The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines

Bali governor warns of possible attack

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 08:36:01 GMT

The US Embassy is warning of a possible terrorist attack on Indonesia's Bali island on New Year's Eve.

The embassy sent emails to US citizens on Thursday quoting Bali's governor as saying "There is an indication of an attack to Bali tonight."

The warning comes six months after twin suicide blasts killed seven people at luxury hotels in the capital, Jakarta.

The resort island of Bali has been hit hard by Islamic militants, with more than 220 people killed in suicide bombings in 2002 and 2005 targeting Westerners.

The governor called on people to be alert, but gave no details about a specific threat.

Indonesia's counterterrorism unit said it received the warning but could not independently verify its accuracy.

Girl, 6, missing from home

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:28:52 GMT

Police are looking for a young girl who has gone missing from her home in Sydney's west.

Kiesha Abrahams, six, was last seen at about 9.30pm (AEST) on Saturday, when her mother tucked her into bed at her Mount Druitt home.

At 10am (AEST) on Sunday she was reported missing.

It is not known whether she wandered off on her own, but police have been told the front door was found unlocked.

Police, police dogs and Polair are now searching the Mount Druitt area for the little girl.

She is described as being about 140cm tall, with a slim build, blonde hair and blue eyes.

She was last seen wearing pink pyjamas and a purple Pumpkin Patch jacket.

Anyone who has seen Kiesha, or who knows of her whereabouts, should phone Mount Druitt Police Station on 9675 0000 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

AAP

Chelsea Clinton weds

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 00:49:47 GMT

Chelsea Clinton has married her longtime boyfriend at an exclusive estate along New York's Hudson River.

Bill and Hillary Clinton announced in a statement that their daughter wed investment banker Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday night after weeks of secrecy and buildup that had celebrity watchers flocking to the small village of Rhinebeck for the evening nuptials.

"Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends," the Clintons said. "We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family. On behalf of the newlyweds, we want to give special thanks to the people of Rhinebeck for welcoming us and to everyone for their well-wishes on this special day."

More than 400 guests were expected at the historic estate. Details of the wedding were kept fanatically close to the vest, with shopkeepers, innkeepers, vendors and restaurateurs sworn to secrecy.

Officials restricted airspace over the estate, and the area will remain a no-fly zone until 03:30 am local time (17:30 AEST) on Sunday. Roads were also blocked off, and inconvenienced neighbours were soothed with a complimentary bottle of wine.

Some of the celebrities spotted in Rhinebeck for the event included actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, fashion designer Vera Wang and Madeleine Albright, who was secretary of state during Bill Clinton's second term as president.

The wedding took place at Astor Courts, a secluded estate along the Hudson River built as a Beaux Arts style playground for John Jacob Astor IV more than a century ago. The estate features the sort of commanding view that once inspired Hudson River School painters, as well as 20 hectares of buffer space to shield the party from prying eyes.

Chelsea Clinton and Mezvinsky were friends as teenagers in Washington, and both attended Stanford University. They now live in New York, where Mezvinsky works at G3 Capital, a Manhattan hedge fund. Mezvinsky worked previously at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker.

Clinton completed her master's degree in public health earlier this year at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Mezvinsky is a son of former US Reps Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania and Ed Mezvinsky of Iowa, longtime friends of the Clintons. His parents are divorced.

Rudd considers legal action on leak claim

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:48:03 GMT

Ousted prime minister Kevin Rudd is threatening to take legal action over claims he leaked damaging information about his own party - fed to him by the Liberals - while in opposition.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer told News Limited newspapers that as an ambitious Labor backbencher in opposition, Mr Rudd sought to undermine Labor's then foreign affairs spokesman, Laurie Brereton, by giving information to the media.

Mr Rudd, who eventually took over the shadow portfolio in 2001, wholly denied the claims.

''These are serious allegations ... they are completely and utterly false,'' a spokesman for Mr Rudd said.

''Mr Rudd is taking legal advice with a view to initiating legal proceedings on this matter.

''As there are potential legal proceedings, it is inappropriate to provide any further comment at this time.''

Mr Downer also issued a statement on the matter from overseas, saying his comments had been misinterpreted.

‘‘Kevin Rudd was not used by me or other members of the Liberal Party as a so-called ‘double agent’ to leak material against other members of the Labor Party,’’ he said.

‘‘Unfortunately, (the journalist) has created a more controversial story than my comments warranted.’’

Mr Rudd is currently recovering in the Mater Private Hospital in South Brisbane following keyhole surgery to remove his gall bladder.

- AAP

The players have spoken

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

EXCLUSIVE

THE players have spoken. Bring back Gus. And let him choose the NSW team.

Phil Gould has been endorsed to replace Craig Bellamy as the next Blues coach in The Sun-Herald's inaugural Players' Forum. In the only league poll where the players go on the record, Gould (31 out of 104 votes) beat former Cronulla mentor Ricky Stuart (21 votes) as the man the players believe can end Queensland's five-year Origin domination.

And the game's stars figure that if the coach cops the fall-out for the losses, then he should at least get the team he wants, with more than 50 per cent calling for him to also be sole selector. Parramatta co-captain Nathan Hindmarsh summed up the dissatisfaction with the job done by the four-man panel when he quipped: ''[The coach would] do a better job than the selectors.''

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WHAT THE PLAYERS SAY

1. Who is the best player in the comp?

2. The team that will win the comp

3. Who is the best coach in the comp?

4. The hardest player

5. The fastest player

6. The most underrated player

7. The best young player

8. Are we underpaid, fairly paid or overpaid?

9. Who is the funniest sledger?

10.Our least favourite part of the game?

