Brave Brit Saves Lives in Christchurch

Emma Howard who was rescued from the rubble of the Christchurch earthquake walked down the aisle on the weekend, after thanking the brave Brit who saved her life. Carl Stockton couldn't go to her wedding because he was still busy working on the rescue effort -but he met the 23 year old before the ceremony to wish her luck.

"It was quite an emotional meeting," said Carl, a builder from Wigan, near Manchester. "Emma had been so, so lucky and I was very happy for her. I went to her dad's house this morning to say hello and give her a hug."

Despite the hell she suffered in the rubble of her office just three days before, huddled in the foetal position for six and a half hours in the dark, trainee accountant Emma was determined to go ahead with her marriage to Chris Greenslade. Emma was one of six survivors Carl rescued that day. The father of four was working as a builder outside Christchurch when the quake hit and he rushed into the city on his motorbike to help. Carl who has suffered from claustrophobia since childhood said later: "For some reason, the claustrophobia didn't affect me. But ask me to go in a hole now and it would be a different thing."

The confirmed death toll from the quake stood at 113 last night but there are still many missing.

Danish Twins for Aussie Princess

Twins born to Princess Mary and Prince Frederik of Denmark posed for official photos at the Amalienborg Palace this week. The baby boy and girl won’t be named until their christening on 14th April. They are fourth and fifth in line to the throne, after their father and older siblings Prince Christian, 5 and Princess Isabella 3. What a beautiful family. They hope to show them off to family and friends in Australia soon.

Gaddafi's Final Days

Today Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced travel and financial sanctions against Moamar Gaddafi. Twenty two key people have been named and include Gaddafi's family, senior military and security personnel. They have also been banned from entering or transiting Australian territory and no financial transaction may be entered into with any one of them. Australian officials living in Libya have been evacuated to Malta and 70 other Australians have also left.

He urged the UN Security Council to administer similar sanctions and said our Government had to take action to show Australia's support for the people of Libya.

President Obama has called for Gaddafi to step down after being criticized for being slow to respond, German Angela Merkel said he needs to go but China still hasn't said anything. News coming out of Libya is unconfirmed and no one really knows what's going on.

Aboriginal Intervention a Failure

Threre was a feeling of hope when John Howard's Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough introduced the NT intevention in mid 2007. We were appalled at the reports of child sexual abuse, domestic violence and substance abuse in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. But Mal Brough has now declared that the intervention is a failure. He says that violence and dysfunction is so out of control in Alice Springs, the fringe dwellers are killing themselves and their kids.

He lost his seat in Parliament in 2007 and says that the Gillard government has left it "stagnant", allowing dysfunction to grow. "Because it wasn't the Labor Party's policy, they just adopted it for political reasons. They failed to take it to the next level. It has become stagnant and buried in bureaucracy, it is no longer working."

Mr Brough said he supported an extreme proposal for a large prison farm to be built outside Alice Springs, where drinkers could be rehabilitated through craft-learning, trade schools and manual work. He said it should be compulsory for substance abusers to be sent there."The drug and alcohol dependencies need to be dealt with, but not in a voluntary way," he said.

This proposal was first put forward by Adam Giles, member for the Territory seat of Braitling, which takes in parts of Alice Springs. He said his plan was to get people to move where there was economic opportunity rather than perpetuating the "myth" that economies could be created where there were no real job opportunities.

The Northern Territory intervention cost $1.2bn over three years and involves 73 remote communities. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said this week tackling the situation in Alice Springs was at the top of her priority list.

So once again, back to square one.

Japanese Rescue Workers Arrive in Christchurch

I must admit I was a bit shocked at the attitude of Operations Commander Dave Lawry. How could he say that he was "100 per cent" certain everyone in the Canterbury Televion building was dead. Is he clairvoyant? We've seen people trapped under rubble in earthquakes who have come out alive weeks after the event. The Japanese weren't buying it either, they've got 50 people under there, many of them students. Their families began arriving in Christchurch yesterday along with 67 experienced Japanese emergency workers who assumed control of the building.

But it doesn't look promising - no one knows for sure how many people were in the building when it collapsed and yesterday 23 bodies were retrieved, some of them Japanese students. It is understood the students were on the bottom floor of the building when it collapsed, and a rescue worker said it was obvious those on the bottom floor were crushed before they could even try to escape. "It's true, they had no chance," he said.

Last night, Christchurch police superintendent Dave Cliff said authorities had not given up on finding anyone alive at the CTV building, rather they had been forced to prioritise the sites where it was most likely that people could have survived.

