses private meteorologists including Anthony Cornelius, whose Weather Watch service predicted the January 10 Lockyer Valley flash flood but had no powers to warn the public, Mr Plowright said.
"Our guys are monitoring those sort of events continuously," he said.
"Several of them were quite alarmed by what was starting to occur."
The company could thus have put out an alert in cooperation with Lockyer Valley Regional Council to warn residents in the area.
However, at the time of the January floods, only 19,000 Brisbane ratepayers had taken up the service.
The inquiry has also looked at how Brisbane residents fared when floodwaters hit the city from January 11, swamping more than 14,000 properties.
Brisbane City Council regional operations manager Sean Hodgson recounted how it became "impossible" for 250 council staff to warn people at every home that was at risk once the Wivenhoe Dam ramped up releases of water.
On January 11, staff set out to doorknock 10,000 properties at risk of flooding.
But the dam releases were scaled up the next day, and the number of properties blew out to 30,000.
Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Martin appeared at the inquiry on Friday to give his side of an exchange with Moggill MP Bruce Flegg about a food drop Mr Flegg organised for his flooded constituents on January 14.
The area was cut off from the rest of Brisbane by floodwaters, one of its supermarkets was flooded, and the other had been shut down by police after a scuffle between panic buyers.
Dr Flegg on Thursday told the inquiry he organised a private helicopter pilot to fly in supplies from the Sunshine Coast and he didn't understand why Mr Martin scuttled the plan.
Mr Martin said he was unsure he had the power to approve such a flight, which was "quite problematic", as he had no say over the flight path, or knowledge of the aircraft or pilot.
Far from being insensitive to the community's needs, official plans were already "well afoot" to get provisions in by army vehicle earlier than Dr Flegg's helicopter, he said.
Dr Flegg denied playing politics over the food drop, organised with another opposition MP.
But Mr Martin said he took a call from an ABC journalist 20 minutes after speaking to Dr Flegg, questioning why the drop had been refused.
"I gave an explanation to the journalist that we were well advanced with respect to our plans," he said.
"The journalist indicated to me that was different to what he had been told."
The inquiry resumes in Brisbane on Monday.
Source http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/sms-service-could-have-warned-lockyer/story-e6frf7jx-1226051331982
Monday, April 11, 2011
Greens win a victory for NSW
Jeremy Buckingham, the man who wrested a NSW upper house seat away from Pauline Hanson, says his win is an important victory for the Greens and the state.
Ms Hanson on Tuesday lost her bid for a seat after the distribution of preferences, more than two weeks after the election.
"Defeating Pauline Hanson was a particularly important task for the Greens," Mr Buckingham said, after the Greens and Nationals nabbed the last two seats up for grabs.
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"It is a great honour to be elected."
Mr Buckingham, an Orange City Councillor, said Ms Hanson's politics focused on dividing the community and "blaming the most vulnerable for the ills of society".
"The last thing we need is an attack on social cohesion," he said.
There will be six Greens MPs in the new parliament, five of whom will sit in the upper house.
Mr Buckingham was elected to the upper house along with sitting Greens MP David Shoebridge and Byron Shire Mayor Jan Barham.
Fellow Greens in the upper house, John Kaye and Cate Faehrmann, were not up for election.
The Greens' Jamie Parker won the lower house seat of Balmain from Labor.
Mr Kaye welcomed Mr Buckingham and Ms Barham to the parliamentary team.
"Despite Labor's failure to recommend upper house preferences for the Greens in at least 30 seats, we were able to see off Ms Hanson and the damage she would have done to NSW politics," he said in a statement.
"The Greens have increased their parliamentary numbers by 50 per cent."
Source http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/greens-win-a-victory-for-nsw-20110412-1dc2j.html
Ms Hanson on Tuesday lost her bid for a seat after the distribution of preferences, more than two weeks after the election.
"Defeating Pauline Hanson was a particularly important task for the Greens," Mr Buckingham said, after the Greens and Nationals nabbed the last two seats up for grabs.
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"It is a great honour to be elected."
Mr Buckingham, an Orange City Councillor, said Ms Hanson's politics focused on dividing the community and "blaming the most vulnerable for the ills of society".
