Some schools in Aboriginal communities only have a qualified teacher two or three days a week, apparently due to deliberate policy.

The college on Elcho Island, in the Northern Territory, provides full-time teachers to several remote Aboriginal communities.

However the college has told their teachers to spend only five or six days a fortnight in the classroom. The school principal allegedly believes that doing more would "set a precedent."

In one such community, whose members say they're "trapped" by their lack of English, the children have spoken English vocabularies of roughly 50 words.

(Source: The Age)

 

The United States' policy on handling detainees was re-written by a group who believed that "due process is legal mumbo jumbo", according to a senior official.

A group of five lawyers, who called themselves the 'War Council', acted on the instructions of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. They drafted a series of legal opinions which claimed that the US had the right to ignore its own criminal law, and international agreements such as the Geneva Convention, when dealing with suspected members of the Taliban or Al-Qaeda.

Thomas Romig, a major general who was the Army's judge advocate general from 2001 to 2005, says that "as they viewed it, due process is legal mumbo jumbo."

"They wanted to get them, get the facts and convict them...If you're caught as a terrorist, you're presumed guilty and you have to prove you're innocent. It was crazy."

Civilian defense officials also told Romig that 'the time for law had passed'.

Donald J. Guter, formerly the Navy's judge advocate general, said that one of the group wanted a place "outside of the courts."

In 2006 President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, which said Common Article Three of the Geneva Convention, which for example forbids torture of prisoners, did not apply to 'unlawful combatants'. The bill specifically said that "pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions" was acceptable.

It also said that no US court or judge could hear cases in which such detainees contest their incerceration.

The US Supreme Court has since struck down that section of the Act, as well as ruling that Common Article Three of the Geneva Conventions is applicable to detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

(Source: McClatchy Newspapers [US])

 

American police officers have been shown to have lied under oath, trying to frame four men on drugs charges.

New York undercover police officers swore in court that they bought drugs from brothers Jose and Maximo Colon and two of their friends.

However surveillance video showed that the officers had no contact with the four men.

In the 6 months it took to clear the brothers' names, they lost their business and their savings.

Defense lawyers say the officers' actions were disturbing, but not uncommon.

"As defense attorneys you know it exists more often than government wants you to believe" said Brad Wolk.

(Source: wcbstv.com [US])

 

An American science teacher taught creationism and homophobia in class, and used a device to mark students' arms with a cross.

Investigators said that teacher John Freshwater used a high frequency generator to burn a cross on several students' arms. Parents said the cross remained for three or four weeks.

Freshwater also told his class that homosexuality is a sin, and promoted creationism.

(Source: Herald-Dispatch [US])

 

Western soldiers in Afghanistan have been told to ignore rapes of Afghan civilians, according to several reports.

Canadian army chaplain Jean Johns says that she recently counselled a corporal who witnessed a boy being raped by an Afghan soldier. The corporal told her that Canadian troops have been ordered to ignore incidents of sexual assault.

Travis Schouten, now suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Afghanistan. He says he heard an Afghan national army soldier abusing a young boy and then saw the boy afterwards with visible signs of rape trauma, his bowels and lower intestines falling out of his body.

A British soldier said he watched a young boy being raped by an Afghan soldier while his senior officer concluded a meeting nearby with Afghan army officers.

(Source: Toronto Star [Canada])

 

A Chinese dissident who was forcibly removed from Australia has killed himself rather than face further persecution and torture.

The pro-democracy activist, identified only as Mr Zhang, was sent back to China a year ago. He said that he had been beaten and tortured by the Chinese government since his return to China.

The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties said that "he immediately faced torture on his return to China and evidence of that was presented to the Australian government."

The council's secretary, Stephen Blanks, said that "we have been pleading with the Australian government to bring him back and there has just been inaction."

(Source: AFP)

 

Wind power will be cheaper than coal by 2030, according to a new environmental report.

The claim is contained in a blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, released by Greenpeace.

The blueprint - Australia's Energy (R)evolution - says this would stabilise energy prices in the future, as long as it is combined with significant gains in energy efficiency.

The report warns that electricity prices will nearly double by 2020 and almost triple by 2050 if Australia does not move away from fossil fuels, because of rising world prices and the increasing price of carbon permits under an emissions trading scheme.

"Fossil fuels will continue to get more expensive, while the cost of wind will fall because of economies of scale," report co-author Julien Vincent said.

(Source: The Age)

 

Homeless people want to be self-reliant but continue to need help long after official support programs come to an end, a Federal Government report shows.

A survey of people using the state and Commonwealth-funded Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP), the main instrument for homeless crisis support in the country, found that more than half predicted they would need further help once they left.

More than two-thirds of service users said they were close to feeling self-reliant but the biggest barriers were a lack of money and accommodation.

The report found that 79% of the people surveyed had been homeless for at least a year and almost half had been homeless for five years or more. A small amount, 8%, had spent up to 20 years homeless.

The the program, which provides about 13 weeks of support for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In 2005-06, 106,500 people used such services.

Despite the time limitations for help, researchers from the University of NSW's Social Policy Research Centre found some people had been supported by agencies for a number of years. Short-term and crisis accommodation was only meant to be provided for three months, the report said, indicating "the pressure that some services are under not to move people on if there is no other secure accommodation available for them".

