Barack Obama has ordered the first military action of his presidency, ordering missile attacks against villages in Pakistan.

The attacks are believed to have killed at least 18 people. Intelligence officials claimed that some of those killed were al-Qaida militants.

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

 

Senior government advisers are in line for pay increases of up to $11,700 despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's appeal for wage restraint.

Mr Rudd urged workers last week to "restrain wage claims" to help deal with the economic crisis.

Special Minister of State John Faulkner said in a memo late last year that he was considering a 5.6 per cent pay rise for all senior staff employed by MPs.

The most senior staffers are paid up to $192,400 in basic wages and an extra $17,719 as a special payment to cover long working hours.

Two of Mr Rudd's senior staffers, including his chief of staff, Alister Jordan, recently received special top-up payments to boost their $200,000-plus annual incomes.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

The Pope has welcomed a Holocaust-denying bishop back into the Catholic Church.

Richard Williamson told Swedish television in 2008 that "I believe there were no gas chambers...I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps...but none of them by gas chambers."

He has also referred to the Jews as "enemies of Christ."

He was excommunicated in 1988, not for his views on Jews, but for taking part in a ceremony in which he was ordained as a bishop without papal permission.

(Source: New York Times, Wikipedia)

 

Quote of the Moment:

"Life begins at confection."

Comment on the American Life League press release (story below).

 

An American anti-abortion group has accused a doughnut company of promoting abortion, because of their offer of a free doughnut to customers.

Krispy Kreme ran a promotion tied to the inauguration of new President Barack Obama, by offering a "free doughnut of choice" to every customer on January 20.

The American Life League stated that "the unfortunate reality of a post Roe v. Wade America is that 'choice' is synonymous with abortion access and celebration of 'freedom of choice' is a tacit endorsement of abortion rights on demand."

They continued that "President-elect Barack Obama promises to be the most virulently pro-abortion president in history.", and thus that celebrating his inauguration is "disrespectful and insensitive and makes a mockery of a national tragedy."

(Source: American Life League website)

Further reading: KRISPY KREME CELEBRATES OBAMA WITH PRO-ABORTION DOUGHNUTS - the original press release.

 

The Labor Party has broken a promise that refugee detention centres would be transferred from private operators to the public sector, and has extended the contract of a company who they accused of turning detainees into "broken human beings."

The G4S company's contract has been extended until at least July 31.

Detention centres will remain in private hands for several years, as the government confirmed it would proceed with the private tendering process started by the former Coalition government.

In 2006 the Coalition government announced it would not extend G4S's $300 million contract when it expired at the end of 2007, and all detention services would be retendered.

Labor criticised the decision and said the contract with G4S should be terminated and the centres returned to government control so there was a clear line of responsibility back to the minister.

"This is the private company that has people coming in the doors with no mental health problems and going out as broken human beings," then Labor immigration spokesman Tony Burke said.

"There is one answer and one answer alone, and that is there have been enough breaches of this contract for the government to take action to terminate the privatisation of our detention centres. It was a bad idea from the start. It should not have taken place. It should not be continued" he said.

The ALP's 2007 platform also stated that the public sector would manage the detention centres.

When G4S began running detention centres in 2003, critics claimed it introduced a punitive regime, including solitary confinement.

The company was fined $500,000 in 2005 after staff refused detainees food, water and access to a toilet on a seven-hour bus trip between the Maribyrnong and Baxter detention centres.

But in his annual report on detention centres, Human Rights Commissioner Graeme Innes said staff attitudes, services and activities in the centres had 'generally' improved in the past few years.

G4S's contract allows for further extensions if necessary.

(Source: The Age)

 

Victorian police have offered $13.75 million in rewards to solve some of the state's worst crimes, but have paid nothing in ten years.

The Age newspaper reported that Victoria Police has confirmed it does not have a current list of offered rewards and the force began a review late last year to determine exactly how many rewards remained outstanding.

Claims have been made on some of the 43 rewards posted since 1998, but none of the $13.75 million on offer has been handed out.

Police Minister Bob Cameron would not comment, saying the rewards - paid for by the Victorian government - were a matter for police command.

The situation showed the ineffectiveness of rewards, criminologist Professor Paul Wilson said.

"Politicians and police commissioners tend to like them because they are trying to tell the public concerned about a high-profile crime that they are doing something" Professor Wilson said.

