An American judge refused to keep her courthouse open an extra 20 minutes to hear an appeal for an inmate on death row, leading to his execution.

Texas judge Sharon Keller refused to let lawyers for Michael Richard file a motion to delay his execution, because "we close at 5pm." He was executed four hours later.

Two years later, the judge is facing five judicial misconduct charges.

(Source: MX)

 

The Victorian government has been accused of spending $4 million of public money on promoting itself in the lead-up to next year's election.

Using the slogan "Victoria - We're not waiting, we're building", the one-minute advertisements are being broadcast in prime time on Melbourne and regional Victorian television.

The ads feature Premier John Brumby telling viewers that "we're doing what's needed to create and secure jobs."

(Source: The Age)

 

A bomb has killed 40 people in Kandahar, in Afghanistan.

The truck bomb collapsed 10 residential buildings. More than 60 people were also hurt as buildings collapsed.

Earlier a bomb killed four American soldiers, making 2009 the deadliest year for foreign troops since the US-led invasion.

(Source: MX)

 

A fast food store in Melbourne's CBD has been accused of systematically using 'trial periods' to get free work out of international students.

Prateek Sahni, 23, has alleged a Subway manager did not pay him for more than 40 hours work at the fast food outlet in February and required him to do heavy labouring work for him at a property, also free. He is seeking penalties that could exceed $200,000.

Mr Sahni said his requests for extra work after his final shift were rebuffed after he asked to be paid.

He said he knew of at least five other students who had not been paid.

The Fair Work Ombudsman executive director Michael Campbell said foreign workers were vulnerable to being taken advantage of, particularly in industries such as retail, hospitality and cleaning.

He said non-payment for trial periods was also a common complaint from young people and was mostly illegal.

(Source: The Age)

 

The governments of Britain and the United States had detailed knowledge of the Nazis' plans to exterminate the Jews and others, but failed to do anything, according to the Vatican's official newspaper.

L'Osservatore Romano said that the two governments ignored, downplayed and even suppressed intelligence reports about Hitler's plans.

It claims that they could have, for example, bombed the railways supplying the death camps, but chose not to.

It quoted from the diary of Henry Morgenthau Jr, the then-US Secretary of the Treasury, who described the British government's attitude to the Jews as "a Satanic combination of British chill and diplomatic double talk."

(Source: MX)

 

The top US military commander in Afghanistan wants the Australian government to expand the Australian military's role in Afghanistan, allowing them to deploy anywhere, instead of mainly near their base in Oruzgan province.

The request, conveyed to Australian defence chiefs last month, comes as US General Stanley McChrystal completes a review of the campaign in Afghanistan, in which he is expected to ask for up to 10,000 extra American troops.

American experts said that the US and its allies had to be prepared for a tough "10-year" assignment in Afghanistan.

Daniel Marston, who has advised both the US and British military forces, says the full weight of US military effort is "just beginning" in Afghanistan.

"If the Australian army want to claim they are a part of the COIN (counter-insurgency) fight that is now occurring in southern Afghanistan, that means potentially they will have to deploy more people, civilians as well as military."

A series of insurgent attacks across Afghanistan on election day killed nine civilians, nine policemen and eight soldiers.

(Source: news.com.au)

 

Anyone can enjoy the benefits that believers derive from faith, without having any religious belief, according to a popular author on neuroscience.

Andrew Newberg, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Radiology and Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

His book, 'How God Changes Your Brain', says that intense prayer or meditation can strengthen regions of the brain that focus the mind and foster compassion, while calming those linked to fear and anger.

However, he also says that it is irrelevant whether the subject has any religious belief.

"In essence, when you think about the really big questions in life...your brain is going to grow" he said.

(Source: MX, Wikipedia)

 

Kevin Rudd's government has increased funding by 50 percent, to a group that he called a cult while in Opposition.

In 2007, schools run by the Exclusive Bretheren were receiving just over $9 million in funding from the Howard government.

But Greens MP John Kaye says funding for Bretheren schools around Australia has risen to $13.9 million this year.

He said that it is "scheduled to go to about 17.2 million by 2012."

Peter Flinn, a former member of the Exclusive Brethren, says he is disturbed by the increase in funding but not surprised.

He said that they "have been the recipients of great generosity from various governments over the years...it's out of all proportion to the number of students. But they are very good at negotiating and lobbying governments."

In the 1990s, two of the main Brethren schools were granted special status known as 'Category 12'.

Michael Bachelard, author of Behind the Exclusive Brethren, says under the old funding model Category 12 was reserved for Aboriginal schools for children with particular needs.

