Qantas Grounds Entire Fleet

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce went to the Marrickville electorate office of Transport Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday, October 21, to warn of the looming crisis. He showed him the books to prove what would happen to Qantas if the unions continued with their demands. Nothing happened and negotiations with the union continued to stall.

Last Saturday morning at 10.30am the Qantas board gave unanimous approval for Joyce’s plan to give 72 hours notice of a lock-out of striking unions and to ground the airline. At 2pm Qantas group executive Olivia Wirth called Julia Gillard’s chief of staff and told him that Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was standing by to talk to the Prime Minister. He wanted to give the PM advanced warning of his intention to ground the entire fleet and a chance to call the unions off and declare all future industrial action illegal. But she refused to take his call and didn’t bother calling him back.

After Joyce made the announcement to ground the airline, the government called a crisis cabinet phone hook-up and decided that instead of calling an immediate termination of the dispute, a request for termination or suspension would be taken to Fair Work Australia. But Joyce said he wouldn’t put his planes back in the air unless there was a “termination” not a “suspension” of all industrial action.

Fair Work Australia’s head Justice Geoffrey Giudice said the unions had wanted a suspension of the industrial action for up to 120 days but the panel had decided that it wouldn’t give sufficient protection to the already damaged tourist and aviation industries. Their decision appears to vindicate Mr Joyce’s drastic strategy of grounding the fleet.

The cost of claims for accommodation and expenses will undoubtedly cost the company millions but the writing was on the wall without a miraculous intervention and Joyce delivered in spades. The question now is can they recover and continue to prosper?

But what about Joyce’s obscene salary package? He says he is paid less today than when he was CEO of Jetstar four years ago. He also says he took a 30% salary cut in 2009 and a 20% cut in 2010 and is not the highest paid employee in the company, “A380 captains get paid more by the hour than me” he said. He points out that the shareholders at the AGM last Friday voted 96% in support for the remuneration packages.

After seeing Transport Workers Union (TWU) national secretary Tony Sheldon on the television over the weekend, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a more aggressive union official - it’s in his speech and his general demeanour and he has the unfortunate habit of pointing his finger to emphasis his point. It’s easy to see why anyone having to deal with this man would have a problem.

On Saturday he made a speech in his typical gruff, aggressive fashion but this morning, he's a changed man. He’s stopped shouting and now speaks quietly, the finger pointing is almost gone and he’s stopped blaming Tony Abbott for everything.

If this is the man tipped to be the next National President of the ALP, after witnessing his performance over the weekend, it will give the electorate one more reason to vote Liberal at the next election.

Alan Joyce - Qantas Million Dollar Man

It's hard not to side with the Qantas workers who want a pay rise when they see their CEO Alan Joyce handed a $2 million bonus at yesterday's AGM meeting. It just not fair, but what they fail to realize is their strike action has caused long delays and left passengers stranded around the country and who needs the aggravation? The uncertainty has turned people away from Qantas in droves and their main competitor - Virgin - is loving it.

Alan Joyce is the man - he's delivered shareholders a handsome profit and 97% voted in favour of his $2 million bonus yesterday amid boos and cat calls from union members in the audience.

The Aircraft Engineers head Steve Purvinas is understandably furious and said "Alan Joyce will use his own $10 million worth of shareholding to vote in favour of his own 71% pay rise and I think that's absolutely disgusting." And who would argue, it is disgusting. Mr Purvinas went on "Here is a man who got $3 million a year and he walked into his boardroom and said 'I can't live on $3 million, I need a $2 million pay rise.'" And Joyce really put the boot in earlier this year when he announced that he will shift the best part of the airline to Asia to cut costs even further at the expense of 1,000 jobs. I think this man is in urgent need of a bodyguard.

In the end, it all comes down to that dirty word - profit and we have to decide where we stand on this issue with Qantas. Do you support the mum and dad investors, ordinary hard working people who own shares in their favourite airline? If you do you will be happy that they have confidence in Mr Joyce and not begrudge him his bonus.

If you hate Mr Joyce with a passion for being able to attract such an obscene salary package, you will probably side with the workers who walked off the job yesterday as the AGM got underway.

