Quote of the Moment:

"The best guess...is somewhere between 5% and 25%".

Dr Ralph Heywood, past scientific director of the Huntingdon Research Centre, on the reliability of medical experiments on animals. Aspirin, for example, causes birth defects in rats, mice, guinea pigs, cats, dogs, and monkeys. Thalidomide, which caused severe birth defects in humans, was marketed as harmless based on years of testing on animals.

 

Quote of the Moment:

"An administrative error made by the Parole Board Secretarial staff".

New South Wales Justice Minister John Hatzistergos' explanation for why an Aboriginal man died in jail in the John Moroney Correctional Centre, when he should have been released 18 days earlier.

 

Fact of the Moment:

In 1993, before a trip to the Middle East, George W. Bush joked with a reporter that he planned to stop in Israel and tell the Jews that they were all going to Hell.

(Source: Bush Watch website)

 

Ten US soldiers have died in Iraq in a single week, as US military sources said Iraqis should be given "a heavy dose of fear and violence".

The 10 deaths bring the total number of US soldiers killed in action since the invasion in March, to 322.

The capture of Saddam Hussein does not seem to have made any difference to occupation head Paul Bremer's prediction that "I personally feel that we'll actually have more violence in the next six months".

A company commander in the US 1st Infantry Division in the north of the country recently said that it was necessary to "instill fear" in Iraqi villagers in order to get information. An Iraqi interpreter working for the Americans had just taken an old lady from her home to frighten her daughters and grand-daughters into believing that she was being arrested.

A battalion commander in the same area said that "with a heavy dose of fear and violence, and a lot of money for projects, I think we can convince these people that we are here to help them". He was speaking from a village that his men had surrounded with barbed wire. A sign on the wire said "this fence is here for your protection. Do not approach or try to cross, or you will be shot."

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald, The Independent [UK])

 

Quote of the Moment:

"They don't need to know...I can call them and say, 'Where are you now?' while I'm looking at the screen and knowing exactly where they are".

Howard Boyle, president of a New York fire sprinkler installation company, on the Global Positioning System technology that he has installed in his employee's company phones without telling them. The technology allows Mr Boyle to track his employees' position on a computer.

 

Australian workers do not mind pocketing the office stationery, according to a new survey on workplace behaviour.

Global recruitment agency Kelly Services' workplace ethics survey found that nearly one in four Australians took stationery from their work.

54 percent of workers said they used their employer's internet connection for personal use, 10 per cent used office software at home, and 4 per cent used unlicensed software at work.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

Quote of the Moment:

"The assumption that underlies all of the outrage about sentences is that if we locked everybody up we'd get a better result...That has been demonstrated not to be the truth, and if we closed a hell of a lot of prisons and used the money from that on one-to-one workers you'd probably get a better result."

Noel Purcell, magistrate for 47 years.

 

An Australian man says the Immigration Department is forcing him to choose between his overseas-born wife and his children, after saying that his wife moved in with him for opportunistic reasons.

Michael Petrou's wife Natalie is facing deportation after the Immigration Department rejected her claim for a visa to stay in Australia on the grounds that the couple were "not in love" when they first lived together.

Mr and Mrs Petrou provided documentary evidence from friends that they had been living together and sharing a bedroom since May 2001.

But the Immigration Department and the Migration Review Tribunal said that it was not satisfied that Mrs Petrou was committed to a long-term relationship when she left her former husband.

"The tribunal finds instead that the review applicant (Mrs Petrou) left an unhappy marriage, moving at a time when she was able to enjoy the support and protection of the nominator (Mr Petrou) to enable her to make the break as easy as possible in a country in which she had few friends and no family to support her."

Mr Petrou said the tribunal was saying his wife was an opportunist and they weren't in love when they first started living together.

(Source: The Age)

 

Senior ALP figures have described refugees, gay marriage, and anti-terrorism laws as 'wedge issues' - often a signal that the ALP would not significantly oppose the government for fear of losing votes.

