A coroner has found that a British soldier died in Iraq for lack of basic equipment - which was apparently not available for political reasons.

Sergeant Steven Roberts was accidentally shot dead by another British soldier when a checkpoint he was manning near Basra came under attack in March 2003.

He was one of 2000 British soldiers who had gone into combat without enhanced body armour, described as "a basic piece of protective equipment" in the coroner's report.

The inquest was told that in September 2002 - six months before the war in Iraq - Geoff Hoon, then the defence secretary, was informed that 37,000 extra sets of camouflaged body armour were needed.

The then director of capability, resources and scrutiny at the Ministry of Defence told the inquest that companies could not be asked to bid to supply the equipment at the time.

Senior Defence officials have said that ministers did not want it to appear that they had already decided to join the US-led invasion.

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

An Aboriginal woman says that police had evidence that her boyfriend had raped and assulted her, but did nothing for three years.

Ms Brennan was 18 when she began living with Joseph Timbery at La Perouse in the Aboriginal community where she grew up. Timbery became violent, and before long she was rarely without a black eye. They were both addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Over eight months in 2000 Timbery, also Aboriginal, stabbed Ms Brennan all over her body with a chisel and a fork. He hit her on the head with an iron bar and bashed her between the legs with a baseball bat. He burnt her feet with a branding iron, broke her jaw and created a deep gash across her leg with a broken plate. He held her captive while raping her.

By 2002 police had her detailed complaints and hospital evidence supporting her claims. It was not until August this year that Timbery was convicted and sentenced to 33 years' jail for raping and seriously assaulting Ms Brennan.

She left Timbery several times but returned after he threatened to kill her and bash her siblings and grandmother. The police were called many times, and she acknowledges she laid complaints that she later withdrew.

She was admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital at least five times in 2000. But Timbery usually accompanied her, and once, after an operation, he dragged her from the hospital, kicking and reopening her wound as he went.

On Christmas night 2000 he hit her with a hammer, threw a table at her and almost strangled her with an electric cord. Believing she would die, she rang her father, who took her to Maroubra police station.

At the trial, a detective remembered Ms Brennan as being very upset. "She said she was very scared and that he would kill her if she went any further." He could think of no reason why police did not get evidence of the hammer and electric cord.

In March 2001 Ms Brennan was interviewed by a domestic violence officer, Constable Vanessa Hayes, who prepared a statement about the many serious physical assaults and observed scars all over her body. Ms Brennan mentioned the sexual assaults for the first time but could not talk about them. Timbery was still not charged.

In 2002, after counselling in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, Ms Brennan provided Constable Hayes with a statement about the rapes. Maroubra police obtained medical evidence that supported her case. She said she found Constable Hayes helpful and patient. Without her, she would never have been able to speak to police of the rapes.

From 2001 until Timbery was arrested last year Ms Brennan was constantly in fear of her life.

In 2002 Ms Brennan, now drug-free, met her current partner, John Duckett.

Mr Duckett was outraged by the lack of action. He called senior police and later the NSW Ombudsman to find out why nothing was happening. He says that "if it had happened to a white woman it would have been splattered all over the papers".

By early last year Ms Brennan said she "regretted going to the police because nothing had happened". "They know how hard it is to come forward. You come forward, you think why did I do this? If a white woman claimed a black man had raped her they would have done something."

Detective Scott Johnson of Maroubra, who took over the case last year, told the Herald he considered Ms Brennan's reaction understandable. While he did not wish to criticise other police, he said that when he was asked to take over the brief it was incomplete. He said Timbery was arrested last year for the offences against Ms Brennan only after Timbery's father complained that his son had assaulted him and told them where they could find him.

Detective Johnson says Timbery was harboured by La Perouse locals. But he acknowledges that police records show Timbery was in police custody and in court on several occasions for other offences. In October 2002 he was fined $150 for having a knife in a public place. In February 2003 he was ordered to do 100 hours' community service for possessing a shortened firearm. He was also arrested for stealing with a weapon in 2004.Detective Johnson said the explanation for why he was not arrested for rape on these occasions was that no warrants had been issued for the crimes against Ms Brennan. He said some police were fed up with Ms Brennan because she failed to pursue her earlier complaints during 2000. He described her as now "a wonderful woman who was 100 per cent behind the complaints after detoxing from alcohol and drugs" in 2002. Accepting her fears were justified, the Department of Housing found her a safe house after 2002.

After Timbery was arrested, his sister, Joanne, applied to Waverley Local Court for an apprehended violence order against Ms Brennan. A solicitor with the Director of Public Prosecutions wrote to the court asking for the order to be delayed until after Timbery's trial.The court went ahead and granted the order. The court manager wrote a letter to Maroubra police explaining that the applicant was a relative of Timbery, who was facing serious charges in which Ms Brennan was the victim, and emphasising that Ms Brennan's address should not be disclosed to the apprehended violence order applicants. Despite this, Maroubra police included her address on the order. As a result, Ms Brennan, Mr Duckett and their three children had to move.