"The last thing we need is an attack on social cohesion," he said.
There will be six Greens MPs in the new parliament, five of whom will sit in the upper house.
Mr Buckingham was elected to the upper house along with sitting Greens MP David Shoebridge and Byron Shire Mayor Jan Barham.
Fellow Greens in the upper house, John Kaye and Cate Faehrmann, were not up for election.
The Greens' Jamie Parker won the lower house seat of Balmain from Labor.
Mr Kaye welcomed Mr Buckingham and Ms Barham to the parliamentary team.
"Despite Labor's failure to recommend upper house preferences for the Greens in at least 30 seats, we were able to see off Ms Hanson and the damage she would have done to NSW politics," he said in a statement.
"The Greens have increased their parliamentary numbers by 50 per cent."
Source http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/greens-win-a-victory-for-nsw-20110412-1dc2j.html
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Man committed to stand trial for murder of Trinity Bates
A Bundaberg man has been committed to stand trial for the murder of eight-year-old Trinity Bates.
Allyn John Slater, 21, stood upright in the dock and quietly answered ‘‘No, your honour,’’ when Magistrate Jennifer Batts in the Bundaberg Magistrates Court asked if he wished to enter a plea.
The crown will allege Slater, a family friend of the Bundaberg schoolgirl, went to her home after days of drinking liquor and playing violent video games in February 2010.
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His fingerprints were found on a chair placed under a window of Trinity’s room, on the window pane and the sill.
Craig Simpson, a prisoner who spent a considerable amount of time with the accused man at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, told the court that Slater confessed to entering her bedroom, wrapping the girl in a blanket and carrying her to a nearby drain where he allegedly ‘‘squeezed’’ her.
Trinity was last seen by her parents at 9.30pm the night before.
Her body showed 87 bruises, evidence of choking and a blow to her head and indications she may have been dragged the 20 metres up an enclosed stormwater pipe leading from a large drain that was often used as a shortcut by locals in the southeast Queensland city.
In evidence on Wednesday, Detective Sergeant Joseph Hildred said Slater had confessed to police hours after Trinity’s body was found by a police dog in the pipe about 100 metres from her Bundaberg home.
There was no evidence of sexual assault.
‘‘He made full admissions in abducting and strangling the deceased,’’ Det Sgt Hildred said.
Det Sgt Hildred said when eight police arrived at Slater’s home where he lived with his parents, at 6.55am on February 22, the morning Trinity’s body was found, Slater appeared to be extremely nervous.
‘‘He appeared to be anxious, he appeared to have difficulty forming words,’’ the head of Bundaberg CIB said.
‘‘He was nervous about something.’’
He told the court Slater recovered his composure as the day went on.Justice of the Peace David Read, who acted as a support person for Slater at the time, said he twice denied killing the girl.
Mr Read said Slater seemed ‘‘unconcerned’’ and ‘‘totally relaxed’’ when he arrived at the house at 7.30am and during a private conversation denied killing Trinity.
‘‘[Slater] said he did not murder her, in a low voice,’’ Mr Read said.
Police found no DNA evidence linking Slater to the crime despite extended forensic analysis of Trinity’s room, his clothes and body, and of the deceased girl.
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathan Mill told the court that Trinity died of drowning in the drain where she was found face down about 6.15am on February 22, 2010, and not of choking or a blow to the head allegedly inflicted by Slater.
A trial date is yet to be fixed.
Outside the court Trinity’s uncle, Aaron Mattner, who sat through the three days of evidence, said the family had faith justice would be served.
He thanked the police involved in the case, SES volunteers who searched for clues and the dozens of members of the public who offered shreds of information.‘
‘Something like this never goes away,’’ Mr Mattner said. ‘‘She was a bright spark, a beautiful child with an aura about her.’’
Source http://www.smh.com.au/queensland/man-committed-to-stand-trial-for-murder-of-trinity-bates-20110330-1cfi4.html
Allyn John Slater, 21, stood upright in the dock and quietly answered ‘‘No, your honour,’’ when Magistrate Jennifer Batts in the Bundaberg Magistrates Court asked if he wished to enter a plea.