11. The favourite (non-league) sport?

12. The next NSW coach should be ...

13. Should the NSW coach pick the team?

14. Who should be the NSW captain and the Blues’ No.6?

15. The player most likely to become a coach

-------------------------------------------------------------------

It's one of many intriguing findings from an exclusive survey of 104 NRL players. Benji Marshall, Todd Carney, Sam Burgess, Michael Jennings, Greg Bird, Jamal Idris, Preston Campbell, Jamie Lyon, Josh Dugan and Hindmarsh are among the stars who have taken part, with fans able to check out their answers on pages 62-66 or at www.smh.com.au.

Jarryd Hayne has officially been handed the mantle of the game's best player by his peers, shading bitter rival Billy Slater for the honour. The Hayne Plane pipped the Melbourne fullback by just two votes, the pair well ahead of Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston.

While Hayne is considered the game's best, Penrith's evergreen captain Petero Civoniceva is rated toughest. The prop earned more than a third of the votes in the category, well ahead of Paul Gallen and Sam Thaiday. Interestingly, Nate Myles earned the vote of English sensation Burgess.

There was a consensus that Canberra fullback Dugan was the best new talent (33 votes), while the results of the most underrated (Panthers hooker Kevin Kingston) and the fastest (Titans winger Kevin Gordon) were less clear-cut.

While a review into the NSW Origin program is months away, the players have provided their own feedback on how to halt the Maroons juggernaut. And they believe that Carney is the man to fill the problematic No.6 jersey. The reborn Rooster has been a revelation since Brian Smith shifted him into the halves, with 26 of the respondents backing him to be the Blues pivot ahead of John Sutton (14 votes) and Terry Campese (12 votes). And despite being benched in this year's series, Newcastle utility Kurt Gidley has been backed to regain the captaincy.

St George Illawarra, who went out the back door in last year's finals after being minor premiers, have been lumped with the ''chokers'' tag for failing to produce when it counts. However, the majority of players (43 votes) believe the joint-venture club is the one most likely to do a victory lap in October. The reputation of their coach, six-time premiership winner Wayne Bennett, was further enhanced when he garnered 59 votes to claim the mantle of the NRL's best clipboard-holder.

The defections of Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau to AFL have created shockwaves throughout the NRL. But when quizzed about their favourite sport outside of league, more respondents chose table tennis and darts than Australian football.

Wests Tigers forward Liam Fulton summed up the attitude to AFL when he answered: ''Probably cricket … anything but AFL.''

The best lines, however, are usually delivered by Brett Finch. The Wigan-bound playmaker was a landslide winner in the funniest sledger category. Should Brett Kimmorley opt to hang up the boots at the end of the season, there seems a ready-made career path for him after 36 respondents backed him to make the transition into coaching.

additional reporting Steve Kilgallon and Aaron Lawton

More mental scars for an inept outfit

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

Give the All Blacks the Tri Nations trophy, right now. It is all over. The next month or so is just sheer theatrics.

And while we're at it, why not call off the Christchurch and Sydney Bledisloe Cup Test matches!

It's high time the Australian Rugby Union did long-suffering Wallabies fans a favour, because they have been subjected too long to unnecessary agony, dejection and disbelief as one Australian line-up after another has been put through the sausage machine, and turned into little boys by the All Black master butchers.

It's eight Tri Nations defeats in a row - and drawing close to the worst sequence ever when Australia lost nine in a row to New Zealand between 1936-47.

This is a debacle, even prompting All Blacks coach Graham Henry to say if he was in a situation of eight straight losses he would feel ''sad''.

Despite the Wallabies showing good resolve after Drew Mitchell became the latest Australian player to completely lose his mind, it doesn't hide the fact that the home side are vastly inferior to the clinical brand from over the ditch. The All Blacks are just toying with them, and the next two Bledisloe Cup matches are unlikely to change that. It will just add more scars to an already battered Wallaby carcass.

Sure, those Wallaby sympathisers will go on about this team being in a rebuilding phase, and deserve sympathy. But there is only so much slack you can give them, because these highly paid footballers don't know how to put on an 80-minute performance.

Too often, someone, somewhere will let the rest down. Mitchell wasn't the only one in that category last night, with several players guilty of dreadful tackles at crucial times.

And you must wonder about the team's actual structure and belief, because the squad seems to be learning little about how to actually threaten for the Bledisloe Cup. They continue to falter under pressure, waste opportunities, have absolutely no idea how to play well two weeks in a row, and believe the task has been done well before it has been completed - as shown by the silly antics when Mitchell scored the first try only to look damned stupid when he was red-carded 40-odd minutes later.

They don't even know how to win a kick-off. Elementary stuff.

The Wallabies keep saying that the All Blacks do not have a psychological edge over them. Rubbish. As far as the Wallabies are concerned, the All Blacks are now the big, black bogey men.

And full credit to the All Blacks as well. They play as a team. They attack as a group. They are there in numbers. And they don't make mistakes. Unlike the Wallabies, who only know how to scramble, Richie McCaw, Daniel Carter, Mils Muliaina, Ma'a Nonu, Kieran Read and Brad Thorn know how to control the moment.

As for the Wallabies …

''We gave them [the All Blacks] a lot of assistance,'' Australia coach Robbie Deans said last night.

What's new?

Record crowd at Splendour

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

IT'S OUR most expensive music festival but that hasn't put off a record 32,000 punters flocking this weekend to the new home of Splendour in the Grass in Woodford, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

Festival tickets alone bought in an estimated $13 million, according to Sun-Herald calculations, with camping tickets costing $461 and day tickets costing $360 before the prices of drinks, food or merchandise are bought into the mix.

''We know it's not the cheapest festival but we have a much bigger line-up and nearly double the audience members than last year,'' Splendour organiser Paul Piticco said yesterday.

The brand Splendour in the Grass Pty Ltd is owned by Jessica Ducrou and Mr Piticco, her business partner, who also manages ARIA-winning band Powderfinger. Business records show that Powderfinger - who are retiring as a group - own just under a quarter of the Splendour company. The band are not scheduled to play but could make a surprise appearance.