But we've got to be sure.

Elton John's Baby Boy

Sir Elton is nearly 64, rather late to become a first time dad but he's obviously enjoying his son. Only 8 weeks old, he and partner David Furnish took Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John to his first beach holiday in Hawaii.

Elton will be called Daddy and Furnish will be Papa and they insist they are not going to spoil him.

They want him to have 'a solid old-fashioned childhood'. Of course they do, when daddy is worth nearly $260 million dollars, he'll get to grow up just like everyone else. I really don't think Elton understands that it won't be possible - he once spent nearly $600,000 on flowers.

Martin Sheen's New Movie

Martin Sheen was in the UK this week to promote his new film The Way and we get to meet his son Emilio Estevez who directed and also stars in the film. Talk about a chip off the old block, Emilio looks just like his dad and his brother. But of course everyone wanted to know about Charlie who is currently at home in LA receiving treatment. He said 'He's an extraordinary man, he's doing well. This disease of addiction is a form of cancer. You have to have an equal measure of concern and love.'

When asked how he was supporting his son he said 'With prayer. We lift him up and we ask everyone who cares about him to lift him up, and lift up all those who are in the grip of drug and alcohol abuse, because they are looking for transcendence.'

New Zealand Earthquake

Australia and New Zealand are good mates and always will be. We share a history of brothers-in-arms in war and we laugh at the way they say 'fersh and cherps". But there is another major difference - while we have been riding high on the demand for our resources from China and India, the Kiwis have been weighed down by high debt and yesterday's earthquake is only going to make matters worse.

Apart from the move in debt markets, the country's currency was hit hard, falling to US75.05c, from US76.04 yesterday. This earthquake could be much worse than last year's quake, which cost an estimated $US3.8 billion in repairs.

Moody's has a Aaa rating on the country with a stable outlook and Fitch has an AA+ rating. Fitch's head of Asia Pacific sovereign debt Andrew Colquhoun said "The ratings are on negative outlook already, which is driven by that economy's imbalances."

As the death toll continues to rise, our hearts go out to our Kiwi friends across the water. Julia Gillard has already sent rescue teams and everything they have asked for is on the way. They requested a contingent of police officers to relieve those working around the clock. It's good to be able to repay the debt we owe these people for the help they have given us over the years, they were there when we needed them, fighting the Black Saturday bushfires and then helping with the cyclone and floods.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them in one of their darkest hours.

Has Multiculturalism Worked in Australia?

Today the University of Western Sydney released the results of a survey they did about our attitudes to Multiculturalism and it appears that the Muslim populations pose a threat in the minds of many Australians. New South Wales reported the highest levels of anti-Muslim attitudes (54.4 per cent) and in Sydney's central west, it ran as high as 60 and 61 per cent.

These findings serious challenge Immigration Minister Chris Bowen's boasting last month that Australia's multiculturalism is the best in the world.

The survey phone-polled 12,500 Australians over the past 10 years in all states and territories, asking them to identify their own prejudices and misgivings about other cultural groups, and to report their own experiences of racism in work, education, the housing market and the community. Respondents were asked if they were prejudiced against other cultures, and if Australia was ''weakened by people of different ethnic origins sticking to their old ways''. They were asked to measure how secure they felt with people of other ethnic backgrounds, and how they would feel if a ''close relative'' married someone of different racial backgrounds and/or religious faiths.

A poll in the Age this morning so far at 10 am reads:

Is Australia a racist country?

Yes 68%

No 32%

Total votes: 4,586

http://www.theage.com.au/national/survey-finds-nsw-has-most-racial-tension-20110222-1b42m.html?from=smh_ft

Matthew Newton's Troubles Continue

Bert and Patti Newton are Australia’s show business royalty, well respected and loved. But their son Matthew is making life difficult for his family. He’s been described as a “troubled” man which is rather an understatement. On the New Years Eve 2006 episode of The Big Night In with John Foreman on Network Ten had viewers complaining that the show was in bad taste as he simulated sex acts and other suggestive material and used bad language. That same year Newtown split with long time girlfriend Brooke Satchwell. It was said that he punched her in the head on more than one occasion and attempted to gouge her eyes and face. Chris Murphy was his solicitor and he received a 12 month good behaviour bond. Family, friends and work colleagues all gave him character references and said it was completely out of character. In July 2007, Newton was successful in having the conviction overturned when his Solicitor Chris Murphy submitted a letter from his psychiatrist, outlining his depressive illness and stated he was unlikely to reoffend.