The crown will allege Slater, a family friend of the Bundaberg schoolgirl, went to her home after days of drinking liquor and playing violent video games in February 2010.
Advertisement: Story continues below
His fingerprints were found on a chair placed under a window of Trinity’s room, on the window pane and the sill.
Craig Simpson, a prisoner who spent a considerable amount of time with the accused man at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, told the court that Slater confessed to entering her bedroom, wrapping the girl in a blanket and carrying her to a nearby drain where he allegedly ‘‘squeezed’’ her.
Trinity was last seen by her parents at 9.30pm the night before.
Her body showed 87 bruises, evidence of choking and a blow to her head and indications she may have been dragged the 20 metres up an enclosed stormwater pipe leading from a large drain that was often used as a shortcut by locals in the southeast Queensland city.
In evidence on Wednesday, Detective Sergeant Joseph Hildred said Slater had confessed to police hours after Trinity’s body was found by a police dog in the pipe about 100 metres from her Bundaberg home.
There was no evidence of sexual assault.
‘‘He made full admissions in abducting and strangling the deceased,’’ Det Sgt Hildred said.
Det Sgt Hildred said when eight police arrived at Slater’s home where he lived with his parents, at 6.55am on February 22, the morning Trinity’s body was found, Slater appeared to be extremely nervous.
‘‘He appeared to be anxious, he appeared to have difficulty forming words,’’ the head of Bundaberg CIB said.
‘‘He was nervous about something.’’
He told the court Slater recovered his composure as the day went on.Justice of the Peace David Read, who acted as a support person for Slater at the time, said he twice denied killing the girl.
Mr Read said Slater seemed ‘‘unconcerned’’ and ‘‘totally relaxed’’ when he arrived at the house at 7.30am and during a private conversation denied killing Trinity.
‘‘[Slater] said he did not murder her, in a low voice,’’ Mr Read said.
Police found no DNA evidence linking Slater to the crime despite extended forensic analysis of Trinity’s room, his clothes and body, and of the deceased girl.
Forensic pathologist Dr Nathan Mill told the court that Trinity died of drowning in the drain where she was found face down about 6.15am on February 22, 2010, and not of choking or a blow to the head allegedly inflicted by Slater.
A trial date is yet to be fixed.
Outside the court Trinity’s uncle, Aaron Mattner, who sat through the three days of evidence, said the family had faith justice would be served.
He thanked the police involved in the case, SES volunteers who searched for clues and the dozens of members of the public who offered shreds of information.‘
‘Something like this never goes away,’’ Mr Mattner said. ‘‘She was a bright spark, a beautiful child with an aura about her.’’
Source http://www.smh.com.au/queensland/man-committed-to-stand-trial-for-murder-of-trinity-bates-20110330-1cfi4.html
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Australian firebrand Hanson attempts comeback
Australian anti-immigration firebrand Pauline Hanson confirmed Wednesday she is attempting a political comeback by standing in a state election this month.
In a surprise move, Hanson -- who once famously warned that Australia was at risk of being "swamped by Asians" -- is running for an upper house seat with a group of independents in the New South Wales poll on March 26.
The former One Nation party chief told Fairfax Radio Network that it was "in the people's interest of New South Wales to ensure that I am on the floor", though she conceded that it would be a "battle" to get elected.
Hanson drew international condemnation but briefly won domestic support in the 1990s with her anti-immigration and trade protection policies, before losing her seat in 1998.
She spent several weeks in jail in 2003 for fraudulently spending electoral funds before the judgment was overturned.
She insisted on Wednesday that she was "not racist".
"No one can ever comment or make a comment on any racist statement I have ever said," she told the radio show.
"I have... as an Australian... a right to question immigration and multiculturalism, which I don't believe is helping our country."
Hanson said she believed in "people coming here, assimilating, becoming Australians" and abiding by Australian laws. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that," she said.
The 56-year-old said Australia's major political parties feared her because "they know I've always spoken out, I expose them for what they are".
In 2007, she ran unsuccessfully for a national Senate seat, calling for an end to immigration by Muslims to protect "Australian culture".