Powderfinger's farewell tour is set to run for 34 concerts in September - most of which have sold out. Yesterday 250,000 tickets had been sold at, an average of about $100. The tour could gross more than $25 million.

The ticket price for this weekend's Splendour overshadows that of other international music festivals. England's famous three-day Glastonbury festival sets punters back £195 ($338), California's Coachella festival $US324 ($358), the four-day Danish festival Roskilde comes in at 1675 kroner ($324) and Reading in England cost £192.20 ($333). It is only Fuji Rock, the three-day music festival held in Niigata, Japan, this weekend that beat the ticket price - with festival enthusiasts paying ¥42,800 ($547) for the privilege of seeing headliners Muse and Them Crooked Vultures.

Despite Splendour's prices, punters were enjoying the cloudless 28 degree weather yesterday, with headline acts the Strokes and Florence and the Machine due to play last night.

Delayed traffic on Thursday and a lack of water bubblers were the main gripes for festival-goers, with thousands of cars banked up for five to six hours waiting to get into the festival.

''Except for the traffic hold-up on the first day, it's really holding up excellently,'' Mr Piticco said. ''The feedback has been unbelievable from both workers and patrons.''

Tonight, the final night, has acts such as England's Mumford and Sons and US alternative rock band Pixies. Mr Piticco said they hoped the festival would be returning to its Byron Bay origins, on the new site at nearby Yelgun, in 2012.

Models fly home for Miranda

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

WITH Miranda Kerr a no-show for David Jones's spring-summer fashion parade, other expatriate models have flown to Sydney to inject some glamour.

New York-based Abbey Lee Kershaw arrived in Sydney early yesterday morning to prepare for the unveiling of the retailer's collections on Tuesday night.

She will join fellow high-profile catwalkers Catherine McNeil and Alexandra Agoston, who jetted in from London and New York respectively on Friday. The trio will accompany fellow Australian model Nicole Trunfio on the runway as guest ambassadors for DJs.

The four models were invited to replace Kerr, who pulled out of her commitment to the launch after her surprise wedding with British actor Orlando Bloom.

David Jones released the 27-year-old from her duties so she and Bloom could enjoy a Caribbean honeymoon. But she was back at work last week, modelling for Spanish Vogue at a photo shoot in Los Angeles.

Her publicist, Carlii Lyon, said: ''Miranda is still enjoying time off,'' she said. ''The shoot in LA was not cancelled because it took place close to her LA home and did not interfere with her own personal travel arrangements. This does not compare to travelling to Australia for two weeks.''

The sudden nuptials and cancellation of her Australian runway obligations have fuelled rumours the Victoria's Secret model is pregnant. Her Spanish Vogue shoot did nothing to quell speculation, with her stomach obscured by a thick coat in the photos.

While Kerr has maintained silence about the baby rumours, her fellow models were eager to share their excitement about returning home for David Jones.

''It was last-minute but I'm always happy and honoured when they ask me to come out here,'' Brisbane-born McNeil said. ''I'll head back [overseas] on Wednesday afternoon so it's just a quick trip but I'll try to catch up with friends.''

The 21-year-old did not reveal if one of those friends would be her former flame, TV host Ruby Rose: ''I'm not going to answer that.''

Parties bet they will lose

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

EXCLUSIVE

SENIOR Labor figures have placed significant bets on the outcome of the federal election, with some punting against their own party. A major betting agency said bets had been placed on members of the opposing team to win marginal seats in NSW and Queensland.

Centrebet primary analyst Neil Evans said: ''I can't tell you who but I can tell you this: these are people very high up betting on some of the critical seats and I can tell you they don't always stay faithful to their party - they swap sides.

''They are well-known Labor figures and associates that are punting on these seats. A lot of Labor-connected money has been backing a Coalition win in marginal seats and, to a lesser extent, the Coalition has been doing the reverse.''

The Sun-Herald understands the figures include parliamentary staffers, advisers and senior party officials.

Independent senator and anti-gambling campaigner Nick Xenophon said: ''In the same way in the AFL officials and players can't bet on the other team, the same rules should apply for election betting. We have those rules in place so matches aren't thrown and, when it comes to a democracy, the stakes are much higher and therefore the standards should be accordingly higher.''

Today the senator will call for all politicians, party officials and advisers to be banned from election betting.

The revelations follow a 24-hour betting frenzy in which the Coalition's odds tightened from $3.32 to $2.64 and the ALP eased from $1.32 to $1.46.

A Herald/Nielsen poll published yesterday showed the Coalition - buoyed by damaging leaks against the Government - has an election-winning lead with a two-party preferred vote of 52 to 48 per cent.

With the ALP at its longest price in the betting markets since Prime Minister Julia Gillard deposed Kevin Rudd, bets of $10,000 at $3.25, $7800 at $3.10, $5000 at $2.90 plus scores of other small bets were recorded for a Tony Abbott victory.

Election betting is on track to reach record levels across the country. More than $1 million in head-to-head bets have been placed with Centrebet alone.

An ALP campaign spokesman would not directly address the allegations of insider betting but said it was a personal choice if party members had engaged in such conduct.

''Those are personal choices for individuals to make,'' he said.

''This will be a close election. As the Prime Minister has said, we are in the fight of our lives.''

A Liberal spokeswoman said the party had no knowledge of such betting on electoral seats.

Senator Xenophon is demanding an independent inquiry into political punting and will expand the terms of reference of a Senate inquiry into sporting and online gambling to include tougher regulations on election betting: ''To say it is a personal choice is an insult to the electorate.''

Mr Evans said election betting was the biggest growth area of his industry: ''The bets that we get in a federal election are bigger than the bets we get in all of the state elections put together. They're not mugs betting. When there are people putting money like that on an election outcome, they are people who are inside the game.''