New ALP leader Mark Latham said that "Labor will not be redefining marriage...our task has been to remove discrimination against gay couples in other areas where we have the capacity, and that's what we'll continue to focus on".

Labor frontbencher Craig Emerson recently told a meeting of the National Union of Workers that gay marriage, along with refugees and anti-terrorism laws, were three wedge issues that the government would use in the leadup to the next election.

(Source: MCV newspaper)

 

Former Governor-General Peter Hollingworth has moved into new offices which will cost taxpayers an estimated six figure rent per year.

The website for 101 Collins Street, Dr Hollingworth's new office, describes the offices as "the most prestigious commercial office space in Melbourne" and "tightly held tenancies for Melbourne's corporate elite".

Dr Hollingworth resigned after less than two years as Governor-General, after an enquiry criticised him for allowing a child abuser to keep practicing as a priest.

Dr Hollingworth's 'golden handshake' also includes $184,000 per year for life, a full time assistant at $50,000 a year, and business class airfares for him and his wife for any trip within Australia which relates to his former role. He can also travel overseas on public money if allowed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The Department also decided where Dr Hollingworth's offices would be located.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

Levels of anti-gay violence in Sydney have remained basically unchanged in the last 10 years, a new study has found.

The report, funded by the NSW Attorney-General's Department, found that 85% of gay people had been subject to some kind of harassment at some point in their life, about 50% in the previous year. Approximately 50% had had experienced violent assault at some point.

Greg Adkins from the Victorian Anti-Violence Project said that he expected the figures would be similar in Victoria. The last comprehensive study in Victoria, titled 'Enough Is Enough', was done in 2000. That report found that four out of five gay people had experienced harassment or abuse.

(Source: MCV newspaper)

 

The United States government has stopped its compulsory program of vaccinating US troops against anthrax, after a judge ordered the US military to stop treating its troops like "guinea pigs".

Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the compulsory injections, given to more than 900,000 personnel, violated a law against using experimental drugs on troops.

Lawyers representing US soldiers say the shots had made hundreds of servicepeople sick and have caused some deaths.

Earlier this year 52 Australian troops were flown home from the Middle East after refusing to take the vaccine for fear of its side effects. This was despite the vaccination supposedly being voluntary for Australian forces.

(Source: The Age)

 

Some of Australia's wealthiest people are passing the means test and claiming full pensions, by using superannuation law to hide their assets.

The law allows people to set up self-managed superannuation funds in such a way that assets held as part of the fund do not count towards the means test.

(Source: The Age)

 

A Sydney woman was left to give birth alone in a hospital corridor, then left with the dead baby in her arms for an hour and a half.

Karen Middleton, from Parramatta, entered Westmead Hospital on January 14, 2002. Ten minutes after an ultrasound had been completed she went into labour on a bed left outside the room.

The ultrasound operator found her and shouted: "Where's the midwife, someone just gave birth in the corridor!"

"They put me in a corridor where I had my son by myself, there was nobody there," Mrs Middleton said.

"Then I kept on asking for help and they didn't ... 15 minutes later he just stopped crying and got colder and colder."

Mrs Middleton had attended Westmead Hospital complaining of stomach pains and was sent home, diagnosed with constipation. She was examined when she returned to the hospital, and found to be 23 weeks pregnant.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

New Labor leader Mark Latham has announced that the ALP is considering giving the Attorney-General executive power to ban organisations as part of the 'war on terror'.

Mr Latham said his new Shadow Minister for Homeland Security, Robert McClelland, was in negotiations with Attorney-General Philip Ruddock. Mr Latham said the ALP would '"put this political squabbling to one side", seemingly referring to the ALP's previous policy differences with the Coalition on the issue.

(Source: Herald Sun, Courier-Mail)

 

A human rights report has accused United States and allied military forces in Iraq of failing to investigate Iraqi civilian deaths resulting from the excessive use of force by occupying soldiers.

The report confirmed 20 "legally questionable" civilian deaths in Baghdad alone between May 1 and September 30.

The report said that the United States and allied forces "keep meticulous records of soldiers killed in duty, providing daily accounts to the press".