In November 2009 Newton trashed his hotel room in Kings Cross inflicting $9,000 worth of damage. The room was booked in the name of his then girlfriend Rachael Taylor and he departed the next day without checking out. The police were called but no charges were laid. In March 2010, Newton was 'ejected' from the Cullen Hotel in Melbourne after they discovered $4000 worth of damage to the hotel room during his 3 week stay. In April 2010 he was admitted to Malvern Private Hospital in Melbourne, who specialise in a 28 day drug and alcohol addiction recovery program. In August 2010 he was involved in two particularly brutal domestic violence incidents at a hotel in Rome with girlfriend Rachael Taylor. That's when Rachael finally decided to end the relationship and took out an AVO to keep him away. But he couldn’t stay away and two weeks ago he was arrested for trying to make contact with her again. He was released on bail and ordered to appear in Court in March 2011 and faces possible jail time.

Now Patti Newton has been dumped mid-contract as the ambassador for Millers Ladies Fashion Club. Patti was informed by executives “that with everything that was happening, Patti is no longer the right fit for the brand.” Newton apparently interpreted "everything that was happening" as meaning the personal problems affecting her son Matthew. Executives were critical of the media fallout after Matthew’s attack on girlfriend Rachael Taylor and thought his mother could adversely affect sales of the conservative women’s label. They felt that because their fashion target is for women over 50, baby boomers would be shocked by Matthew's behaviour. Friends of the family yesterday said Patti was beside herself with worry concerning her troubled only son and had been making regular trips to Sydney in recent months to support him while he has been in rehab.

Hackers Threaten Westboro Baptist Church

A group of hackers acting under the banner, "Anonymous," has warned the Westboro Baptist Church to stop their anti-gay protests or else "the damage incurred will be irreversible and neither their institution or their congregation will ever be able to fully recover". Rev Fred Phelps and his followers are famous for turning up at funerals of servicemen saying it's God's punishment on America.

In its letter, Anonymous wrote the following:

We, the collective super-consciousness known as ANONYMOUS - the Voice of Free Speech & the Advocate of the People - have long heard you issue your venomous statements of hatred, and we have witnessed your flagrant and absurd displays of inimitable bigotry and intolerant fanaticism. We have always regarded you and your ilk as an assembly of graceless sociopaths and maniacal chauvinists & religious zealots, however benign, who act out for the sake of attention & in the name of religion.

Being such aggressive proponents for the Freedom of Speech & Freedom of Information as we are, we have hitherto allowed you to continue preaching your benighted gospel of hatred and your theatrical exhibitions of, not only your fascist views, but your utter lack of Christ-like attributes. You have condemned the men and women who serve, fight, and perish in the armed forces of your nation; you have prayed for and celebrated the deaths of young children, who are without fault; you have stood outside the United States National Holocaust Museum, condemning the men, women, and children who, despite their innocence, were annihilated by a tyrannical embodiment of fascism and unsubstantiated repugnance. Rather than allowing the deceased some degree of peace and respect, you instead choose to torment, harass, and assault those who grieve.

Your demonstrations and your unrelenting cascade of disparaging slurs, unfounded judgments, and prejudicial innuendos, which apparently apply to every individual numbered amongst the race of Man - except for yourselves - has frequently crossed the line which separates Freedom of Speech from deliberately utilizing the same tactics and methods of intimidation and mental & emotional abuse that have been previously exploited and employed by tyrants and dictators, fascists and terrorist organizations throughout history.

ANONYMOUS cannot abide this behavior any longer. The time for us to be idle spectators in your inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex, and we shall now be moved to action. Thus, we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes in Kansas, & close your public Web sites. Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS: We will target your public Websites, and the propaganda & detestable doctrine that you promote will be eradicated; the damage incurred will be irreversible, and neither your institution nor your congregation will ever be able to fully recover. It is in your best interest to comply now, while the option to do so is still being offered, because we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines. The warning has been given. What happens from here shall be determined by you.

These same people from Anonymous recently got into the computer system of a security firm and posted thousands of documents describing plans to attack WikiLeaks, the Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But somehow I don't think the threat will stop these insane religious zealots.

Bondi to Coogee Cliff Walk War

The 5 kilometre Coogee to Bondi cliff walk is now so congested, people are having trouble just moving along. And it's making them angry. So angry in fact that Waverley Council has stepped in to stop path-rage between the walkers and the runners. They have decided to install traffic signs and footpath markings advising the users to "keep left".