Sportingbet operations manager Bill Richmond confirmed the practice of high-ranking party officials and even politicians taking a punt.

''Not that I've heard of it this year, although it has happened before,'' he said. ''They may be with other betting agencies but they're not with us.''

Queensland-based Unitab has opened election betting for the first time and spokesman Brad Tamer said the decision was made due to demand from punters.

Betting agencies suspended bets on the date of the election early last month after mounting speculation it would be called.

Gillard fires up over parental leave

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

AN ABBOTT government would be unable to begin a paid parental leave scheme on January 1 as promised because of its decision to axe more than $20 million set aside to implement the plan, Julia Gillard has claimed.

In an escalating war over families, Ms Gillard told The Sunday Age the decision to slash the spending showed Tony Abbott had no commitment to paid parental leave.

''People could have a whole family before his paid parental leave scheme comes into effect,'' Ms Gillard said.

Mr Abbott has promised a six-month-leave scheme paid at the mother's full wage, but capped at $75,000 and funded by a 1.7 per cent levy on big business. But he has yet to reveal details, including when his scheme would start.

If elected, the Coalition has promised to implement Labor's scheme to start in January, which provides 18 weeks' pay at the minimum wage, currently about $570 a week, until its own scheme begins at an unspecified date.

Policy costings submitted by the Coalition to the Department of Finance late on Friday show it is claiming $20.5 million worth of savings by dumping implementation costs.

This would mainly be cash for Centrelink, the Social Security Appeals Tribunal and the Fair Work Ombudsman to implement the scheme.

Ms Gillard said her ''clear advice is you cannot start paid parental leave on the first of January next year without spending this money''.

''The reality is he's not committed at all to paid parental leave, can't say when his scheme is going to start and would stop Labor's scheme from starting by taking out this money,'' Ms Gillard told The Sunday Age.

''People could have a whole family before his paid parental leave scheme comes into effect and it is financed by putting up prices at Coles and Woolies through the increased company tax.''

Shadow finance minister Andrew Robb said the Coalition had submitted the savings because it would be factoring implementation costs into its own, as yet unannounced scheme.

Mr Robb said the Coalition scheme involved a two-step implementation process, with the government scheme beginning on January 1 before a shift to Mr Abbott's more generous proposal.

''We will be incorporating implementation costs into the costings for our own scheme,'' he said.

Black Saturday chiefs blasted

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

THE two people in charge of Victoria's emergency response teams went missing on the day of the Black Saturday bushfires, the royal commission into the tragedy has found.

Former Country Fire Authority chief Russell Rees used a ''disturbing'' leadership style and the then Victoria Police chief commissioner Christine Nixon adopted an ''inadequate'' hands-off approach, the report says.

And the commissioners have for the first time estimated the cost of the disaster at $4.4 billion, with $645 million of that figure attributed to the loss of 173 lives.

The report has also urged an overhaul of the state's emergency response roles to ensure reactions to such events are more coherent in future.

Led by their chairman, Bernard Teague, the commissioners wrote that Ms Nixon, a former NSW Police assistant commissioner, did not do enough to keep up to date with developments on February 7, last year.

''Ms Nixon herself acknowledged that leaving the integrated emergency co-ordination centre and going home at about 6pm on 7 February was an error of judgment. The commission shares this view,'' the report says.

The commissioners wrote that the chief commissioner's ''hands-off approach'' was inadequate.

''Ms Nixon considered that her leadership functions were discharged by establishing a competent team and being available if needed,'' the report says.

''But on a day when conditions were predicted and then proved to be worse than Ash Wednesday, something more was required.''

The commission was equally critical of Mr Rees. During his three appearances before the commissioners, Mr Rees said he risked ''losing focus'' if he had called his staff at the helm of the busy centres. ''He, therefore, remained operationally removed from the fires and as a result, was not in a position to appreciate the deficiencies in the staffing and expertise of some incident management teams,'' the report says.

But Mr Rees shares the blame for failing to act with the other emergency services leaders in charge that day. All leaders had a tendency to delegate their responsibilities to subordinates, which the report called ''ineffective''.

''The commission observed a disturbing tendency among senior fire agency personnel - including the chief officers - to consistently allocate responsibility further down the chain of command.''

One of the major recommendations is an overhaul of senior emergency management roles.

It advocates a new position of fire commissioner. The role would replace the Country Fire Association chief fire officer as the senior firefighter in the state and would take control of all level-three fires.

Appointment of such a commissioner, who would answer to the minister for police and emergency services, addresses the serious flaws in management structures across the agencies in February last year.

''On Black Saturday the roles of the most senior personnel were not clear, and there was no single agency or individual in charge of the emergency,'' the report states.

But the current system of having the emergency services minister ultimately in charge during major bushfires should be dropped.

Instead, the report recommends that the state's police chief hold the title of ''co-ordinator in chief of emergency management''.

People living in fire-risk areas should be able to sell their property to the state under a ''retreat and resettlement'' strategy, while fuel reduction burns must be doubled, the commissioners recommend.

Mr Teague and commissioners Ron McLeod and Susan Pascoe also called for warning systems to be enhanced, shelters to be established and communications between the Country Fire Authority and Department of Sustainability and Environment be improved.

The stay-or-go policy was considered to be among the most contentious issues to be raised in the final report, but there was no recommendation to totally scrap it, as anticipated.

''As a result of its inquires the commission concludes that the central tenets of the stay-and-go policy remain sound,'' the report said.

''The February 7 fires did, however, severely test the policy and expose weaknesses in the way it was applied.

''Leaving early is still the safest option. Staying to defend a well-prepared, defendable home is also a sound choice in less severe fires but there needs to be greater emphasis on important qualifications.''

''Although the commission suggests retaining the effective elements of the existing policy it also recommends augmenting and improving the policy in a number of areas.''

The commissioners were critical of the state government for not implementing viable alternatives to the stay-or-go policy since their interim recommendations last August.