Two years later, Hanson blamed her failure in the Queensland state election on the publication of raunchy photos purportedly taken by an ex-boyfriend. The pictures turned out to be of another woman.
Hanson announced in November that she had decided to stay in Australia, abandoning plans to move to Britain because "it's overrun with immigrants and refugees". She also said France was also inundated with foreigners.
The former fish and chip shop owner had earlier said she was emigrating to Britain due to disillusionment with Australia's immigration and trade policies.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Borders, Angus & Robertson parent Redgroup Retail in voluntary administration
REDGROUP Retail, the parent of Angus & Robertson and Borders, has collapsed amid a massive downturn in consumer discretionary spending. The parent of the two leading bookstore chains in Australia was today placed into voluntary administration by Pacific Equity Partners, the private equity fund that has owned the business since 2004.
Redgroup Retail employs about 2500 staff across 169 Angus & Robertson stores and 26 Borders stores in Australia, as well as the Whitcoulls bookstore chain in New Zealand, the Supanews newsagency chain and the seasonal Calendar Club calendar business.
The company's financial woes are unrelated to those of the US Borders chain, which this month filed for bankruptcy.
Redgroup warned last year it was close to breaching its banking covenants following a downturn in sales.
The Redgroup board has appointed corporate recovery specialists Ferrier Hodgson to handle the administration, which is expected to see a number of underperforming stores closed.
Ferrier partner Steve Sherman said the bookstore chains would continue operating as normal while the administrators conduct an urgent assessment of the company's financial status.
A first meeting of creditors is expected to be held in the first week of March.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Houses burnt down from air conditioners
Fire investigators have confirmed that half the houses destroyed by fire in the Perth Hills burnt down because of their air conditioning units.
Investigators from the Fire and Emergency Services Authority have spent the morning in Roleystone and Kelmscott trying to track the behaviour of the fire that razed 72 homes.
It is believed the blaze was sparked by an angle grinder on Sunday and spread quickly, fanned by a strong easterly.
FESA's Craig Hynes says many of the homes destroyed were not in the line of the fire and it is now evident they burnt down because of evaporative air conditioning units.
"The dry filters are really a wick for properties; embers get into them and they burn quickly through the roofs," he said.
Mr Hynes says FESA will be working with the evaporative air conditioning industry to improve safety.
He has also warned that weather conditions this weekend will be similar to last weekend's and it is highly likely a total fire ban will be enforced.
The Premier Colin Barnett says the State Government will examine local by laws in order to ensure people have a greater clearance between their homes and surrounding bushland.
"The two issues that we will look at is, first, prescribed burning in the area and local controls and by laws that have allowed people to have trees close to their residences which made it impossible for the emergency services to save those houses," he said.
Forgiven
Residents affected by the Roleystone Kelmscott bushfire say they do not harbour any resentment toward the off duty police officer accused of causing the blaze.
Police yesterday charged 56 year-old Sergeant Robert James Stevens with carrying out an activity in the open air that causes or is likely to cause a fire.
It is alleged the officer was using an angle grinder during a total fire ban and that a spark from the equipment started the blaze which claimed 72 homes.
Sergeant Stevens is on leave and was off duty at the time.
The Mayor of the City of Armadale Linton Reynolds, where the destroyed homes were located, says locals have forgiven the officer involved.
"He has been a valuable member of the community and he has made a terrible mistake," he said.
"But he has to go through the process, the police have to be seen to treat their own just the same as they would treat you or I."
Mr Reynolds says many of those affected by the fire sympathise with the officer.
"Particularly because his wife is in very poor health, so he has enough issues of his own at home and on top of that he has had this befall him for one silly stupid mistake he made."
The damage bill from the fire is expected to stretch into the tens of millions of dollars.
If convicted, Mr Stevens faces a maximum one year jail term or a fine up to $25,000, or both.
He is due to appear in court next month.
Source http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/10/3134956.htm
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Boy, 12, dies in Kiewa River holiday tragedy
A 12-year-old boy has drowned after his foot became snagged in a river in Victoria's northeast.