But remember this, if the workers continue their strike action and the uncertainty continues, there won't be any Qantas or Alan Joyce to worry about because they will completely disappear and another Aussie icon will hit the dust.

Saif Gaddafi on the run

Gaddafi's son Saif once said "We fight here in Libya, we die here in Libya". But it didn't work out that way. His father and three of his brothers all died on home soil but not Saif - he headed for the hills and now wants to surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As the heir apparent, Saif was educated at the London School of Economics and was once seen by many western politicians as a moderate, acceptable alternative to his father, but when the rebellion broke, he decided to side with his family and stay to the end.

Saif once pushed for more media freedom in Libya and wanted a Constitution drawn up. The country was suffering badly from US and European sanctions in 2004 and Saif was instrumental in getting them lifted. In exchange, he promised that Tripoli would discontinue all weapons of mass destruction. This indeed was a sign that Libya was 'doing the right thing' and British PM Tony Blair was so pleased, he went to Tripoli to shake Gaddafi senior's hand.

Fluent in English, German and French, Saif knows a lot of important people but will they help him now? He's asking for an aircraft to take him out of Libya so he can turn himself into the Hague war crimes court.

It's rather ironic that the governments who were once his friends, bombed his father's regime into oblivion. Now they will have the difficult job of deciding whether it's legally possible to transfer to sins of the father onto the head of his son.

Choking Game hits Australia

The first Australian victim of the choking game "black-out" or "knock-out" happened on the Gold Coast this month. Abigail Corthals 15, was found dead in her bedroom with a belt around her neck. Her heart-broken parents want to warn everyone about this bizarre Internet craze which has killed hundreds of teenagers around the world. There were no warning signs for Abigail's parents, it was a quiet death - she even left the door of her bedroom open as she was doing it.

The game is popular at teen parties and schoolyards as children choke each other or themselves to achieve a high, a brief feeling of euphoria is experienced by depriving the brain of oxygen. Abigail spent a lot of time on the computer in her bedroom and was a high-achieving private school student. The irony is that she was planning to end the game because she told a friend "We have to stop this now" but couldn't resist one last thrill.

There have been 86 reported cases in the UK and hundreds in America. Other names for the game include "funky chicken" and "space monkey". The game involves hyperventilating or squeezing the carotid artery in the neck for a few seconds to achieve a high. Constricting the artery cuts blood flow to the brain and when the pressure is released, there is a rush of oxygen which causes the high. It's common among high-achieving students who don't want to get into trouble with drugs or alcohol.

The craze is not to be confused with auto-erotic asphyxiation because it's not done for sexual gratification.

Celebrity Apprentice Australia

Mark Bouris

Mark Bouris might be a successful, influential businessman but he doesn't have the charisma or the authority that exudes from Donald Trump or Sir Alan Sugar who features in the British version of Apprentice. I get the feeling the celebs don't respect him yet and he has the difficult job of trying to whip a group of undisciplined Aussies with big egos into line.

But you can't knock Celebrity Apprentice Australia because it's all about earning money for charity and if it gives old and new celebrities a career boost, so be it.

Warwick Capper deserved to be the first person evicted last night because he behaved like an idiot on the first challenge - washing cars. It was clear from the outset he had no intention of doing any work, he was just happy to make jokes and fool around. He said that now he was out of the show, their ratings would plummet. "They'll be lucky to beat Home and Away" he said.

Shane Crawford

Celebrities are expected to pick up the phone and get huge donations from friends and acquaintanances and that's exactly what they did - Max Markson earned a whopping $36,500 and Shane Crawford was close behind with $30,500. But two sporting legends were a big disappointment - Wendell (Dell) Sailor only made $250 and Warwick Capper a lousy $20.





But Pauline Hanson went beyond the call of duty for her team when she stripped down to just her "Aussie Bum" undies for $50,000 which helped win the challenge.

Jesinta Campbell

Winning team manager Jesinta Campbell will hand over $166,385 to her favourite charity - The Reach Foundation.

