The head of a failed American financial institution will get a severance package worth a total of US$20 million, after 17 days in the job.

Alan H. Fishman was the CEO of Washington Mutual, the United States' largest savings and loan.

Washington Mutual was taken over by federal regulators after losses estimated at US$20 billion.

Mr Fishman also received a US$7.5 million bonus when he was hired earlier this month.

(Source: Fox News)

 

Polar bears are resorting to cannibalism due to climate change, in what scientists call an early warning for the rest of the planet.

Scientists have monitored sea ice conditions for about 50 years with the help of satellites. Changes in the past decade have been alarming to climate researchers and oceanographers.

"[The last summer] is the second lowest on record...If anything, it is reinforcing the long-term trend. We are still losing the ice cover at a rate of 10 percent per decade now, and that is quite an increase from five years ago." said Walt Meier, a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

"We are still heading toward an ice cover that is going to melt completely in the summertime in the Arctic."

Arctic ice helps regulate and temper the climate in many other parts of the world. The less ice there is, the more dramatic the impact. Huge sheets of ice reflect solar radiation. When that ice melts, the oceans absorb the heat instead, raising the temperature.

Although few humans live in the Arctic, the disappearance of this ice cover can have effects far beyond the few residents and the wildlife of this harsh region. Ice cover loss can influence winds and precipitation on other continents.

"That warming is going to spread to the lower latitudes, to the United States, and it's going to affect storm systems and storm tracks, the jet stream; that's going to affect crops and all sorts of things," Meier predicted.

"Less than 30 years ago, there would still be 7 million square kilometers or 2.5 million square miles of ice left at the end of an Arctic summer. That's now dropped by almost 40 percent."

"The Arctic sea ice melt is a disaster for the polar bears," according to Kassie Siegel, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

"They are dependent on the Arctic sea ice for all of their essential behaviors, and as the ice melts and global warming transforms the Arctic, polar bears are starving, drowning, even resorting to cannibalism because they don't have access to their usual food sources."

"The Arctic is kind of the early warning system of the climate," Meier said.

"It is the canary in the coal mine, and the canary is definitely in trouble."

(Source: CNN [US])

 

Violence in Iraq has declined mainly because "many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country", according to new research.

Geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said that satellite images of Baghdad showed a major population shift, with some 2 million Iraqis displaced within Iraq, and 2 million more seeking refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan.

Previously religiously mixed neighborhoods of Baghdad have became entirely Sunni or Shi'ite Muslim enclaves.

Professor Agnew said that the troop 'surge' in 2007 had little effect.

"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country" he said.

The report said that "the surge has had no observable effect, except insofar as it has helped to provide a seal of approval for a process of ethno-sectarian neighborhood homogenization that is now largely achieved."

(Source: Reuters)

 

The Catholic Church says it may close its emergency departments and maternity hospitals across Victoria, if a law expanding access to abortion is passed.

A private members bill allowing women to terminate pregnancies in the first 24 weeks of gestation has been passed in the state's Lower House and will be debated in the Upper House within weeks.

Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart wrote on the Melbourne Archdiocese's website that the Bill poses a threat to the continued existence of Victoria's fifteen Catholic hospitals.

He said that the Bill "requires health professionals with a conscientious objection to abortion to perform an abortion in whatever is deemed an emergency."

Bill O'Shea, President of the Law Institute of Victoria, said that the bill does not require doctors to perform abortions, but to refer their patient to another doctor.

(Source: ABC News website)

 

Vegetarianism is cheaper, healthier and easier on the environment than eating meat, according to a new study.

The study, produced for manufacturer Sanitarium, found that it cost $508 a week to feed four adults on a traditional meat diet, compared to $394 a week for vegetarians.

The vegetarian diet also contributed far less to global warming.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

Seized drugs worth millions of dollars may be missing from the police forensic science laboratory.

An internal police audit has found drugs listed as destroyed years ago have been kept, and chemicals that should have been stored are missing.

Senior police have admitted privately they are unable to say whether the missing drugs have been destroyed, are lost or were stolen.

The now disbanded Ceja corruption taskforce investigated claims that seized drugs were recycled by the former drug squad and either sold or given to informers as a reward for information.

(Source: The Age)

 

Unauthorised strikes "will not be tolerated under any circumstances" in Labor's industrial relations policy, which keeps some of the anti-strike rules introduced by the Howard government.