Some angry confrontations have taken place recently and people are unable to agree on who has the right of way, which side of the path pedestrians and runners should use, and what the protocol is when the paths narrow at choke points. Trouble starts when a walker won't move over for a runner coming towards him and sometimes people bump into each other. So what's the reaction of the locals? Some think it's a good idea and others think it's overkill.

There are other beautiful cliff walks around Sydney with views just as good with fewer people. If it's been a while since your last visit, the Bondi walk is okay during the week, but don't attempt it on the weekend.

Iran's Basij

Last year in June when President Ahmadinejad was elected to serve a second four year term, hundreds of Iranians wearing green filled the streets to demonstrate and show their disgust.  Then suddenly they were nowhere to be seen.

The Basij is a paramilitary volunteer militia founded by the Ayatollah Khomeini in November 1979. They are supposed to be subordinate to, and receive their orders from, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards but have been described as "a loosely allied group of organizations including many groups controlled by local clerics".

Iranian youths volunteer to join the Basij, often in exchange for official benefits and are loyal to the supreme leader Khamenei. They currently serve as an auxiliary force engaged in activities such as internal security as well as law enforcement, organizing public religious ceremonies, and more famously - morals policing and the suppression of dissident gatherings.  Basij are present in schools, universities, state and private institutions, factories and even among tribes.

So you could say the Basij are the average citizen's worst nightmare, looking over every shoulder.  The question now is whether the Revolutionary Guards can control these young religious zealots and convince them that killing their brothers is wrong. 

Multiculturalism in Australia

Mohamad Assoum is devout Muslim and second-generation Lebanese-Australian. He's in his final year of a science degree at Sydney University and plans on becoming a cardio-thoracic surgeon. But he admits he's not typical of the young men in his community.

He's from Auburn in Sydney's west, the heartland of migrant Australia where education standards are poor and unemployment is high. Three years ago, Mohamad's brother Mustafa, a youth worker, was murdered in a drive-by shooting late at night, not an uncommon occurrence in Sydney these days, it's getting more like old Chicago every day.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen this week said that multiculturalism in Australia IS working. On Wednesday night he re-committed the Labor Party and the Gillard government to ethnic and cultural diversity and yesterday began trying to sell the idea. A cynical person might say it was designed to win back voter support in their ethnic heartland.

Mr Bowen said "If you respect the Australian values of democracy, rule of law, equality of the sexes, then we invite you to be full members of our society," he told Ray Hadley on Sydney radio 2GB yesterday.

I think Mr Bowen knows very well that Muslims refuse to integrate into our culture - they think we are immoral, drunkards and sexually depraved. We know this because they have told us time and time again. Their children don't go to Australian schools, so they will never become completely Aussified. I think it will take generations for our Muslim youth to catch up to the Egyptian way of thinking - their young are no longer obsessed with Islam, they've cut the chains of rigid religious domination and are moving on.

Taliban Cruelty to Women

Remember brave Bibi Aisha, the beautiful girl on the cover of Time Magazine without a nose? Here she is today, sitting on the New York subway with a friend and thanks to the generosity of American people and the wonders of modern surgery, she now has a reason to smile.

When Bibi was 12, her father promised her in marriage to a Taliban fighter to pay a debt. She was handed over to his family who abused her and forced her to sleep in the stable with the animals. When she attempted to run away, she was caught and, as a punishment, her nose and ears were sliced off by her husband while her father-in-law held a gun to her head.

'When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out. In the middle of the night it felt like there was cold water in my nose. I opened my eyes and I couldn't even see because of all the blood,' she said. Left for dead in the mountains, she crawled to her grandfather's house and her father managed to get her to an American medical facility, where medics nursed her for ten weeks. They then sent her to a secret women's shelter in Kabul and in August she was flown to the U.S. by the Grossman Burn Foundation to stay with a host family.

In October last year she had a prosthetic nose fitted at the non-profit humanitarian Grossman Burn Center at West Hills Hospital in California. Dr Peter Grossman said they hope to give Aisha a more 'permanent solution' but plans for more surgery are on hold because she is still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and needs more time to heal.

Bibi has since found out that her father-in-law Haji Suleiman has been arrested by Afghan police. The 45 year old man held a gun to her head while his son sliced off her nose and ears and then took the body parts and paraded them around his village. 'This is against Afghan-ism, against Afghan and Shariah laws, against every principle in the world, against humanity, so that’s why we wanted to bring him to justice,' said General Juma Gul Himat, provincial police chief of Uruzgan province. 'He made a big mistake,' the general said. 'He disfigured a creature of God.'