Mr Duckett complained about this to the NSW Ombudsman, who declined to investigate. In June this year Ms Brennan's MP, Michael Daley, wrote to the Attorney-General, Bob Debus, asking him to investigate the matter. Mr Debus replied to Mr Daley, asking him to convey his sincere apologies to Ms Brennan for the mistake. "If I was white there would have been a formal investigation," Ms Brennan says.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

The town of Tamworth has voted not to accept five refugee families, on the grounds that it would lead to a "Cronulla-riots type situation".

Tamworth City Council voted this week to reject an offer by the Department of Immigration to resettle the families.

Tamworth Mayor James Treloar said in part "ask the people at Cronulla if they want more refugees." He added that "these people don't respect authority [and] they come from countries where there are outbreaks of TB [tuberculosis] and polio. "

Cr Treloar said that accusations of racism were a "media beat-up."

Tamworth recently won the Best Western Friendly Town award.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

The US military has charged four Marines with murder and four others on related charges, over an alleged massacre in Iraq.

The Marines are accused of killing 24 unarmed civilians in Haditha in November 2005.

Marine Corps squad leader Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich faces 13 counts of murder, along with three other soldiers. The other four are charged with failing to properly report and/or investigate the deaths.

Iraqi witnesses say the Marines shot civilians in their homes in revenge for the death of Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas, who was ripped in half by a roadside bomb that exploded under a convoy rolling through Haditha, some 96km north of Baghdad.

(Source: The Age)

 

More than half of homeless people looking for a bed from social services are turned away, according to a new report.

The report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that about 304 Australians are rejected each day. Because most homeless people stay in the same place for longer than one day, this figure represents only 2 percent of the total number of homeless people in Australia.

Families with children are the most likely to be turned away.

(Source: MX)

 

The police officer found by a coroner to have been responsible for the violent death of an Aboriginal prisoner in a cell on Queensland's Palm Island won't be charged, and will not even face disciplinary action.

The state's Director of Public Prosecutions, Leanne Clare, announced there was not enough evidence to convict Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley of any offence regarding the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, 36, who died on November 19, 2004. The Crime and Misconduct Commission announced Sergeant Hurley would not face disciplinary action either.

The coronial inquest had been told Doomadgee, who was drunk and had been arrested for swearing, struck Sergeant Hurley in the face at the watchhouse and a 'scuffle' ensued.

Sergeant Hurley said he landed on the concrete floor of the watchhouse beside Doomadgee. However, the prisoner suffered four broken ribs and his liver was torn in two.

In her findings, delivered in September, Deputy Coroner Christine Clements said "these actions of Senior Sergeant Hurley caused the fatal injuries".

She also said his failure to check the prisoner's welfare in the cell was "callous and deficient", and that Sergeant Hurley "responded with physical force" against Mulrunji while he was still on the floor.

Ms Clare described described Doomadgee's death as a "terrible, terrible accident", since "neither kicks nor punches are likely to have caused Mr Doomadgee's death."

Queensland police said that they had stationed specialist police in Townsville yesterday with helicopters at the ready to quell any "disturbance" on Palm Island over Ms Clare's decision.

(Source: The Australian)

 

Pauline Hanson has criticised the United States' immigration policy, after she was refused a visa.

Ms Hanson was refused entry into America, due to her now-overturned conviction for electoral fraud.

She said she "was furious when I found out - absolutely furious...I might even have to have my fingerprints taken before they will let me in."

(Source: Herald Sun)

 

A man was arrested, verbally abused and threatened with a beating in the mistaken belief that he was a wanted G20 protestor.

Drasko Boljevic was paying for a drink in a Melbourne supermarket when three "bouncer-looking men" dressed in casual clothes grabbed him and took him to an unmarked white van. They and another five men held him down and handcuffed him. When his friend asked the men if they were policemen they said "get the fuck out of here, get the fuck out of this city".

The men didn't identify themselves, and told Boljevic to "shut the fuck up" and that he was a "fucking bastard". They also threatened to "bash him up and smash his face", whilst holding his legs crossed at his back and pushing his head against the floor of the van and sitting on it. They pulled his pants down, searched him and cut his backpack of his back.

They stopped at an alley behind Flinders St Station and made him lie on the floor, with his pants still down, and look down, still shouting at him to "shut the fuck up".

Some police detectives in casual clothes arrived and identified themselves. It was not until then, about 25 minutes after his 'arrest', that he was informed he was arrested. They took some photos of his face, front and profile with a mobile. Then he was driven to the St Kilda Road police station and finally interrogated, and told the reason for his arrest: assaulting a police officer at the G20 protest.

When Boljevic pointed out that he wasn't at the G20 protest on Saturday, but on his way to a small town 1 hour away from Melbourne, he was released, and told "if this was Croatia he wouldn't be so lucky".

(Source: Melbourne Indymedia)

 

An American judge has described a state prison health system as a 'de facto death penalty'.

Michigan judge Richard Enslen ordered the state Department of Corrections to hire more prison doctors within four months, saying that health care for inmates is dysfunctional and endangers their lives. Enslen also threatened US$2 million in fines and found the prison agency in contempt of court. The ruling applies to three prisons near the city of Jackson, which each house about 1,000 inmates.