Council to Homeless Persons' chief executive Deb Tsorbaris said the program in its current form was "not at all" equipped to provide the long-term support needed to help people out of homelessness.

(Source: The Age)

 

Toyota had already decided to make a hybrid car in Australia, and did not need the $70 million of public money promised by the federal and Victorian governments.

The car may also be outdated by the time it is actually produced in 2010.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged $35 million to Toyota as an incentive to manufacture the more environmentally-friendly car at the company's Altona plant. Premier John Brumby promised the same figure.

However Toyota spokesman Mike Breen said that "it would have happened regardless."

Automotive NetWorks head John Mellor said that 'plug-in' electric cars, which use less petrol than hybrid cards, could soon be sold in Australia.

(Source: MX)

 

A police officer sanctioned the 'marriage' of his 13 year old daughter to a 19 year old.

The Northern Territory officer allowed the young man to sleep with the girl in the family home, and allowed the couple to undergo a traditional Aboriginal marriage ceremony.

The child became pregnant in September 2006. But the foetus died inside the womb and the victim had to be operated on. She also tested positive to three sexually transmitted infections.

The young man was sentenced to 6 months jail. However the sentencing judge noted that "there was no role model or person in authority to bring home to you that what you were doing was wrong...rather, those who might be expected to tell you that a sexual relationship with the child was wrong took the opposite view and encouraged your relationship."

(Source: Brisbane Times)

 

Qantas engineers claim there has been a massive jump in the number of 'allowable defects' on the airline's planes in the wake of staff shortages and overtime bans.

In one instance, a plane that has been on the Melbourne-to-Perth and Sydney-to-Perth routes had an unusually high 59 defects.

Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association national secretary Steve Purvinas said usually a plane would have just three or four of these sorts of minor defects.

Allowable defects can range from a broken coffee machine to an indication problem on equipment. Planes are permitted to fly for a limited period before the defects need to be fixed.

Mr Purvinas said the number of allowable defects had risen from about 750 three weeks ago to more than 1800 in Qantas' fleet of about 130 planes.

"It's not just the overtime bans, it's the way the engineering business has been run on the smell of an oily rag for the last two or three years" he said.

Mr Purvinas said the 59 defects on the one plane could result in pilots becoming over-burdened.

(Source: The Age)

 

Senior Defence officials have been accused of trying to cover up corruption allegations against a fellow official.

Former Liberal Party official Gillian Marks has been on paid sick leave for 18 months, while investigations continue into her decision to award $5 million worth of contracts - nearly all without tender processes - to law firms that she either once worked for, or had close personal links to.

The Defence Department recently refused a freedom-of-information request to release a 128-page report into Ms Marks' conduct.

Several Defence sources told the Age newspaper of their concerns that senior Defence Department officials want to "cover up" or "keep quiet" the controversy surrounding Ms Marks.

Another Defence source claimed those behind the current investigation into Ms Marks were either incompetent or engaged in an attempted cover-up.

Ms Marks has also been accused of working as a migration agent while on sick leave. Defence officials must request permission before engaging in paid work outside the Department.

The Defence Department advised Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon that they have "no reason to believe that Ms Marks has undertaken work as a Migration Agent while on paid leave." Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents show she registered Global Skilling Australia as a business in March 2005.

(Source: The Age)

 

The Australian government could amend its 'non-negotiable' promise not to sell uranium to nuclear-armed India, which has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

One of the first major foreign policy acts of the new Labor government was to withdraw from a deal made by the Howard government to export uranium to India.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said that Labor "went into the election with a strong policy commitment [that] we would not export uranium to nation states who are not members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said in a speech to the Australian Uranium Association that the government's position was "non-negotiable".

However Mr Smith told journalists that "we have made this clear to Indian officials that we are bound by party policy...but if the 123 agreement is passed by the Indian parliament, we could consider joining a consensus."

The 123 agreement is a reference to section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act, passed through US Congress in December 2006. It would allow countries to supply nuclear power generation technology and fuel to the potentially lucrative Indian market, despite it not being a treaty signatory, in return for International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.

(Source: The Age)

 

The US government practice of 'rendering' suspects to countries where they will be tortured has apparently been known to the Australian government for several years, who kept the information secret.

ASIO director-general Paul O'Sullivan has told a Senate enquiry that, after the arrest of Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib in 2001, the Australian government opposed his being taken to another country for 'interrogation.'

Mr O'Sullivan said that he believed Australia's concern at the time was "because of long-standing Australian policy going back over decades that Australia does not support torture and so we would not support a position where one of our citizens was put in such a position."

The meeting where the decision was made was attended by then ASIO director-general Denis Richardson and senior representatives of the Federal Police and three government departments. Mr O'Sullivan also said that such intelligence material would routinely be distributed to the Prime Minister's office.

The United States ignored Australia's requests, and moved Mr Habib to Egypt, where he says he was beaten, tortured with an electric cattle prod, and forced to watch a man being beaten to death in front of him before being warned the same could happen to him.

He was then moved to Guantanamo Bay, where he was held for almost three years before being released without charge.

Mr Habib said the Howard government only asked for him to be moved when the media found out where he was.

(Source: The Age)