Kevin Rudd's New Holiday Home

The Rudd family has purchased a holiday house at Castaways Beach, south of Noosa for $3.1 million. Designed by Stephen Kidd, the five-bedroom house has never-built-out beach and ocean views.

Noosa is a popular area for the rich and famous - Richard Branson has his very own island in Noosa River and Pat Rafter and Bob Ansett are at Sunshine Beach. There are also many sporting celebrities and captains of industry who have chosen this area to relax and unwind.

The agents' advertisement read: "The home is located in a friendly peaceful neighbourhood and only minutes from Peregian shops, prestige beaches and a short drive to Noosa Heads and 20 minutes to the sunshine coast airport." And for the family's pooch, there's easy access to the dog-friendly beach.

The press was already on Rudd's doorstep and have been door-knocking the neighbours for comment.

Australian Workers Union and Rio Tinto

Paul Howes, national secretary of the Australian Workers Union says that monkeys could do a better job of managing Rio Tinto. He accuses Rio’s Chief Executive Tom Albanese of “sucking out the blood, sweat and tears of blue-collar workers”

At the union’s national conference at the Gold Coast, he told delegates that he had a message for Rio Tinto – “You don’t own this government and you don’t own this country anymore, your workforce has the right to be represented. You cannot hide behind your slimy, grubby mates in the Coalition because we’re coming after you. We are going to take Rio Tinto on and we are going to make sure that they pay a liveable wage to the workers who make the wealth that these shiny arses sitting in the boardroom in London enjoy”. Wow, tell us what you really think Paul.

Delegates endorsed plans to try to unionise every section of the aluminium and glass industries, with Rio operations in Launceston and Gladstone targeted. He also nominated BHP Billiton's Worsley Alumina refinery and its Olympic Dam project.

Last year an anti-mining tax campaign war was waged by Rio, BHP and Xstrata against Wayne Swan and Kevin Rudd and Howe's union was a strong backer of the government’s 40 per cent super profits tax which cost Kevin Rudd his job. Wayne Swan gave a speech at the conference, singing the praises of the oldest union in Australia, but left before Howes made his threatening comments.

Rio was the first major mining company to place its workforce on individual contracts and refused to deal with unions and they say this has resulted in 15 years of strike free harmony at its Pilbara sites. But it seems that the union shot itself in the foot when workers at the Rober River iron ore site went on strike in the mid 1980s because some flavours of ice-cream were not available in the canteen.

A Rio spokesman said the company "recognises every employee's right to choose to join a union or not join a union" and went on "We do not monitor the level of union membership in our businesses," He said unions had failed to lift membership because employees were highly paid and had high safety standards in their workplace: "Employers have worked hard to ensure employees are safe at work and well remunerated."

Mr Howes said the AWU was growing fast and has recruited an extra 30,000 members over the past three years.

Mubarak could be the richest man in the world

How can one man be worth $US70 billion - it’s obscene - that makes him richer than Bill Gates! It's times like this that I hate the Swiss and their secret banking system because that’s where he’s got most of it stashed. And then of course there’s the real estate all around the world. His wife and two sons were also able to accumulate great wealth through business deals with foreigners. Now the Egyptian press are looking into the hidden wealth of Mubarak's allies.

Five hated cronies of Mubarak have each amassed personal fortunes and three of them, former Cabinet ministers, tried to to get out of the country over the weekend but were denied permission. Protesters have cited government corruption as a reason they demanded Mubarak step down. His family wealth dates back to when he was an air force officer and in a position to benefit from corporate corruption on military contracts, mainly through business partnerships with foreign investors. It’s thought that most of Mubarak’s assets are in UK and Swiss banks which is the pattern of other middle eastern dictators to make sure their wealth won’t be taken during a transition.

Meanwhile Cairo cemented its relationship with Egypt’s civil service yesterday – they announced a 15 per cent pay rise for six million government workers.

Private Bradley Manning - The Forgotten Man

Private Bradley Manning surely didn’t think about the consequences of what he was doing when he stole 250,000 classified US documents. Now his supporters have told the ABC’s Four Corners the US government is pressuring him to implicate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Now we find out that there was heated debate within WikiLeaks regarding the dire consequences it would have for Manning – they knew full well what would happen to him. He was betrayed by former computer hacker Adrian Lamo who befriended the young private. Boston researcher David House is a member of Manning's legal advocacy team and is concerned for his health. His conditions at the Quantico military brig outside Washington are deplorable and his state of mind has deteriorated so badly over time that he believes he must be undergoing torture.