Workplace Minister Julia Gillard has released the details of Labors' industrial relations policy.

Ms Gillard said that small-business employees will be entitled to one warning and a "reasonable opportunity" to improve their conduct before being at risk of dismissal.

"It's as simple as that," Ms Gillard said. "Multiple warnings are not required. There is no requirement for 'three strikes and you're out'".

She also said that "unprotected industrial action will not be tolerated under any circumstances."

Even this level of protection will not apply to all employees. Small-business employees will need to have worked for their current employer for 12 months before they are covered by the laws. Employees of larger firms face a six-month qualifying period.

University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart said that employers could sack employees if they suspected serious misconduct such as theft - even if the suspicion was unfounded, and was not reported to police. He said that "that seems to suggest that as long as you've got a basis for suspecting they've done the wrong thing you can then sack them and they have no comeback. Even if they have done nothing wrong."

The rules also forbid unions to negotiate on areas which are "the prerogative of management" - including closing a workplace.

(Source: The Age)

 

More than 1500 Australians die unnecessarily each year due to overcrowding in hospital emergency departments, according to a new report.

The report by the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine said that a lack of resources to move patients out of emergency departments into hospital beds for treatment meant people were dying at the same rate as those in road accidents.

Most of the deaths were from heart attacks not treated quickly enough or delayed antibiotics for serious infections such as pneumonia.

The most vulnerable patients were the elderly, mentally ill and those arriving by ambulance or after hours.

(Source: WA Today)

 

Women in 'casual' employment or short-term contracts are 10 times more likely to be sexually harassed than women in full-time employment, according to new research.

The University of Melbourne study also found that women are the victims in eight out of 10 cases of sexual harassment.

Assoc Prof Tony LaMontagne said young women were the most common victims of colleagues abusing workplace power through everything from constant requests for dates to offers of promotion in exchange for sex, or even sexual assault.

"Those in casual employment, as well as those in fixed-term contracts, are at 10-fold higher risk," he said.

"It suggests that those who would perpetrate an unwanted sexual advance on somebody at work are much more likely to do so against a person who has little power of recourse because they are precariously employed.

"They do not have the usual protections and recourses of someone who is permanently employed in the workplace."

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

Australia's most respected climate scientists say that greenhouse adviser Ross Garnaut's proposed cuts to greenhouse emissions are too modest, and will lead to social and environmental disaster.

Speaking separately, Dr Bill Hare, Professor David Karoly and Professor Amanda Lynch - all authors with the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - criticised Professor Garnaut's recommendations, variously describing it as inconsistent, disappointing and wrong.

All believe Australia, as the developed country expected to be worst hit by climate change, should be aiming for a cut in greenhouse emissions of 25% to 40% by 2020.

Professor Garnaut last week recommended the Government set a target of cutting emissions by 10% below 2000 levels by 2020.

Dr Hare, based at Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said adopting Professor Garnaut's recommendation would devastate ecosystems across the planet, dry up Asia's water supply as glaciers melted and trigger massive sea level rises.

Professor Garnaut has acknowledged under his best short-term target - an atmospheric carbon dioxide level of 550 parts per million - the "odds are not great" for the Great Barrier Reef or communities on the Murray River.

"Ross Garnaut's report is effectively putting off the cost of climate change to another generation, who will have to deal with a three-degree rise in temperature as well as sucking carbon dioxide out of the air," Dr Hare said.

Professor Lynch asked "how much is it worth to us to have a Great Barrier Reef? How much is it worth to us to be self-sufficient in food? These are the sort of things where setting a value on it are quite challenging, and he largely skirted those issues."

Professor Karoly, federation fellow at Melbourne University, head of the Premier's climate change advisory group and a UN panel lead author, said Australia's minimum 2020 target should be a 20% cut. "It should be done to try and encourage the other countries around the world to join in. Within Europe, that's what the emissions reductions are aiming at," he said.

"I would anticipate the Government would take an even weaker approach than Garnaut, which is going to essentially be no change whatsoever."

(Source: The Age)

 

"Low-life anarchists" have caused a major arms fair to be cancelled.

The Asia-Pacific Defence and Security Exhibition was to be held in Adelaide from November 11. It was billed as opportunity for Australian companies to take advantage of the "size and significant growth of the Asia Pacific defence and security market."