They said community refuges, bushfire shelters and evacuation should be included in a revised bushfire safety policy for the state.

The report found ageing electricity infrastructure contributed to three Black Saturday fires.

Trendy or just a little nuts?

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:17:01 GMT

THEY are touted as the next big thing in niche pets – hand-reared squirrels being sold in Sydney pet shops for more than $1200.

They are also regarded by the federal government as an "extreme threat" to Australia.

"That's just someone behind a desk, mate," said Chris Hibbard, who runs a squirrel-breeding farm in western Sydney. "There's never been any study done that says they will become a pest. That's just the government saying scientifically they're related to a rat and we have rat and mice problems. I cannot see how any animal who produces one or three animals in a nest could become a problem."

Squirrels may be kept as pets in NSW as long as they are desexed and microchipped.

There are eight licensed squirrel breeders in NSW. But Mr Hibbard said he was the only one breeding the northern palm squirrel for sale in pet shops, where they first appeared three months ago. "I think they will be a very popular pet in the inner city, because of housing," he said.

Mr Hibbard would not reveal how many squirrels he had on his farm at Berkshire Park but said the breeding numbers had doubled in the last season.

Five shops are selling the animals in Sydney.

"People are interested in them but they are very expensive," Pets on Broadway assistant manager Katherine Weeks said of the two squirrels her shop has for sale. "They've the temperament of rats. You need a harness on them. They do run [at] 15 km/h."

Invasive Species Council policy officer Carol Booth said the dangers posed by a feral squirrel population were not worth the benefits of keeping them as pets.

"The risk has already been rated as extreme by an expert committee," Dr Booth said. "It's crazy to allow that risk. How can I put that more strongly?"

Squirrels are defined as a species of "high pest potential" by the Non-Indigenous Animals Act. The government's National Vertebrate Pests Committee lists northern palm squirrels as an "extreme threat".

Hard-working nation losing its balance

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:16:55 GMT

AUSTRALIANS are increasingly dissatisfied by their employment conditions, with many risking their health through long working hours.

More than 20 per cent of Australian workers spend 50 hours or more a week at work and 60 per cent do not take regular holidays. A typical full-time worker performs more than 70 minutes of unpaid overtime a day and Australians have stockpiled more than $33.3 billion in leave, the equivalent to 123 million days.

A survey of 10,000 people to be released this week reveals Australians are becoming increasingly unhappy with their work-life balance.

The Australian Work Life Index, having tracked work-life balance for four years, found a growing number of workers believed extra hours spent at work were interfering with daily life.

Women and those who worked long hours showed the poorest outcomes in the study, conducted by the University of South Australia.

The study found two-thirds of women working full time and half of all the men said they were frequently rushed and pressed for time. Seven out of 10 working mothers reported almost always feeling rushed and under pressure.

A separate study by the University of Queensland found men and women experienced time squeeze differently. Men felt time pressure at work but not at home, unless they had young children. But women felt pressure at work and home, as they still did twice as much housework as men.

Barbara Pocock, director of the Centre for Work + Life at the University of South Australia, said poor work-life balance had serious health implications.

"People who are stressed go to the doctor more than others, they use prescription medicine more than others, and workers who work longer hours are more likely to suffer from depression and cardiovascular illness," Professor Pocock said.

"Those long hours which one in four full-time workers are doing have a hidden health cost. All of us bear the burden of that."

Active Management director Justin Tamsett, who advises businesses on how to create better work-life balance for their employees, said time pressures were contributing to rising obesity rates in Australia.

"The problem is when we work a lot we don't eat right – we stick anything in our mouths to keep our energy levels up," he said.

"I think lack of work-life balance is contributing to the obesity epidemic in our country. People get home late, they don't cook nutritious meals, they buy takeaway because it's easy and all of a sudden the whole family is becoming obese."

Poor work-life balance also led to friction within families and more divorces, he said. "It's not just physical health issues. There are emotional issues. You lose the relationship with your spouse, with your kids. The kids are like, 'Well, who are you?'

"I don't think Julia Gillard or Kevin Rudd set great examples for us because they are both workaholics – from a leadership perspective it doesn't send a good message."

Fabe Keily, chief executive of advisory service What Working Women Want, said the number of employed women had increased over 20 years but many found it impossible to juggle demands. "It's getting worse and worse for working women," she said. "Women are great at looking after other people but not very good at looking after themselves. Their health and relationships suffer, and ultimately their family and their work suffer if they don't take time out."

Professor Pocock said long hours did not equate to getting more done. She said high work intensity was associated with higher absenteeism and lower productivity.

"Emerging research in Australia and internationally shows that people who don't take a holiday or work long hours certainly see themselves as less productive," she said. "They are much more likely to be absent. When we do measure the effects and look at productivity, absenteeism and turnover, they're all highly correlated with stressed workers."

Australian Federation of Employers and Industries chief executive Garry Brack said many workers were happy to put in long hours, given the right motivation: "In a market where labour is in short supply, it makes sense for employers to give employees incentives to keep them happy, otherwise they will go elsewhere."

The index study found a third of employees would like to cut work time by 12.5 hours a week, and most would prefer an extra two weeks' holiday over a pay rise but felt employers were not open that.

Man, woman stabbed at Rocks hotel

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:31:18 GMT

A young couple were stabbed after an argument with a man inside a hotel at The Rocks in Sydney early today.

The victims, a 24-year-old woman and 22-year-old man, were injured about 1.30am when the offender turned violent during the verbal altercation.

He started attacking the man, who was stabbed in the shoulder.

The woman was injured on the ankle when she tried to intervene.

The pair ran from the George Street hotel and went to hospital for treatment, while the assailant was ejected by security officers.

Detectives are searching for him.

He's been described as aged in his mid-20s, about 170 centimetres tall with a medium build and straight black hair cut in a mullet style.