Former WikiLeaks insider Daniel Domscheit-Berg is portraying himself as the voice of reason and told the Four Corners program he was "devastated" at the news of Manning's arrest and questioned the decision to release the cables in the first place. "If the cables had not been published, there would've been no proof that anyone had given the material to a different entity," Mr Domscheit-Berg said. "So from my perspective, what should have happened with these cables, for the sake of Bradley Manning, would have been to just keep them back as long as possible until you find out what is happening with him before you publish them”.

Domscheit-Berg went on "All this hype about WikiLeaks and Julian's problems in Sweden, what are these problems compared to the trouble this private is in?" He said that Manning was one of the greatest heroes for freedom of information of our time. "Everyone should be talking about Manning and not about Julian's trouble in Sweden or in Great Britain or wherever."

Assange maintains WikiLeaks does not know the identity of it sources. They have so far donated $15,000 to Manning's legal defence, but Assange would not comment on what the organisation was doing now to support Manning.

Must see - Four Corners tonight 8.30 ABC1

Egypt's New Dawn

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood says it is not seeking power and will not put forward a presidential candidate at the upcoming election so they must believe they don't have a chance of winning. This is good news for the west because they hate us and especially America, with a passion. While in office, Mubarak had the good sense to round up its members and ban them from a formal role in politics.

Meanwhile, people are cleaning up the city and businesses and restaurants are reopening. The military said they will steer the country towards democratic elections - some people are sceptical but most appear to take them at their word.

Israel is breathing a sigh of relief after the Egyptian military said they would honour their peace treaty. Naturally, they were worried that if Islamic militants took control, they would overturn their 1979 treaty. The military relaxed a night-time curfew today and banned current and ex-government officials from travelling abroad without permission in its first move since taking power.

So far, so good..

Egypt's Joy

What a privilege it is to be alive to witness the world-changing event that took place in Egypt this week and what an incredible victory for the Egyptian people.

With Mubarak's removal, the question to be asked now is - will the bulk of his private fortune and that of his sons and his wife now be returned to the national treasury? We know he has money stashed all over the world, but can they get it back?

He said he would never run away and wanted to die on Egyptian soil. Now we'll see how much he loves his country.

Egypt's President Mubarak Refuses to Go

Omar Suleiman

When 200,000 people gathered in Tahrir Square a few hours ago, they expected President Mubarak to announce that he was stepping down but instead, he said he won't be leaving until the September elections. The reaction was disbelief and rage. He's handed over control of the country to his second in command Omar Suleiman.

But there's a problem with Omar Suleiman, he's the former head of the secret police and he's got torture chambers just waiting for dissenters and this is creating real fear among the people. They will remember only too well what happened to the protestors in Iran. So far there has been no burning or destruction of property so there's been no reason for the army to intervene, but after the President's speech and the anger it produced, it's unlikely that tempers will be kept in check for long.

This is such an important day in our history. Fingers crossed for Egypt.

Egypt on the brink of freedom

We are now realizing that there could be dire consequences resulting from Egypt's revolt against Mubarak. It's a bit like the devil you know could be better than the alternative. The free world are arrogantly sticking their noses in and saying what should happen but the bottom line is that the Muslim Brotherhood said yesterday that they would review Egypt's peace treaty with Israel should they come to power. This news must surely cause great angst for Israel - the Camp David peace accord was signed by the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1979.

But the Brotherhood got a bit of a shock - the massive street protests led by secular, middle-class youths have rejected any attempt by mainstream political parties to take control, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of the protesters on Tahrir Square said that they want the peace treaty with Israel to remain. Could this mean that a new wave of educated youth is emerging who are not religious zealouts of Islam?

The Brotherhood admitted that it had little chance of taking the lead in a future government. "We couldn't dominate this movement even if we wanted to," Mr el-Mursi said. "The Muslim Brotherhood does not seek power. We will not put forward a candidate for the presidency." He added, however, that they would participate in a future parliament.

Aware that they are feared by the West, the Brotherhood stressed yesterday that they wanted a secular, democratic Egypt, rather than one dominated by Sharia, or Islamic law. Analysts believe that the Brotherhood could muster about 25 per cent of the vote in immediate elections, but note that the share could drop as long-suppressed secular parties gain ground.

But it's not over yet.