Dozens of unarmed Iraqi civilians, including women and children, have been reportedly killed at checkpoints at the hands of American soldiers who "fire without warning".

(Source: Human Rights Watch)

 

Quotes of the Moment:

"Yesterday I was walking around the ground and a man threw a bone at me and said: 'Here, take it.' I also got called a coolie."

Indian journalist Sambit Rao, in Australia covering the cricket.


"They were abusing us as well, and there were full bottles of water thrown"

Anonymous Indian cricket fan.


"For us younger people who have grown up in Australia we're used to it".

Arv, 18 year old Indian-Australian fan.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

Pharmaceutical companies are giving millions of dollars to supposedly independent medical organisations and patient advocacy groups to expand their markets.

They are also using sponsorship, and educational grants, to fund disease awareness campaigns, raising fears of "disease mongering".

Many groups have become partly or completely reliant on pharamaceutical industry funding.

A nationwide awareness campaign run by the National Asthma Council used a cartoon dragon, which was also the registered trademark of a drug company and used to promote asthma medication.

A pharamaceutical company set up a medical board to help persuade people to be vaccinated against Hepatitis A and B. The company was not interested in raising awareness about Hepatitis C, because it did not sell a vaccine for it.

Treatment guidelines issued to Australian doctors for some diseases are modelled on those developed by overseas groups who are entirely funded by pharamaceutical companies, who sell drugs for the relevant conditions.

Martyn Goddard from the Australian Consumers Association said "drug companies find it very easy to recruit consumer groups, and they do it very cheaply...there's almost no such thing as clean money for most consumer organisations".

Even some of the groups themselves admitted they are being used to indirectly promote pharamaceutical companies' products, but say they have no alternative.

The most recent figure available from the pharmaceutical industry body Medicines Australia is from 1999. In that year, pharamaceutical companies spent between $20 and $25 million on 'philanthropic causes', which mostly covered payments to such groups. Some groups are unable to reveal details of payments they have received because they have signed confidentiality agreements.

(Source: The Age)

 

The New South Wales Coroner will investigate 19 patient deaths in two Sydney hospitals following a report into poor standards of care, amid claims that the State government is engaging in a cover-up.

A 13-month investigation into the deaths, at Campbelltown and Camden hospitals, failed to bring anyone to account. The head of the Health Care Complaints Commission, Amanda Adrian, has been sacked.

A fresh inquiry with royal commission powers has been set up to review the complaints and any additional allegations about inadequate care.

The nurses who originally brought the information to light said that many more deaths were yet to be investigated.

Peter Bentley, who lost his wife, Marie, after what should have been a routine gall-bladder operation, said the investigation should be wider "to include some politicians, because I believe what they're trying to do is to a degree still cover a few things up".

Health Minister Morris Iemma apologised to the nurses who blew the whistle but were then demoted and transferred. They might be eligible for compensation.

"It's been a systemic, deliberate cover-up," said one of the nurses, Nola Fraser.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is already investigating allegations that former New South Wales Health Minister Craig Knowles bullied two nurses who went to him with claims of clinical malpractice and patient deaths.

The ICAC is also investigating separate allegations that documents were shredded at the hospitals.

The NSW Coroner will now investigate 19 deaths stemming from 43 incidents between 1999 and this year.

Incidents at the hospital included cases where a woman had the wrong breast removed, a patient fell off an operating theatre table and a suicidal patient was discharged from hospital after attempting to hang himself in the emergency department.

(Source: The Australian)

 

The first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel peace prize has accused Western governments of hiding behind the September 11 attacks to violate human rights.

Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi won the prize for her campaigns for children's and women's rights. She has challenged fundamental articles of Iranian law such as those saying a woman's life is worth half that of a man or that a woman needs her husband's permission to leave the country.

Ms Ebadi said in her acceptance speech that "in the past two years, some states have violated the universal principles and laws of human rights by using the events of September 11 and the war on international terrorism as a pretext".