Acting South Australian Premier Kevin Foley said that planned protests, which he described as "these feral anarchists that would be descending on Adelaide", led to "risks that the organisers of the event and the Government agreed were not worth proceeding with."

Mr Foley also accused the protestors of promoting "violence and destruction."

(Source: The Australian, Green Left Weekly)

 

The Department of Human Services has ignored years of abuse of elderly and handicapped residents in a Victorian care facility, according to former workers and disability advocates.

Three former workers at the home say that the residents had been bullied and suffered substandard medical care for years. They alleged that residents have felt physically and verbally intimidated, had medical treatment withheld and lived in a constant state of fear.

The former workers all say they made complaints when they worked at the home, but the Department of Human Services ignored them.

The Moara Shira Lodge at Cobram in north-central Victoria is a Supported Residential Service providing accommodation for people who cannot look after themselves, including the elderly and the intellectually handicapped.

"Residents are being treated without any dignity and most of them are living in fear," said Leanne Fitzpatrick, who worked at the Cobram home from 2006 until last April.

Another allegation levelled at Moara Shira Lodge is that Ms Henley — the only carer on the site overnight — has sometimes not responded to emergency alarms between 8pm and 7.30am, even though this alarm system is the only way for residents to summon help during the night.

One resident, Barry Smith, died of a suspected heart attack in April last year and was found in the morning only after he failed to attend breakfast.

Former staff believe he had pressed his alarm that night but that no one came to check on him.

They also claim Ms Henley did not always give residents the correct medication, used painkillers belonging to residents, and provided so little food that many were undernourished.

Former resident David Reuss, a 55-year-old amputee confined to a wheelchair, was highly critical of his treatment. Speaking from a new care home in Bright, he said that "one night I fell out of my chair while trying to use the toilet. Another resident pushed my emergency bell but it was hours before Anita arrived to find me on the floor.

"She dragged me across the ground by my collar and my hair and started screaming at me. She threw water on the cuts on my head but didn't treat the wound. Anita was in a real rage that she'd had to come to me."

Mr Reuss said "that place is not fit for animals. You would have more rights if you were in prison than there."

Lyndall Sleep, who worked at the home from 2000 to 2006, is angry that the Department of Human Services failed to take any action for several months.

"Human Services have done nothing to protect these people, even though they've had complaints against Henley almost since she took over the business in 2001," she said.

"They could have revoked her licence and put her out of business. It may have meant finding people other accommodation but that would have been infinitely better than leaving them at the hands of Henley."

In December the department hired the security firm Pinkerton to investigate standards at Moara Shira Lodge but has so far refused to disclose its findings. Last month though, the department imposed six conditions on the licence Ms Henley needs to run the home. Among the conditions were demands that Ms Henley treat clients with dignity, be more transparent with their finances and respect their privacy.

"It's ridiculous that a care provider be told to treat residents with dignity. It goes without saying that this should be the case," Ms Fitzpatrick said. "The fact that these conditions have been put in place shows that the department must have found serious wrongdoing in their investigation.

"But the conditions are too little too late. Anita Henley should be removed immediately and banned from looking after vulnerable people."

The troubles at Moara Shira Lodge are indicative of wider problems with residential homes, according to Kevin Stone of the Victorian Advocacy League for Individuals with Disability.

"There are some good [homes] but we are often being told of shocking stories about the level of care in these places. The government needs to make a major investment in infrastructure and provide more appropriate housing for people with disabilities."

(Source: The Age)

 

An Australian Navy warship was used for a corporate function, with no charge, by a company which senior Defence Force staff had invested in.

HMAS Sydney was moored at the Royal Australian Navy base at Garden Island when it was used for the official launch of the Sydney Kings basketball season in September 2006 by their new part owner and sponsor, the fuel pill company Firepower.

The Navy initially said the HMAS Sydney event was run at no cost to taxpayers. However they then stated that the wages of the sailors and the food and drink served came out of a discretionary budget for "community engagement". They later said that the food and drink was paid for by the Sydney Kings.

Investors in the company, which has since failed, included the head of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston and his wife Liz, the deputy chief of Navy, Rear Admiral Davyd Thomas, former senior naval officer Commodore Kevin Taylor, and the former Air Force chief, Errol McCormack.

(Source: The Age)