Anyone with information is urged to phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

AAP

Rudd's recovery going well: Rein

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:54:35 GMT

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd's wife Therese Rein says he is recovering well from keyhole surgery to remove his gall bladder.

Ms Rein told reporters outside the Mater Private Hospital in South Brisbane that Mr Rudd would follow the doctor's advice about when he's allowed out of hospital.

''We haven't been advised by the doctor yet,'' she said.

''He'll be following clinical medical advice about firstly when he's allowed out of hospital, and secondly when he's allowed to resume normal activities.''

Ms Rein said her husband had acute abdominal pain on Thursday morning, before going to see a doctor for tests on Thursday afternoon.

''Then late (Friday) afternoon the doctor advised that it was really important for him to have his gall bladder removed,'' she said.

''Which is not a huge operation, but it's not a tiny operation.

''He's recovering well and I am encouraging him to take the time that is clinically advised to recover. I am hopeful that he will be doing that.''

Ms Rein thanked Mater Private Hospital staff here for their ''exemplary professionalism and kindness''.

''I want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and for the flowers that have arrived from all over the country,'' she said.''He will be up on his feet within the next couple of weeks.''

The two political leaders wished Mr Rudd a speedy recovery.

''I have sent Kevin a message of good will,'' Prime Minister Julia Gillard told reporters while campaigning in Perth.

''I hope he is recovering well.''

Opposition leader Tony Abbott also wished him a ''swift recovery''.

''While I had many many arguments with Kevin Rudd. I think he deserves to be treated with respect, particularly at this time,'' he said.

- AAP

Black Saturday report tabled

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:41:37 GMT

Victoria’s contentious "stay or go" policy would be overhauled and a new independent Fire Commissioner appointed to oversee the state’s firefighting operations, under recommendations made by the Bushfires Royal Commission in its final report handed down today.

Senior figures in the emergency services, including then police commissioner Christine Nixon and Country Fire Authority chief officer Russell Rees, also came under attack in the report for catastrophic failures in the emergency nerve centre on the day of the country’s worst ever bushfire disaster, Black Saturday.

The fires in February last year killed 173 people and destroyed thousands of homes, prompting the most comprehensive investigation of a natural disaster in the country’s history.

After 154 days of evidence from more than 400 witnesses during the commission, the final report tabled Parliament today found that:

- Victoria should revise its bushfire safety policy to enhance the role of warnings
- the amount of fuel-reduction burning done on public land each year should be more than doubled
- bushfire shelters and community shelters should be established in the state’s high-risk areas
- electricity legislation be amended so that power lines in Victoria be replaced with aerial bundled cabling and underground cabling to reduce the bushfire risk
- co-ordination and communication between the Country Fire Authority and the Department of Sustainability and Environment be drastically improved.

One of the reports most far-reaching recommendations is a shake-up of the so-called ’’stay and defend or leave early’’ policy, which has been a mainstay of fire management across the country.

Lawyers assisting the commission had called for the policy to be abandoned, however today’s final report recommended a hybrid model embracing a range of options including evacuation of high-risk areas on code-red days.

The report states that, while the central tenets of the stay-or-go policy remain sound, it was severely tested and Black Saturday exposed weaknesses in its application.

The policy was too "simplistic" and "realistic advice is unavoidably more complex’’, the report states.

"As a consequence, although the Commission suggests retaining the effective elements of the existing policy it also recommends augmenting and improving the policy in a number of areas," the report says.

This includes strengthening warnings and their dissemination, providing community refuges and bushfire shelters and evacuation - including assisting the evacuation of vulnerable people.

The report also recommends Victoria enact legislation to "appoint a fire commissioner as an independent statutory officer’’ responsible to the Police Minister.

The fire commissioner would replace the CFA chief fire officer as the senior firefighter in the state.

Commission chairman Bernie Teague and commissioners Ron McLeod and Susan Pascoe criticised Ms Nixon, after it was revealed she left the command centre and went out to dinner during the worst hours of the Black Saturday bushfires.

It also criticised Mr Rees and the Department of Sustainability and Environment’s chief fire officer Ewan Waller.

"The Commission concludes that some elements of the leadership provided on February 7 were wanting," the report states.

"Mr Rees and Mr Waller ought to have done more in relation to warnings ...supporting incident management teams and statewide planning," the report states.

"The Commission considers that Ms Nixon’s approach to emergency coordination was inadequate."

Mr Rees Ms Nixon later chaired Victoria’s Bushfire Recovery and Reconstruction Authority, a post from which she resigned earlier this month.

Mr Rees quit his position in April, and at the time denying it was over the criticism of his performance.
He said at the time "we will wait for the commission to pass judgment" on the role of emergency management on Black Saturday.

The Commission heard that power lines were to blame for five of the biggest blazes on February 7 last year, including the fire that started in Kilmore East and eventually killed more than 100 people.

The commission recommends progressively replacing single wires with safer bundled cables or underground lines - a process electricity companies have warned would cost billions of dollars and could increase household bills by as much as 20 per cent a year for 20 years.

Regions in the most extreme risk of bushfires having all their powerlines replaced within 10 years.

Communication between the CFA and DSE came under criticism, with the commissioners urging the agencies to improve their systems and technology to attain greater efficiency.

It was a matter of priority that the CFA improve its radio coverage, particularly black spots, the report said.
More than double the amount of public land currently burned to reduce fuel loads should be cleared every year, the report says.

Currently, Victoria has an annual target of 130,000 hectares of fuel reduction burning, but the report wants that boosted to more than 385,000, or up to five per cent of public land from around the current 1.7 per cent.

The multi-volume final report of the three royal commissioners - and the government’s response to it - will be a key battleground in November’s state election, with Liberal leader Ted Baillieu accusing Mr Brumby of not doing enough to protect people from bushfires and Labor accusing Mr Baillieu of playing politics with Victoria’s worst natural disaster.