The boy, from the Geelong area, was floating down the Kiewa River at Mt Beauty in an inner-tube when police believe his foot was caught in a snag at about 3.30pm (AEDT).
Family and friends tried desperately to release the boy's foot, which caused him to be pulled underwater, but were unable to free him.
Rural Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said the boy was not breathing when he was pulled from the river.
He said an off-duty community ambulance officer tried to resuscitate him until paramedics arrived.
Leading Senior Constable Peter Dilley from Mt Beauty police said this was a tragic death.
"Our thoughts are with the boy's family as they deal with this tragic accident," Sgt Dilley said.
The Kiewa River is not flood-affected or swollen.
Police will prepare a report for the coroner.
On Monday, eight-year-old Lachlan Collins disappeared while swimming in a billabong at Kialla West, near Shepparton. His body was found the following day.
In a separate incident today, a 56-year-old man is in a serious condition after being pulled from the water at Anglesea, in Victoria's southest.
A Life Saving Victoria helicopter on routine patrol found the unconscious man west of Point Roadknight about 5.20pm (AEDT).
The helicopter crew and members of the public helped him to shore and the crew treated him at the scene, bringing him back to consciousness.
"He came very close to drowning at a beach just around the corner from a patrolled location,'' Life Saving Victoria spokesman Greg Scott said.
The man was flown by air ambulance to The Alfred Hospital.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Two more to be charged over Trevett murder
Businessman Adrian Trevett may have been killed, allegedly by his neighbours, over unfounded child sex allegations, NSW police say.
The 62-year-old went missing two months ago while on a cycling trip in the Gibraltar Range National Park, 45km west of Grafton.
He had been driven to Jackadgery on October 28 by a female friend and spent a night at a caravan park before riding to the summit of the Gibraltar Range.
Adrian Trevett ... went missing on a cycling trip.
The woman picked Mr Trevett up at Rangers Hut on the Gwydir Highway at Glen Innes on October 29, police allege.
Detectives travelled to Brisbane last week and arrested a 46-year-old woman who was extradited to NSW where she has been charged with his murder.
It's not known if it is the same woman who had driven him to the national park last year.
Three men, aged 25, 29 and 36, and two women, both aged 32, were arrested just after 6am (AEDT) on Wednesday.
Detective Sergeant Roger Best said the 25-year-old was the son of the woman who has already been charged with murder, and he is expected to be charged with the same offence.
The 29-year-old is also expected to be charged with murder while the two women are to be charged with accessory to murder.
Sgt Best said the mother and son were Mr Trevett's neighbours in Red Range.
When asked if allegations of child sex offences may have led to his killing, he replied: "We would suspect so."
"(The allegations) were investigated and police had serious doubts as to their validity," Sgt Best told AAP.
Police officers recovered a decomposed body in a ravine at Sandy Hill in the Girard State Forest, 30km east of Tenterfield, on Saturday.
The body is believed to be that of Mr Trevett but police are still awaiting the results of scientific analysis to make a formal identification.
Also on Saturday, the 46-year-old woman appeared before Armidale Local Court where she did not apply for bail.
She has been remanded in custody to reappear in the same court on January 10.
Source http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/two-more-to-be-charged-over-trevett-murder-20110105-19fyc.html
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Inquiry in doubt after NSW parly prorogued
Critics have vowed to push ahead with a parliamentary inquiry into NSW's $5.3 billion electricity sale despite government attempts to kill it off by shutting down parliament.
The future of the inquiry was thrown into doubt on Wednesday morning when Premier Kristina Keneally announced Governor Marie Bashir had prorogued parliament.
The shock move, which came two months earlier than expected, means the parliamentary session has now officially been brought to a close.
Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell immediately accused the government of trying to derail the upper house inquiry ahead of the state election in March.
But Christian Democratic Party MP Fred Nile and the Greens later obtained advice from the clerk of the upper house that the inquiry could go ahead.
Mr Nile, the chair of the upper house committee that will investigate the controversial sell-off, announced hearings would begin the week of January 17.
He said the parliamentary committee would meet as planned at 2pm (AEDT) on Thursday, to set the terms of reference.
"I think it was a bit like a poker game, a bluff, they thought by doing that, everybody said 'that's it, no committee inquiry'," he said.