Getting close to polar bears in Ontario

Owners of Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat in Ontario have created a wonderful sanctuary to promote awareness of polar bears. These children are perfectly safe, they are protected by 10 inches of thick plexiglass. They only adopt bears rescued from the wild and visitors are delighted to be able to get so close.

Former director of the centre and keen photographer Gerry Robichaud took these amazing photographs. He said they get astonished reactions from visitors when they first see the bears and the children together in the pool.

"When you are in the water up by the glass next to these animals, it seems like there is nothing protecting you when in fact there is a 10 inch barrier." he said.

Some of the children can't wait to get in the pool while others don't want to. It seems the adults are the ones to watch, some can't wait and jump in fully clothed. The two bears in the pictures are both females, rescued from the wild when they were cubs. Their mother was shot near Winisk near the Hudson Bay in the far north.

Makes you want to visit, the water would be heated in Canada, wouldn't it?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1354786/Children-swim-inches-monster-polar-bears.html

Muslim man beheads wife in America

A Muslim man living in America has been found guilty of beheading his wife a week after she issued him with divorce papers. Born in Pakistan, Muzzammil "Mo" Hassan and his wife founded a Muslim-oriented television station in 2004 with the intention of countering negative impressions Americans may have had of Muslims after the September 11 terror attacks. Some would argue that those feelings would now be firmly reinforced.

He never denied killing his wife at the television station they set up together to promote cultural understanding - he calmly walked into a police station and told them that his wife was dead. They had two children, then 4 and 6 who were outside in a van while Hassan spoke to police. After the killing, the children were sent to live with his wife's mother in Pakistan.

Because of the brutality of his wife's death, there was speculation that it may have been an honor killing. Beheading is still practiced among fanatical Muslim men who feel betrayed by their wives.

Hassan acted as his own lawyer during the trial in Buffalo. In the months leading up to the trial, he explored various versions of psychiatric defence with different lawyers. He fired three lawyers and replaced the fourth with himself. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on March 9.

Julian Assange's Fate Decided Soon

Julian Assange's defence team will argue that he cannot be given a fair trial in Sweden because all rape cases are heard in secret so justice cannot be seen to be done. Legal sources in London say it was important to point out that he is only in court for one reason - there is a warrant for his extradition back to Sweden to answer charges of rape.

The two day appeal against the warrant begins in London today. The charges are brought by two women he had sex with in the same week in Sweden. The first woman claims he had sex with her while she was asleep and was not wearing a condom and the other charge is 'sexual molestation and unlawful coercion' - the woman claims he deliberately ripped the condom during sex.

So does Julian Assange have a sexual preference for unprotected sex? You could argue what man doesn't but it's a serious matter that could kill you so in Sweden they made a law to protect women and they call it 'rape'.

His defence team, led by human rights activist Geoffrey Robertson QC - the impressive host of Hypotheticals - is also expected to hone in on the secrecy stipulations in Sweden and will also push the weaknesses in evidence provided by the two female accusers. They have identified eight arguments for quashing the warrant but they expect the Swedish Prosecutor to call expert witnesses from Sweden including a retired judge.

Sydney Heat Wave February 2011

Sydney's heat wave has shattered a 150 year record - today is the seventh day in a row of over 33 C temperatures and yesterday in the city it was 41 C - in the old, that's 105.8 F. Last night was by far the worst sleep, it was 33 at midnight. The Bureau of Meteorology said that since records were first kept in 1858, Sydney had never experienced such consistently high temperatures. The previous record was five straight days.

The Ambulance Service has been run off their feet at the beaches. There were 162 people rescued this January compared to only 75 last January and there were 62 people who went to hospital emergency departments for heat-related illnesses in the past six days.

When I think about the last heatwave they happened way back in 1861, I wonder how they survived without air conditioning but somehow they did. A cool change expected this afternoon will drop temperatures back to a comfortable 20C and the city will breathe a sigh of relief.

Assange asks Julia Gillard to bring him home

Julian Assange wants to come home to Australia but he thinks Julia Gillard might hand him over to the Americans. He said he wanted to come home weeks ago, before everything hit the fan in Europe but he was advised to stay away. He has to appear in court next week and face possible extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges.

He's disappointed in the Australian government and thinks they should be supporting him. "There has been outrageous and illegal calls to have me and my staff killed, clear cases of incitement to violence" he said "And yet, the Australian government has condoned this behaviour by its diplomatic silence." He thinks that Julia Gillard should be taking steps to bring him home and to protect his people. "She should be contacting the US Embassy and demanding that it back off."