Speaking before the report was tabled in Parliament today, Premier John Brumby said it was a "traumatic day" for all the survivors of the Black Saturday disaster and that all Australians should give them their support.

He said he announced the Commission so that no stone would be left unturned and to ensure such an event would never happen again.

Mr Brumby said he did not want to prejudge the report’s contents.

He said the state opposition had promised to adopt all the final report’s findings but he did not think that was a responsible thing for the government to do.

Mr Brumby said the government might adopt some of the recommendations, might not adopt others, or adopt some of the recommendations in part.

He said it would be the ‘‘height of disrespect’’ not to give the community an opportunity to respond to the recommendations, before the government formed its response.

Mr Brumby said he had received many personal messages in the past week from community members in bushfire-affected areas who expressed their wish to put their point of view to the government.He said the CFA, SES and community recovery committee had echoed the same sentiments.

‘‘I know that people will say make sure you act quickly and decisively and I will,’’ he said.

Murder probe after Sydney hotel death

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:04:11 GMT

Specialist detectives from NSW's elite State Crime Command are investigating the death of a man whose body has been found in a hotel room near Kings Cross.

Police were called to the hotel in Potts Point about 9.40am today after reports a man had been bashed.

They found a man dead inside one of the rooms.

A 28-year-old woman linked to the incident was taken to hospital for treatment and remains there under police guard.

A police statement said she was helping with inquiries.

"Detectives including officers from the State Crime Command's homicide squad are investigating the man's death and investigations are continuing," the statement added.

"The deceased man is yet to be formally identified and a post-mortem examination will be conducted in the coming days to establish the cause of his death."

The State Crime Command comprises detectives from specialist organised crime, gang and drug squads as well as a number of other serious crime squads.

AAP

Sydney hotel death

Sat, 31 Jul 2010 03:04:11 GMT

Specialist detectives from NSW's elite State Crime Command are investigating the death of a man whose body has been found in a hotel room near Kings Cross.

Police were called to the hotel in Potts Point about 9.40am today after reports a man had been bashed.

They found a man dead inside one of the rooms.

A 28-year-old woman linked to the incident was taken to hospital for treatment and remains there under police guard.

A police statement said she was helping with inquiries.

"Detectives including officers from the State Crime Command's homicide squad are investigating the man's death and investigations are continuing," the statement added.

"The deceased man is yet to be formally identified and a post-mortem examination will be conducted in the coming days to establish the cause of his death."

The State Crime Command comprises detectives from specialist organised crime, gang and drug squads as well as a number of other serious crime squads.

AAP

Dungowan row continues

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

Plans for an oceanfront property at Manly have produced a tale of the high life, fraud and lawsuits, writes Joel Gibson.

IT IS one of the gleaming jewels of the Manly beachfront, but behind the restored 1920s facade of Dungowan, owners and their associates have been tearing one another limb from legal limb over the building's $20 million facelift and a million-dollar embezzlement.

One, a Melbourne silk who married into the family of Robert Menzies, is accused of not disclosing his majority shareholding in the building to other shareholders when they voted to pay him a $250,000 fee for his services on the redevelopment.

Another, an Abbotsleigh old girl, awaits sentence in Dillwynia jail for stealing $850,000 from her employer.

The owners of a third apartment say their lives have been destroyed.

And despite five years and as many lawsuits, Dungowan's legal wars appear far from over.

It all began with a bung lift. After striking a special levy in 2000 to repair it, the owners' board decided instead to extend upwards, with the sale of six new units to pay for the sorely needed building restorations.

The board paid its chairman, Rodney Garratt, QC, a Melbourne barrister whose wife, Diana, is a granddaughter of Menzies, Australia's longest-serving prime minister, $950,000 to convert his ground-floor apartment to a car park, and $250,000 in fees for his services. He then bought one of the new sub-penthouses, which is now for sale.

But the owners of unit 4, Patrick and Jennifer McLaughlin, opposed the project from the start, saying in a series of bitter court actions that it was excessive and ''speculative'' and that Mr Garratt had not been frank with them as to his intentions and interests.

Mr Garrett says the McLaughlins sought to prevent the company proceeding, with the support of all other shareholders, with steps to save and restore their building, which was on the point of failure and being uninsurable.

While Mr Garratt was the nominal owner of unit 22, it emerged that he controlled at least seven apartments through companies or undisclosed agents such as Candida Ashford, her sister Sheridan and a former policeman and friend, Norman Dunn. Mr Garrett says the defects were discovered in the building years after he had acquired his interest.

Incorrect information, which Mr Garratt told the NSW Supreme Court was based on the statements of a former company secretary, was given to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission about who owned the shares in the company title.

In March Justice Julie Ward delivered the McLaughlins a points victory, ordering the board to pay them $200,000 in damages and invalidating Mr Garratt's $250,000 fee because he had not disclosed his interest in the other apartments and it ''was not generally known''.

Justice Ward said the dispute had ''engendered a considerable degree of acrimony'' and granted the McLaughlins leave to sue the directors for potential alleged breaches of their statutory duties, saying there were serious questions to be answered about the project.

Mr Garratt says the McLaughlins failed in most of their claims against the company.

But the judgment was small consolation for some.

As the battle raged over the future of Dungowan, Candida Louise Ashford in unit 20 had been stealing an estimated $1.2 million over four years from her employer Autolab, an car repair shop.

Ms Ashford, 52, an Abbotsleigh old girl and daughter of the retired northern beaches real estate agent and property developer Anthony Ashford, lived a champagne lifestyle of ballet and opera subscriptions and shopping trips to Melbourne.

A source familiar with the police investigation said: ''Candida bought Moet by the case, jewellery, paintings, clothes, lots of stuff to decorate her flat in Dungowan, and she gave expensive gifts to family members.''