Enslen also ordered that the department hire more nurses, file a staffing plan within three months and create independent monitoring offices at the prisons to handle inmates' complaints.

He wrote that a prisoner "does not deserve...a de facto and unauthorized death penalty at the hands of a callous and dysfunctional health care system that regularly fails to treat life-threatening illness''.

Enslen said it took 40 days to test a patient with blood in his urine. Another inmate complained of a mole on his back, and despite a doctor saying it should be removed surgically, there were many delays. Later testing showed malignant melanoma and that the cancer had spread while the patient was awaiting treatment.

Last month, Enslen issued a separate decision criticizing the state's care of mentally ill inmates and ordering the state to stop using non-medical, punitive restraints on prisoners. The judge's decision came after a 21-year-old mentally ill inmate died in August after spending four days naked inside a hot, isolated cell at the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility in Jackson. An autopsy determined the inmate, Timothy Joe Souders, died accidentally of hyperthermia and dehydration.

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

Quote of the Moment:

"I have still got a lot of issues..."

Pauline Hanson expresses the view of the silent majority.

 

John Howard and Alexander Downer sparked Australia's biggest biological terror scare last year when they exaggerated test results to claim white powder sent to the Indonesian embassy in Canberra - later shown to be flour - was a "biological agent".

Documents from ACT Pathology and the Australian Federal Police, obtained under freedom of information laws, show the microbiologist who examined the powder on June 1 last year and the AFP never called it a "biological agent" and described it as a commonly occurring bacteria.

On June 1 last year, Mr Howard told The Age "it's not an innocent white powder, it's some kind of biological agent."

The documents reveal that some days after testing began, the powder was shown to be flour.

Among the documents is an email sent by the AFP's national manager of intelligence, Grant Wardlaw, to Justice Minister Chris Ellison at 6.35pm on the day of the attack, advising the Government the powder had tested positive to "gram baccili", but this did not mean it posed a threat.

"Gram baccili is a commonly occurring bacteria," Mr Wardlaw said in the email. "If spores of this bacteria are found to be growing in the substance, this raises the level of potential risk. Information to date indicates that no spores have been identified by pathology."

Despite this advice, the Government did not tell the media that no threat had been identified and the next day newspapers and other media gave huge prominence to the Government's claims, running headlines saying the country had had a bio-terror attack.

Mr Downer first announced in question time on June 1 that a suspicious package had been sent to the embassy. He returned shortly after to reveal "the initial analysis of the powder has tested positive as a biological agent, though further testing will need to be carried out to determine what the substance actually is".

Mr Howard then told reporters that sending the powder to the embassy was an act of "murderous criminality" and rejected a suggestion from a reporter the substance could turn out to be "rather benign".

The description of the powder as a biological agent ended a wave of public anger directed at the Indonesian Government and its justice system that had been building for five days after a Bali court convicted Schapelle Corby of drug smuggling on May 27.

(Source: The Age)

 

Australia will sell up to $250 million dollars worth of uranium a year to China, a nuclear-armed dictatorship which still has serious unresolved border disputes.

A Parliamentary committee investigated the idea and "both Government and opposition members of the committee have concluded that the sale of uranium to China, protected by these safeguards, is in the national interest", according to committee chairman Andrew Southcott.

The 'safeguards' rely on monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose budget is approximately the same as that of the Vienna police force.

China's government has an ongoing dispute with that of Taiwan, and has issued several situations in which it says it will immediately go to war. It also has ongoing border disputes with India, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

Australia's uranium production is currently all accounted for, but the committee estimated that in a few years China could buy 2500 tonnes per year.

(Source: news.com.au, Wikipedia)

 

Housing affordability is at its second-lowest level in 25 years, according to a new report.

Families are now spending more than a third of their incomes on home loans and this looks set to rise, Real Estate Institute of Australia (RIEA) President Graham Joyce said after the release of a September housing report today.

The Deposit Power/REIA Home Loan Affordability Report, for the September 2006 quarter, says Australians now need 33.8 per cent of their family income to pay the average home loan of $230,308.

Mr Joyce described it as the worst result for 25 years, except for an 18-month period from March 1989 to September 1990.

He warned rents were likely to increase significantly, making it even more difficult for renters to become buyers.

(Source: news.com.au)

 

A refugee deported on the grounds that his home country was now safe, was murdered only a few months after his arrival.

Immigration officials refused to allow Mohammed Sharif al-Saraf to stay in Australia when his three-year temporary protection visa expired in 2004, claiming the removal of Saddam Hussein meant it was safe to go back to his homeland.

He was back in Iraq for only a few months when he was killed in Baghdad.

Tariq al-Haris of the Iraqi Community Cultural Association of South Australia said "we don't know who murdered him, but at that time, most of these sorts of murders were being committed either by ex-Baathists or by al-Qa'ida in Iraq. Most likely it was one of these two groups that killed him...for these people, anybody who comes back from Australia must be a spy and they target anyone who they suspect of working with the Coalition forces in Iraq."

(Source: The Australian)