It certainly is a difficult problem for Australia. On the one hand, we have the most powerful nation on earth crying for his blood and on the other, he's an Australian citizen who needs our help and protection.

I think it's pretty clear who's winning.

Anna Bligh, Premier of Queensland

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has been there for Queensland and earned the respect of a nation. She made herself available 24/7 through the devastating floods and is now helping out with the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi. So could her ancestors account for her strength of character? She is a descendant of William Bligh, famous for Mutiny on the Bounty and the fourth Governor of New South Wales. The man who was placed in a small boat with a few faithful men and navigated his way across vast oceans to arrive safely back in England.

Anna grew up on the Gold Coast and her parents separated when she was 13. She attended Catholic schools until Year 9 and considered becoming a nun. One of her aunts is a nun and another entered a convent but the church's rule regarding divorce meant that her mother could no longer take holy communion and she and her mother moved away from the church. She also has a private life - married to Greg Withers, a senior public servant and mother of their two sons.

The Premier wanted to clear up a few rumors that were going around about the levy Julia Gillard will introduce to help pay for the damage. In Australia, the Commonwealth pays 75 per cent of the costs of natural disasters that occur in ANY state while the state pays the remaining 25 per cent. The federal government's levy will go towards their 75 per cent contribution.

"This is a large scale disaster, what the Commonwealth is saying to Australians is they need a bit of help to make sure that we can do the job" she said. The cost of the Queensland recovery boggles the mind.

Mubarak's Personal Wealth $40 Billion

Egyptian President Mubarak stole billions from his people to build up his personal wealth and left them in poverty. For thirty years, America gave him billions of tax dollars to buy his loyalty because he was the closest thing the west had to a friend in the Middle East. We supported him and allowed it to happen. He took real estate, liquid cash, royal yachts and has $40 billion in cash and assets hidden away in banks around the world in Germany, US, UK, Switzerland, Scotland, Dubai, Madrid and many other places.

His wife, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak and two sons are also incredibly wealthy and the first lady has another $3 - $5 billion for her own personal use. His wealth has ties to large corporate US interests such as Marlboro, Hermes, McDonalds, Vodafone, Hyundai and others.

It is no surprise that the people of Egypt are starving and jobless. His police force uses violence to keep the people in line and we knew it was going on and did nothing. How many other puppets has the west been propping up over the years?

Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Queenslanders have been told to prepare themselves for a terrifying 24 hours as the "most catastrophic storm ever" looms off the north Queensland coast. Tropical Cyclone Yasi has now been upgraded to a category 5 and people are frightened. Who wouldn't be with 300 km per hour winds forecast. Thousands of people have already left and hundreds more are trying to get out of of the danger zones. Tourists from the islands have now arrived on the mainland.

Premier Anna Bligh said "Frankly I don't think Australia has ever seen a storm of this intensity in an area as populated as this stretch of coast" she said. "We are facing an extreme event that will not be over in 24 hours but will possibly take several days before the full flooding effect is felt across the region as well, potentially right through to Mount Isa."

The weather bureau says that Yasi is an "extremely serious threat" to life and property within the warning area, especially between Port Douglas and Townsville. "This impact is likely to be more life-threatening than any experienced during recent generations" they said.

Senior bureau forecaster Gordon Banks said it could take 24 hours to weaken after it crosses the coast and has the potential to become even stronger. "If you are bunkering down in the region, it's going to be quite frightening and it's going to go on for quite some time."

Cyclone Tracy - a category 4 - hit Darwin in 1974, killing 71 people. Estimated time of arrival? 10 pm tonight.

Egyptian Riots Creates Airport Chaos

Julia Gillard is finally sending a plane to get Australians out of riot-torn Cairo. There is a large angry crowd pinned down at Cairo airport as the revolt against President Hosni Mubarak enters its sixth day. Flights have been cancelled and people booked to fly out are missing their flight because with the curfew, no one can move from one end of the airport to another.

Sydney couple Brian and Dahlia Brigham felt abandoned because they had not heard from consular officials. Fearing for their safety, they spent the last three nights sleeping on the floor with little food or water after their flight to Capetown was cancelled. The US, UK, China, India and Japan began organizing planes to take their people out over the weekend but not Australia - they were nowhere to be seen.

Mrs Brigham 58 said "There's no one here from our country - absolutely nobody - you wonder is there an Australian embassy or consulate? But I know there is. Our daughter registered us so they know our mobile numbers, our passport numbers, they know we are here - but it doesn't matter - they couldn't care less."

What a pathetic joke.