"But I've made inquiries and advice from the clerks. There is nothing to stop the committee meeting."
While Labor MPs Greg Donnelly, Luke Foley and Kayee Griffin will attend Thursday's meeting, the government pointed to Crown Solicitor's advice that committees can't sit once parliament has been prorogued.
A spokeswoman for Ms Keneally would not say if the government will challenge the legality of the inquiry, which could see the dispute dragged through the courts.
Mr Nile said Treasurer Eric Roozendaal, who is in the US on government business, had called him on Tuesday to express his concerns the inquiry might jeopardise the second tranche of the sale.
The so-called gentrader rights of Macquarie Generation and Delta's NSW central coast power stations will be completed early in the new year.
The first tranche of the sale was controversially announced by media release just before midnight on Tuesday last week.
The resignation of eight board members from Eraring Energy and Delta Electricity, in a last-minute protest over the deal, further soured the sale.
Under the power sell-off TRUenergy has paid $2.035 billion for retailer EnergyAustralia and the right to trade the output generated by Delta West.
Origin Energy paid $3.25 billion for smaller retailers Integral Energy and Country Energy, together with the trading rights for Eraring Energy.
The opposition, Greens and business lobby have criticised the partial privatisation, saying the government hasn't realised the full value of the assets, and that the sale would lead to less competition.
Both Ms Keneally and Mr Roozendaal have defended the sell-off, saying the assets sold for "well above" their retention value.
They have also dismissed opposition calls for a judicial inquiry into the sale, but said they would welcome the scrutiny of the state's auditor-general.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Fake POW to spend time behind bars in Qld
An elderly man will spend Christmas behind bars for lying about being a prisoner of war in order to scam welfare payments.
Arthur "Rex" Crane, 84, posed as a World War II veteran for 22 years before his deceit was finally uncovered in 2009 by a military historian who thought his story didn't add up.
Before his fraud was exposed, however, the former president of the Ex-POW Association of Australia claimed $689,491 in commonwealth war pension and disability payments.
He was not entitled to $464,409 of that amount.
Crane pleaded guilty in the Brisbane District Court to defrauding the commonwealth and obtaining financial advantage by deception.
He was sentenced on Tuesday to four years' jail, but will be released on a good behaviour bond after just six months.
Judge Marshall Irwin also ordered Crane repay $413,869 which is still outstanding, but said his age meant it was unlikely the full amount would ever be recouped.
The court was told Crane started offending in 1988 as a way of maintaining a friendship he had developed with two ex-POWs.
The lie soon spiralled out of control, and the court was told Crane conducted extensive research to back up claims he had been involved in a volunteer guerilla force against the Japanese at the age of 15.
He said he had been captured and tortured by the Japanese and sent to work on the Thai-Burma Death Railway during WWII.
In reality, he had never served in the military.
Military historian Lynette Silver investigated Crane in 2009 after he delivered a speech at the POW War Memorial in Ballarat, Victoria.
Ms Silver had researched the "stay-behind" groups set up in Malaya and Singapore to operate behind Japanese lines and knew that Crane's claims could not be true.
"I'd done so much work that I knew the names of everybody and I knew he wasn't one of them," she told reporters outside the Brisbane District Court.
"I was absolutely shell-shocked to think that somebody could have risen to that level in the community and for 22 years milked the public purse on a totally and permanently incapacitated pension."
Di Elliott told reporters her father had never received a cent from the government despite being held as a prisoner.
"He died in 1975 of his war injuries, and it wasn't recognised as war injuries back in those days.
"My dad had been through it and got nothing and this man hadn't been anywhere near it and received all that money and accolades from all his POW mates - it was very difficult," Ms Elliott said of the court hearing.
Judge Irwin acknowledged Crane had done some meritorious work for the ex-POW community in Australia.
However, Crane's lies had shown "little respect" to those who had been injured while serving their country.
"Your conduct can only be regarded as an insult to those who fought, those who were captured, those who were tortured and those who died," Judge Irwin said.
In a written statement released by his lawyers, Crane said he was "deeply offended" by his own conduct.