Celebrity

Sharia for new Libya

With Gadafy dead, the question now is who will run the country – Islamists or secular Liberals? On Saturday, the de facto prime minister Mahmoud Jibril said progress would depend on what kind of resolve the National Transitional Council (NTC) will show in the next few days and what the Libyan people want. Jibril also warned that Libya needed to find alternative sources of income because the country had already consumed 62 per cent of its oil under Gadafy.

NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil made it clear in his speech yesterday that Islam would play an important part in Libya’s future. “This revolution was blessed by God to achieve victory,” Jalil, who is considered devout but moderate, told the crowd. “And we must go on the right path.”

Libya, he said, would be a state where Sharia law would be the “fundamental source” of legislation and any existing legislation that contradicted Islamic principles would be immediately annulled.” He added the new state will not disallow polygamy and charging interest will be forbidden.

Elections are due to be held by June next year and the newly elected body would draft a constitution to be put to a referendum and form an interim government pending a presidential election. No constitution existed under Gadafi.

The world looks on with interest.

Anonymous Outs Pedophiles

The Internet hacktivist group Anonymous have closed down 40 websites and exposed alleged pedophiles who use the sites for sharing child pornography. They have released usernames and other information of 1,589 people trading or watching kiddie porn.

The Anonymous campaign began on October 14 when some of its members were browsing a darknet site called Hidden Wiki which is an index containing hundreds of underground websites that can’t be seen by search engines or viewed by regular internet users.

They found a hidden Wiki listing called “Hard Candy” dedicated to links to child pornography. Most of the pedophile-content sites listed on the Hidden Wiki, “shared a digital fingerprint with the shared hosting server at Freedom Hosting.” The AnonMessage and BecomeAnonymous YouTube channels both posted videos with statements of intent to hunt, skin and kill pedobears everywhere, starting with Freedom Hosting.

They released this statement on Pastebin:

The owners and operators at Freedom Hosting are openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles to view innocent children, fueling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape and death. For this, Freedom Hosting has been declared #OpDarknet Enemy Number One. By taking down Freedom Hosting, we are eliminating 40+ child pornography websites, among these is Lolita City, one of the largest child pornography websites to date containing more than 100 GB of child pornography. We will continue to not only crash Freedom Hosting’s server, but any other server we find to contain, promote, or support child pornography.

Anonymous extended the threats beyond the cluster of Hidden Wiki’s index:

Remove all child pornography content from your servers. Refuse to provide hosting services to any website dealing with child pornography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rah535JmEI8

Gadaffi's body on show in freezer

Gaddafi's body has been put on display in a freezer at a shopping centre while authorities argue about where to bury him. Now that the mad dog is dead, what will happen to his frozen investments thought to be worth around $168 billion?

In August the United Nations Security Council approved an immediate infusion of $1.5 billion that the U.S. had seized to provide basic services, especially electricity. But there’s a problem – some countries don’t want to give it back and it will be hard to trace, hidden away in secret accounts. And if they do find it, who are they going to give it to? It’s possible that survivors from the Gaddafi ruling elite, including members of the family, will be able to get hold of the money to fund revolutionary activity in Libya.

With the Lockerbie bombing still fresh in our memory, he didn't suffer enough for some and his murder without trial was too quick. Now the Libyan sovereign wealth fund will be needed to rebuild the infrastructure NATO blew up.

Gilad Shalit Home at Last

The family of Gilad Shalit had almost given up hope of ever seeing their son again but Israel made a bargain with the Palestinians that could come back to haunt them.

Gilad Shalit was free at last but he looked nothing like the boy who was taken prisoner five years ago. Speaking quietly in Hewbrew, he looked confused and unwell, painfully thin with sunken, hollow eyes.

His pale skin shows he has been deprived of sunlight and one can only imagine the stress and pain he has endured.

His freedom came at a very high price - 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are members of terrorist groups - 1,000 men who have pledged to destroy Israel are now free to pursue their goal.

You could say it was a bad deal - 1,000 men in exchange for one young soldier, but thoughts of tomorrow are forgotten as the people of Israel are overwhelmed by the joy of his return.

Mummification Experiment in Britain

When Alan Billis saw an advert on television about a company who were looking for a dead body on which to practice the ancient art of mummification, he applied and got the job. He is now famous after death when he appeared in the documentary Mummifying Alan: Egypt's Last Secret which aired on Channel 4 in the UK last night.