When it was discovered she had been funnelling payments from real and fake suppliers to her own account, Autolab's owner, Daniel Chermak, pursued her oceanfront apartment to recover some of the money, only to find it was not hers.

''She was fronting as though she was a millionaire and that's why we thought she could afford the lifestyle, because it appeared she owned units in that Dungowan building and she told everyone she did,'' Mr Chermak said.

The Dungowan board has started an appeal against the Supreme Court judgment and the McLaughlins have cross-appealed.

Jennifer McLaughlin said the litigation had destroyed their lives, costing her and her husband about $650,000 in legal fees so far.

''We wouldn't have touched it if we had known he owned all those units. But we are fighters and we can't let them get away with it,'' she said.

Candida Ashford has pleaded guilty and is due to be sentenced in September.

Spoilt brats get iRate

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:00:01 GMT

Steve Jobs has seemed like a man under siege lately. The co-founder and chief executive of Apple is not just under siege from the cancer that invaded his body six years ago and whose threat always lurks, despite successful treatment, but from an ungrateful world that gobbles up his beautiful inventions and then whinges about details.

You just had to stroll down the Manhattan end of George Street on Thursday night to see what a cultural phenomenon Apple has become. Thousands of Gen Ys, Gen Xs and a few hardy baby boomers queued for up to 22 hours in the cold and wet for the midnight launch of the new iPhone4, some bringing chairs, tents and portable generators with their iPhones and Macbooks and iPads to while away the time.

The wait itself was part of the fun; with all those captive customers, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone competed with a free party, free concert, free booze and free apple-inspired food served by the cast of MasterChef. Clearly the public loves Apple's wares but, increasingly, the critics are on the snarl.

Part of Apple's success came from popular antipathy to Microsoft because it was so successful, and because, as Jobs once said, its computers were ugly and Bill Gates had no taste.

Jobs, on the other hand, was as cool as a computer geek could be. He had been to India! Lived on an ashram! Dropped acid! Became a Buddhist! Dated Joan Baez! Loved Bob Dylan! And he had taste, with his white curved iMac a beautiful addition to any stylemeister's decor.

His rags to riches story has a mythic quality - the college dropout building computers with a friend in his parents' garage to a millionaire at 25, sacked from his own company, and coming back to rescue it, after filling in the wilderness years by founding an animated film studio - none other than Pixar, creator of Toy Story.

Even his personal story is extraordinary. He was adopted as a baby by a machinist and his wife, Paul and Clara Jobs. His biological parents were young graduate students from San Francisco who chose adoption over abortion but later married and had a daughter, the novelist Mona Simpson, with whom Jobs has since reunited.

Jobs cleverly made Apple's journey, like his own, into a countercultural success story, playing off the Goliath that was Microsoft. But this year Apple's market value surpassed Microsoft's, making it the most valuable technology firm in the world and the second-most valuable US stock, after Exxon Mobil, according to Bloomberg. It seems Jobs is finding himself hoist on his own petard. Too successful in a capitalist sense, at a time and to a new generation for whom success is suspect.

And then there was the problem with the iPhone4 antenna, a strip of metal that wraps around the phone but which, if you hold it in a certain way, causes calls to be disconnected.

The flaw was seized on by Apple's new enemies in the media, on blogs and tech sites, demanding a recall and abject apology from the man himself.

Jobs offered customers a free rubber cover to fix the problem, but his refusal to apologise at a defiant press conference last week only further enraged the pygmy critics savouring their first taste of Apple blood.

All the negative forces came together there. Jobs, looking appropriately ascetic with his skinny, post liver-transplant body draped loosely in his trademark black skivvy, was visibly annoyed: ''This has been blown so out of proportion - it's incredible,'' he said.

''I guess it's just human nature. When you see someone get successful you just want to tear it down.''

Jobs is under siege, too, because workers started committing suicide at the Chinese factory where components for iPhone and iPad are made. Then came the ''blood metals'' charge, because the tantalum, tin and tungsten Apple uses comes from war-torn places such as the Congo.

Add to that the threat from Google, and the war it is at present waging with Apple over its Android smartphone. Apple-haters now wear T-shirts showing the Android urinating on an apple.

There is fury too that Apple is selective about what it allows into its application, or ''app'', store. To the extreme libertarians of the internet, Apple is an enemy of freedom.

The debate came to a head in May in a late-night email exchange between Jobs and Ryan Tate, who writes for the website Gawker.

''If Dylan was 20 today how would he feel about your company? Would he think iPad had the faintest thing to do with revolution? Revolutions are about freedom,'' Tate wrote. Jobs replied: ''Yes, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom.''

The ''freedom from porn'' comment opened a new line of attack on Jobs as some sort of born-again social conservative. But he is right. Too much freedom can be a tyranny of its own and Apple's quality control is central to its success. Jobs is standing his ground against the tide of negativity, but the counterculture guy has come to symbolise capitalist America.

The Wired website has slammed Jobs as ''nothing more than a greedy capitalist''. He is routinely mocked for calling his devices ''magical'' or ''revolutionary'', even though they are.

There are lots of reasons why Jobs is under siege, but the most potent is the spoiled brat phenomenon of humanity.

The more we humans have, the more we want, the more dissatisfied and ungrateful we are.

Even though iPhone and iPad devotees revel in the functionality and design of the devices, at the same time we take them utterly for granted, as a natural extension of ourselves.

Of course I'm going to email on the bus. Of course I'm going to watch trashy TV shows on my iPad at the gym. Of course I'm going to read the newspaper or a book on my iPad in bed.

These things that were unthinkable 10, five, even one year ago, we now simply expect.

What we need is an app for gratitude, not cynicism, for just taking a moment to appreciate the magnificent achievements of the human mind, which are captured in that slim, sleek device our ancestors scarcely could have dreamed possible.

devinemiranda@hotmail.com