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Monday, December 13, 2010
Morcombe 'person of interest' denies 'thrill kill'
A man, described as a "person of interest" in the disappearance of Daniel Morcombe at Woombye on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, has denied allegations he was involved in a "thrill kill". The man, dubbed P2, was testifying at the Brisbane inquest into the 13-year-old schoolboy's abduction in 2003.
Earlier the man denied any involvement, telling the Coroner he believed his own brother and another "person of interest" tried to implicate him to collect reward money.
P2 was asked why a former girlfriend would tell police he was involved in a thrill kill to which he replied "I'm not a murderer sir".
He said he did not know why she would make that claim.
The inquest continues.
Source http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/14/3093152.htm
Monday, December 6, 2010
NSW levees hold but more rain forecast
Nearly 4,000 people remain isolated in regional New South Wales tonight as flooding continues across the state. While the immediate flood threat has abated in some towns with river levels not reaching their expected peaks, residents are being told to brace for the worst as more heavy rain is on the way.
Some evacuated residents are even being warned they might not be allowed back into their homes until the end of the week.
The State Emergency Service (SES) says the Murrumbidgee River did not reach its expected 10-metre peak and the levee guarding the town of Wagga Wagga has held.
The same has happened in the north-west around Coonamble, where the Castlereagh River has remained steady at 5.2 metres, falling short of the predicted peak of 5.5 metres.
But SES spokesman Phil Campbell says the worst is yet to come in some areas, with the weather bureau predicting up to 100 millimetres of rain later in the week.
"Some of the river systems are receiving the worst flooding they've had in 20 years," he said.
"But if some of the projections come off for very heavy rain later this week, then we may have much more serious flooding, perhaps as much as a once-in-a-generation flood or one in 50 years.
"That really depends upon just [how] heavy this rain is and where that rain falls.
"So people should not think the worst is over yet. The worst may yet be to come and that's why it's very important to be well prepared."
While some residents evacuated from eastern Coonamble have been allowed to return home tonight, Wagga Mayor Wayne Geale says many of those who left their homes in North Wagga will not be able to return home just yet.
"I think those who have shifted out are probably having a sigh of relief at the moment, because it probably isn't going to go over the bank into their homes," he said.
"So it's really everything is on hold now to see what the next event brings."
Towns cut off
John Griffiths from the Coonamble council says the town's evacuation order has been lifted, but with heavy rain predicted later in the week, residents need to be on stand-by.
"We're expecting some fairly decent rain on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and I would suggest to you that there is a definite threat of the floodwaters returning," he said.
He says Coonamble remains cut-off by floodwaters.
"You can't get in or out of the town unless you use the airstrip, helicopter, that sort of thing," he said.
"We probably will be 24 hours before the highway even is opened and it will be some considerable time before the highway north of Coonamble to Walgett is opened."
More than 1,500 people spent last night in alternative accommodation because of the flooding.
SES commissioner Murray Kear says emergency authorities are keeping in close contact with those residents who have refused to leave their homes.
But he has reminded them of the risk and says they are wrong to think they can evacuate at the last minute.
The Bureau of Meteorology has also issued a major flood warning for Wee Waa, in the state's north-west.
The Namoi River is expected to reach 6.7 metres sometime tomorrow, causing major flooding along Blackgate Creek, Vera's Leap and Trindals Lane.
The SES says Wee Waa is likely to be isolated, with all roads in a 20-kilometre radius cut by floodwater.
Namoi region deputy controller Andrew Galvin says local crews remain on watch.
Disaster declaration
Today Premier Kristina Keneally visited Wagga today to inspect the damage.
She said she was declaring a natural disaster in Wagga Wagga, Parkes and four other shires, meaning 34 shires across the state are on the declared list.
"It's quite humbling to witness what nature can do to a town, to property and to people's livelihoods," she said.
"And particularly if we remember that there are now 34 shires right across this state that have been affected by floodwaters, by heavy rains, and when you consider the decade that we've just lived through, it's an extraordinary change of events and change of circumstances."
Many of the disaster areas had been in drought, but now residents are facing the worst flooding in decades.
Source http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/06/3086115.htm
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