Alan Billis and his wife

He knew he was dying of lung cancer and wanted to be part of an experiment practiced by the ancient Egyptians 3,000 years ago. His wife and grown up children were reluctant at first but finally agreed to go along with his wishes. The 61 year old taxi driver has been dubbed Torquay's Tutankhamun.

Stephen Buckley and Alan Billis

Chemist Stephen Buckley spent 20 years trying to uncover the secrets of preserving bodies and passed his findings onto Professor Peter Vanezis who mummified Alan Billis's body. He died in January and over a period of months, the professor removed all his internal organs (except the brain and heart), through a four inch cut on his left side and kept them in a jar. The body cavity was then sterilized with alcohol and packed with small linen bags to hold its shape.

Then the body was immersed in a mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and soda ash found in dried out river beds in Egypt. Sesame oil and beeswax were applied to protect the skin.

After one month, the body was taken out of the solution and dried out in a heated chamber to replicate the high temperature and low humidity of Egypt. Then finally the body was wrapped in linen bandages to allow drying to continue, keep the limbs intact and keep out light and insects. At the end of three months, the process was complete.

His body is expected to keep for several thousand years and will be studied by scientists researching decomposition.

Robert Downey Jr asks Hollywood to forgive Mel Gibson

The award night that should have been all about Robert Downey Junior turned out to be all about Mel Gibson.

Mel Gibson is not very popular in Hollywood but on Friday night, a past deed came back to embrace him. When Robert Downey Jnr was honoured with the American Cinematheque Award, he paid tribute to Gibson and asked Hollywood to forgive him.

"Unless you are without sin and if you are, you're in the wrong f***ing industry, you should forgive him and let him work" he said. It was Mel who gave him a second chance when he was in and out of rehab and no one would give him a job. He gave him a movie role and in return, all he asked was for him to help out the next guy and ironically "the next guy" turned out to be Mel Gibson himself.

So did something terrible happen to Mel Gibson that changed him or has he always been the difficult, angry man he appears to be. On 7 June 1980, Mel Gibson, an unknown actor and Robyn a dental nurse, were married in the Roman Catholic Church in Sydney and they had six sons and one daughter together. When he returned to America after the success of the Mad Max films, he had the reputation of being an excellent husband and father, he took his children to mass every Sunday morning and appeared to be enjoying family life.

He spent millions of his own money making The Passion of the Christ. When the film came out in 2004, Jewish groups were outraged by the way Gibson had portrayed them in the movie - the bloodthirsty murderers of Jesus Christ.

But in trying to understand Mel we have to look to his father - Hutton Peter Gibson - a WWII veteran and father of 11 children. He's an outspoken critic of the Roman Catholic Church and in an interview he did in 2003 he questioned how it was possible for the Nazis to dispose of six million bodies during the Holocaust. He also has odd-ball conspiracy ideas about the September 11 terror attacks.

Mel Gibson suffers from one of the worst addictions - he's an angry drunk. His ugly anti-Simitic rants were captured on film and he admitted "slapping" Oksana Grigorieva to bring her back to reality. To her credit, his ex wife Robyn, the person who knows him better than anyone else, has remained silent about what went on during their long marriage.

Gibson's bad behaviour has obviously hurt his career, he was dropped from a cameo in "Hangover 2" after cast-members rebelled and other opportunities were missed. Downey appealed to the audience "I urge you to forgive my friend his trespasses," he said "Allow him to pursue this art without shame".

Super Funds - Shares or Cash?

Aussie workers are worried about their super, so much so that 63 billion dollars has been siphoned into term deposits and other conservative money management. After the GFC when thousands of workers saw their retirement nest egg devastated, it became apparent that the stock market was just too risky for some. Almost a quarter of Australia's 1.3 trillion dollar pension pool is now in cash and fixed deposit interest products, so most have decided to hang on while the rest have jumped ship.

So what do the experts say? You already know the answer because they keep telling us - long term data proves that a balanced port folio provides greater returns than the alternative "safe" options. But the question is for older workers, can I wait that long?