The top reward for information on crimes in Victoria was lifted from $100,000 to $1 million in 2003.

Eight $1 million rewards have been offered since.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

One hundred Victorians who worked as extras in Paul Hogan's latest film say they were ripped off, losing a total of $32,000.

The Warrnambool residents signed away their right to be paid for their work on the film Charlie and Boots, on the proviso that the producers would donate money to local not-for-profit organisations.

"When I asked if I could nominate a charity, they said no, that it was already done" said extra John King.

He said producers told the group that the soccer club would receive a donation.

"We told them the soccer club was not a charity," he said.

"We then rang the soccer club, and they had heard nothing about it."

The extras could were entitled to a total of $32,000 for their cumulative 250 days' work under the actors' union award.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

A newly appointed Australian Navy submarine commander has said that forcing female sailors to wear bikinis would attract "the right demographic of young men."

Commander Tom Phillips, appointed to the helm of Collins class submarine HMAS Farncomb last year, told Ralph magazine that the naval uniform works to "either pull a chick or get in a fight."

Asked by the magazine "if female sailors all had to be hot and had to wear bikinis, would that help recruitment?", Commander Phillips is quoted as responding that "it would certainly get the right demographic of young men in. I'm not sure how feasible it is, however."

Commander Phillips also said the submarine equivalent of the "mile-high club" is the "going down club".

(Source: news.com.au)

 

For the first time, a senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo has publicly stated that a detainee was tortured.

Retired former judge Susan Crawford told the Washington Post that the treatment of suspected terrorist Mohammed al-Qahtani "met the legal definition of torture".

Judge Crawford dismissed war crimes charges against al-Qahtani in May 2008 but he remains at Guantanamo.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

Quotes of the Moment:

"Ah, our little Paki friend, Ahmed."

Prince Harry, referring to a fellow officer cadet in a recently discovered video diary.

"Fuck me, you look like a raghead."

Prince Harry in the same video, referring to another colleage.

 

Roughly 100 Victoria Police officers and employees have been taken into criminal custody or punished for serious disciplinary breaches in only 12 months.

Thirty-two officers have been detained, suspected of offences including rape, child pornography, and perverting the course of justice.

Another 50 officers were punished for breaking internal police rules.

Twenty-two civilian police employees were investigated for crimes and internal breaches.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

 

Australia's environmental policies are guaranteeing the "destruction of much of the life on the planet", according to a leading NASA scientist.

The head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Professor James Hansen, has written an open letter to Barack Obama calling for a moratorium on coal-fired power stations and the use of next-generation nuclear power.

In the letter he says: "Australia exports coal and sets atmospheric carbon dioxide goals so large as to guarantee destruction of much of the life on the planet."

Professor Hansen said goals and caps on carbon emissions were practically worthless because of the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the air.

He said that emissions reduction targets, like Kevin Rudd's goal to cut emissions by a minimum of 5 per cent and up to 15 per cent by 2020, do not work.

"This approach is ineffectual and not commensurate with the climate threat", he wrote of reduction plans.

"It could waste another decade, locking in disastrous consequences for our planet and humanity."

(Source: The Age)

further reading: Professor Hansen's letter (pdf)

 

A prominent fashion designer has defended the use of fur in fashion, on the grounds that the animals it comes from would kill humans if they could.

Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld claimed that hunters make a living "killing those beasts who would kill us if they could."

Common animal sources for fur clothing include rabbits, beavers, and possums.

He added that animals should be killed "nicely" if possible.

(Source: Telegraph [UK], Wikipedia)

 

Teenagers who take virginity pledges are just as likely as other teenagers to have sex - but are less likely to practice safe sex, according to new research from the US.

Study author Janet E. Rosenbaum, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that "virginity pledgers and similar non-pledgers don't differ in the rates of vaginal, oral or anal sex or any other sexual behavior."

However, she said that "strikingly, pledgers are less likely than similar non-pledgers to use condoms and also less likely to use any form of birth control."

"Sex education programs for teens who take pledges tend to be very negative and inaccurate about condom and birth control information" Rosenbaum said.

The study also found that, five years after taking a virginity pledge, more than 80 percent of pledgers denied ever making such a promise.

(Source: US News and World Report website)