"Regulations restricting human rights and basic freedoms... have been justified and given legitimacy under the cloak of the war on terrorism."

(Source: Guardian [UK])

 

Victorian families are expected to face a rise in essential expenses of approximately $1000 per year.

The new costs include proposed increases in gas and electricity bills of up to 7.8 percent, and an unprecedented rise in TAFE fees of 25 percent. A person who commutes from Zone 2 (the outer subrubs of Melbourne) to the city will pay an extra $142 a year.

Gavin Duffy from St Vincent de Paul said that "a lot of increases are for essential services, such as gas, electricity and public transport, so it will disproportionately hurt lower-income and struggling households".

Consumer Law Centre director Chris Field said families would struggle with their increased costs, given the record levels of household debt and low savings.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

United States intelligence and military sources have confirmed that US Special Forces have begun a new 'counter-insurgency' program in Iraq which includes assassination squads, operating outside of Iraq in Syria, and what one source called "making examples" of villages where large numbers of people oppose the United States government.

The United States is being advised by 'urban warfare' specialists from the Israeli Defence Force.

Brigadier General Michael Vane, deputy chief of staff at the army's training and doctrine command, said that US officials had visited Israel "to glean lessons learned from their counterterrorist operations in urban areas".

The US military has already used tactics which are similar to those used by the Israeli government in Palestine, such as sealing off areas with razor wire if they contain large numbers of people who are likely to be hostile to the United States goernment, and destroying buildings from which attacks have been launched.

US Special Forces have also begun operating in Syria as well as Iraq.

Colonel Ralph Peters, a former army intelligence officer, said that "I think what you're seeing is a new realism. The American tendency is to try to win all the hearts and minds. In Iraq, there are just some hearts and minds you can't win. Within the bounds of human rights, if you do make an example of certain villages it gets the attention of the others, and attacks have gone down in the area".

One of the officials behind the new program is Lieutenant General William "Jerry" Boykin, who commented that he believed that the United States was at war with Satan, who "wants to destroy us as a Christian army".

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

Many large companies have secretly taken out life insurance policies on their employees, naming themselves as beneficiaries.

The practice is known among executives as 'Dead Peasants Insurance'.

One company, CM Holdings, took out a policy on an administrative assistant who died of Lou Gehring's Disease The company turned down a request from the woman's children, who cared for her during her final illness, to help buy a US$5000 wheelchair. When she died, the company collected US$180,000.

(Source: 'Dude, Where's My Country?' by Michael Moore)

 

Dozens of species are being secretly experimented on in Melbourne's zoos.

The experiments included implanting or attaching radio transmitters, and developing poisons used to kill pests.

In one experiment, wild red foxes were supposed to die quickly after eating poisoned baits around Healesville Sanctuary, but were feared to have suffered prolonged deaths.

Death was highlighted as a possible consequence in at least one of the tests, a reproductive experiment involving the injection of hormones into rare New Holland mice, although the tests were successful with no adverse effects.

More than 430,000 animals were used in experiments in Victoria last year, according to statistics collected by the State Government's Bureau of Animal Welfare.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

Quote of the Moment:

"The data makes it all too clear that boosting the living standards of those already comfortable, such as through lower taxes, does little to improve their levels of wellbeing, whereas raising the living standards of the impoverished makes an enormous difference".

The Age, reporting on new psychological research into how people misjudge what will make them happy.

 

Quote of the Moment:

"You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that [protest]...you can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act."

Mike Van Winkle - spokesman for the California Justice Department.

 

United States Senator Rick Santorum is known for his conservative views on abortion and homosexuality. Unfortunately for the Senator, 'santorum' is defined as "a frothy mixture of lubricant and fecal matter resulting from anal sex".

(Source: Savage Love column)

 

Mentally and physically disabled children were locked in cages and threatened with broom handles in a Queensland residential care facility, according to disability advocates.

The Queensland government was said to have been made aware of the abuse up to two years ago, but has only acted this year.

Kevin Cocks from Queensland Advocacy said that the allegations fit a wider pattern of abuse of the vulnerable in the state's
institutions.