The Bretheren gain funding partly by treating new schools as campuses of existing schools, allowing them to keep the funding levels of the parent school. A Bretheren school at Meadowbank in Sydney has 'campuses' as far away as Albury, 600 kilometres to the south.

The Brisbane campus of the Brethren's Agnew school has been granted $1.65 million to build a library.

To qualify for this level of funding, the school must have between 151 to 300 primary students on site, but the school has only 57 primary students on site.

(Source: ABC News website)

 

Chilren and adults on a remote Australian island have been punished for speaking their own language.

The Cocos Islands, northwest of Perth, became part of Australia in 1984.

Most of the 550 islanders' first language is Cocos Malay, a dialect unique to the island.

At the Home Island school, students take turns monitoring non-English speakers.

'Classroom police' have been given an old Federal Police shirt or cap to wear for the day.

Niza Alan, age 8, was recently made to pick up rubbish after she was caught speaking Cocos Malay in class.

The punishments, which have included being made to stand facing the wall, are now the subject of a complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

Workers for the local shire council were similarly forbidden to speak Cocos Malay at work. Workers would accrue demerit points and would have to provide morning tea for colleagues if they were caught speaking Cocos Malay 10 times.

An email from corporate services director Melinda Lymon states: "Jamill will be the enforcer this week and will keep a record of each time English is not spoken - everyone is to assist by notifying the enforcer if English is not being spoken. After 10 marks for someone - then morning tea it is!!"

(Source: The Australian)

 

A man was paid only $1.26 an hour while working as a security guard.

Faisal Durrani was employed at a number of events for about a month in early 2008, including the Australian Open, but ran into resistance and abuse when he challenged how little he was being paid.

Geoff Chain, director of Unified Security NSW, told Mr Durrani that "I've had enough of your bullshit. You're nothing but a little rat and I'm sick of it."

Mr Durrani was paid 8 per cent of the award entitlements by one contractor.

(Source: The Age)

 

The gap between men's and women's average pay is the highest for 21 years.

Earnings figures for May put average female pay at $54,907 - 82 per cent of the $66,581 male average, and the lowest proportion in 21 years.

(Source: The Age)

 

The FBI included the Green Party in a report on terrorist groups.

The 2005 report was intended "to identify future targets of the animal and environmental rights movements and/or those committing crimes on the behalf of the movements in the Georgia area."

It noted the party's support of ecology, feminism, and social justice, among other issues.

The report was distributed to sections of the FBI dealing with weapons of mass destruction and domestic terrorism.

(Source: gawker.com)

 

The Australian Trade Commission informed one of its most senior diplomats he was under police investigation for alleged child sex offences, allowing him to resign quietly and return home where he repeatedly sexually abused a Victorian 15-year-old schoolboy.

John Finnin held a top-secret security clearance from the Federal Government until July 2006, when it was alleged he was involved in an international child sex ring.

Austrade was told Finnin was suspected of using his diplomatic status and access to Australian embassies around the world to traffic in young children for sex.

Austrade recalled Finnin from Germany, where he was deputy consul general and head of trade for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and told him he was under investigation. He was then allowed to give notice, and leave Austrade two months later.

Finnin then joined the Firepower company. Austrade continued to work with him, entering into a service agreement with the company and giving it $394,009 in export grants. The service agreement allowed Finnin to continue to use Australian embassies and ambassadors' private residences to promote the merits of the company's supposed fuel-saving devices. In fact the company manufactured nothing, and is currently being investigated, accused of defrauding investors of an estimated $100 million.

In July the Victorian County Court remanded Finnin for sentencing after he was found guilty of 23 child sex charges after a trial lasting almost three weeks.

(Source: The Age)

 

Two actors who were celebrating the opening of a movie about racial prejudice, say they were refused entry to a Sydney bar because of their race.

Waddah Sari and Buddy Dannoun were celebrating the opening of the movie Cedar Boys, in which they play two Lebanese-Australian friends.

The movie features a scene where the men are turned away from upmarket bars because of their ethnicity.

The two men were refused entry to the Hemmesphere bar around 1am. The bar claimed there was a problem with their shoes.

However fellow-actor Les Chantery said "there were at least eight or nine people standing around inside the bar in the same style shoes as Waddah's. Our own producer, Matthew Dabner, who is of Anglo descent, was wearing the same shoes."

Sari said that "this same thing happened to us a lot when we were younger. It happened at school, out of school. I've been in the film industry now for 11 years and clearly, it still doesn't get any easier."

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)