"Sadly, once again, vulnerable people are left exposed to those who have primary interests in making money" he said.

Children have been removed from the facility. However disabled adults are still in 'care' there.

(Source: ABC news website)

 

The government intends to enact a new law, which would mean that people could be jailed for five years for disclosing any details of terrorism warrants issued to ASIO.

The law would apply to the media as well as families, friends and lawyers of the accused, and accused people themselves.

A person could be jailed, for example, for saying that someone had been detained by ASIO.

The law also makes it illegal to report any "operational information". Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said that operational information was information which "flows from the issuing of a warrant". Media organisations say that the definition of 'operational information' effectively could cover any information which ASIO has or had.

Media organisations believe that the law would effectively ban any media coverage of ASIO terrorism investigations in Australia. The government has been criticised for allegedly heavy-handed tactics in raiding and arresting people it accuses of involvement in terrorism.

Bruce Wolpe from Fairfax Press called the proposed law "a gag order on a fundamental criminal process under the terrorism laws, which is incompatible with the principles of a free society. If the media can't report on the criminal justice system then we really run the risk of being in a land of secret trials, secret justice without accountability".

The law is supported by the Labor Party.

(Source: ABC news website)

 

The Australian government will join the United States' 'Star Wars' program, despite the technology not yet working and the government's inability to identify any actual threat which the program would meet.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said the technology could be used to protect potential targets on the Australian mainland, but was unwilling to identify a specific threat.

"I am not arguing that there is an immediate threat to Australia in this area," he said.

The program is the latest version of the space and ground-based "Star Wars" Strategic Defence Initiative proposed by former US president Ronald Reagan.

That system proved unworkable and too expensive.

The current program has cost the United States $80 billion so far. Some estimates say the total cost will be in the trillions of dollars.

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

The former United States General who commanded the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan says that the United States could abandon elections and set up a military dictatorship in some circumstances.

Retired General Tommy Franks said in an interview that if the United States were hit with a weapon of mass destruction that inflicted large casualties, the Constitution would probably be discarded in favor of a form of military government.

(International Herald Tribune)

 

A businessman who helped devastate the economy of Geelong and caused thousands of people to lose their life savings, has invested in a new business which has received more than $200,000 of public money.

Bill Farrow, former head of Pyramid, was discharged from bankruptcy and invested in a new television production company. World Wide Entertainment has been given $215,000 in export grants over the past three years.

The company, which is half owned by Mr Farrow's family, will receive an extra Austrade grant of between $30,000 and $150,000 by the end of the financial year.

Mr Farrow and former Geelong footballer David Clarke headed the Geelong-based Pyramid Building Society, which collapsed in 1990 owing depositors $2 billion. Mr Farrow was convicted and fined $50,000 for breaching corporation lending limits.

Mr Farrow responded to criticism from those who lost money in Pyramid by saying that he "would have liked to think it was time to move on".

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

The death of a man at Maribyrnong detention centre could have been avoided if management had acted correctly, according to the coroner's report.

Coroner Phil Byrne said that Australasian Correctional Management, the private company that runs refugee detention centres, had failed to call in specialist police negotiators, as was normal procedure, because staff had made their own decision that the man was not at risk of committing suicide.

Viliami Tanginoa spent eight hours on top of a basketball pole before he dived to his death on the day he was to be deported - December 22, 2000. He died from head injuries.

Mr Byrne said ACM's response had been "haphazard and inadequate", and that he was satisfied that Mr Tanginoa would not have died if ACM had called in negotiators.

Mr Byrne also said that ACM's operations manager David Randich's actions were "at best unhelpful and amateurish". At one point Mr Randich had bounced a basketball in the courtyard near Mr Tanginoa.

Mr Byrne said that Mr Tanginoa may have intended to kill himself, or may have intended to injure himself to prevent his deportation.

ACM issued a press release which said that the coroner's report "supports the view taken by ACM staff at the time, that [Mr Tanginoa] was not at risk of self-harm".

(Source: The Age)