Chan and Naylor financial planning agency partner David Hasib said people needed to be prudent and cautious when changing their super. "The biggest risk people face is the possibility of missing out on the inevitable market rebound which historically will always happen at some point" he said. In other words, if you get out of the market when things are bad you won't be there when things pick up. But let's look at the facts.

A cash-based super fund performed the best over the past 10 years but at 15 years, share funds posted a return of 4.32, 4.79 and 4.95 respectively and cash only returned 3.53 per cent a year.

But the government's Super System Review Chairman Jeremy Cooper isn't happy - he thinks Australian super funds take too much risk. "I feel sorry for all those people out there thinking- 'here we go again'. For reasons completely out of their control, bang, there goes another 4 per cent of their money" he said. "Australian super funds are just too heavily exposed to these growth assets - even in a balanced fund, you have about 60 to 70 per cent of assets in shares. And that's too much."

Beautiful girl ages 50 years in few days

How did a beautiful 23 year old Vietnamese woman turn into an old lady in a matter of days? Now 26, Nguyen Thi Phuong will finally receive help from the medical profession but doctors have no ready answer as to why she aged 50 years in just a few days.

She has her own theory as to what could have happened - she thinks it's got something to do with her life-long allergy to seafood. In 2008 she had a very bad reaction and was so itchy, she couldn't stop scratching, even in her sleep. Because she and her husband were too poor to go to the hospital, she went to the local pharmacy to buy some medicine instead. The doctors think this could be the problem as traditional medicines are often spiked with corticoids which could have triggered the rare skin disease mastocytosis. The couple said they don't remember what the medicine was or which pharmacy they got it from.

As her body takes on the appearance of a 70 year old woman, her menstrual cycle, hair, teeth and eyes are not affected in any way. The loving couple have been together for seven years and their dreams of having a child are fading as her condition doesn't improve.

Her husband is a carpenter and she works in a cashew-nut processing factory and between them, they make about $200 a month, which is not enough for an examination at a major hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. Wouldn't you think that living in a Communist country where everyone is supposed to be equal, free hospital cover would be available to everyone? (Sarcasm)

But help is in sight - on the 2nd October, two doctors examined Phuong for free and she will be referred to the Dermatology hospital if they can't agree, although mastocytosis seems the likely diagnosis.

Watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Hc_FHkmqU&feature=player_embedded

Carbon Tax Passes in Lower House

At 9.37am yesterday the Prime Minister's carbon tax was passed with a majority of just two votes and the support of Independents Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Green MP Adam Brandt. And as Labor members embraced and congratulated each other, a large majority of Australians, right across the country, were outraged, that their PM was able to introduce a law they vehemently reject.

The PM went back on her promise when she said those now famous words "There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead" and people are now feeling betrayed because they believed her. And when Kevin Rudd planted a kiss on Julia Gillard's cheek, the hypocrisy was too much for many, with the Opposition calling it the "Judas Kiss." With the bill likely to sail through the Senate next month, Australia will become the first country in the world with an economy-wide carbon tax by July 1.

Tony Abbott promised to repeal the tax if elected and made a rather dramatic statement. "I am giving you the most definite commitment any politician can give that this tax will go - this is a pledge in blood - this tax will go" he said.

Eighty angry protesters in the gallery interrupted question time by shouting down the PM with "No mandate" and "Democracy is dead" and wonder if she is aware just how unpopular this piece of legislation really is.

Angelina Jolie visits Libya

Angelina Jolie has been described as the most beautiful woman in the world, but for a long time, she was desperately unhappy. Because she doesn't connect easily with people, she was bullied at Beverly Hills High School and paints a picture of herself of being an ugly duckling - she wore glasses, had braces and was extremely thin.

Her "beautiful" genes come from her parents, John Voight and actress and producer Marcia Lynne Bertrand, who died of ovarian cancer at age 56.

Jolie suffered from suicidal depression in her teens and early 20's and went through a stage of cutting herself. "For some reason, the ritual of cutting myself and feeling the pain gave me a sense of release" she said. By the age of 20, she had tried every drug possible, including heroine.

John Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy

She has a love/hate relationship with her father. After John Voight cheated on his wife and their marriage ended in divorce, she cut him off for several years. They were reconciled in 2001 but a year later, Voight, who must be short on brains, told the Hollywood press that his daughter "had serious mental problems" and the on again, off again relationship continues.

Jolie is Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) and has earned world-wide respect for the time she donates to worthy causes. She and partner Brad Pitt founded the Jolie-Pitt Foundation in 2006 which gives aid to humanitarian causes in countries that need it the most.

At the moment she's in Libya, visiting agencies bringing aid to people in Tripoli and Misrata. "I am here to express solidarity with them" she said "It is the work of rebuilding and recovery that will determine Libya's future". She went on "I have come to Libya to see a country in transition at every level and to witness efforts to fully realise the promise of the Arab spring".

Iranian actress sentenced to 90 lashes

Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr was sentenced to one year in prison and 90 lashes on Saturday. Her crime? She appeared in an Australian film My Tehran for Sale which is critical of the oppressive way of life in Iran.

She and another Iranian filmmaker were both arrested in July when copies of the black-market movie began to circulate throughout the country. The actress appears in the movie with a shaved head and without a headscarf. Secretly filmed inside Iran with a local crew in 2008, it premiered at the Adelaide Festival two years ago.

The film's Melbourne-based director, Iranian-Australian Granaz Moussavi said although the film is a work of fiction, she drew on her own experiences and those of others she met as an interpreter at the Woomera Detention Centre.

The central character is Marzieh, an actress isolated from her family and working secretly on a politically sensitive performance piece. At an underground rave dance party, she meets Iranian-born Saman, now an Australian citizen who offers her an alternative way of life.

Katrina Sedgwick, director of the Adelaide Festival, said they helped Moussavi with the film and donated $125,000 towards production costs. So far, the Iranian Embassy in Canberra has refused to comment.

Paul McCartney marries Nancy Shevell

The View's Barbara Walters threw rose petals over the girl she thinks of as a second daughter. Some reports say that it was the famous lady herself who brought them together, hosting dinner parties and inviting people she knew Paul McCartney would like to meet. Barbara Walters and Nancy Shevell are second cousins.

Nancy Shevell is a very wealthy and successful business woman. She grew up in a Jewish family in New Jersey, daughter of Myron and Arlene Shevell, owners of NEMF, (New England Motor Freight), a large trucking company turning over $400 million a year.

Myron and his brother Daniel started a trucking business and in 1975 and were charged with fraud for alleged Mafia involvement. Although the case never went to trial, the company went bankrupt and Daniel shot himself at the age of 39. In 1988 Myron bought NEMF and was accused of colluding with the head of the Genovese crime family for making payoffs in return for being able to skirt union rules but again, the case never went to trial.

Nancy was a bit of a tomboy. She loved her father's trucks and went with him to truck terminals every weekend. She also played all-girl football at college and majored in transport at university, the only woman to do so at the time. She married Bruce Blakeman who had political ambitions and they had a son together, now aged 19.

Nancy is no stranger to tragedy, her older brother Jon died from a drug overdose and the cancer gene in dominant on the female side of the family. Her mother and two aunts died from the disease and Nancy is herself a cancer survivor.

The wedding was tastefully simple and took place at the Old Marylebone Town Hall. Shevell looked composed, radiant and elegant in a Stella McCartney outfit and as they walked down the steps, Barbara Walters showered rose petals over the girl she considers her "second child". Sir Paul is expected to sing a new song he composed for his wife at the reception.

The couple chose yesterday to get married because it would have been John Lennon's 71st birthday.

Boy 14 in Bali Drug Bust

Seven years ago this weekend, Schapelle Corby was arrested for drug possession. She's always maintained her innocence and I believe her - someone was supposed to take the drugs out of her boogie board bag en route to Bali, but for some reason it didn't happen and she paid the price of 20 years in a filthy third world jail. And she's still living in hell every day.

It's reasonable to assume that her terrible ordeal and the Bali bombings would be warning enough to all Australians coming to Bali - that special place that Aussies can't keep away from. But for one Aussie couple, their school holiday suddenly turned into every parent's nightmare.

On Tuesday a 14 year old boy and his 13 year old best mate went into a shop for a foot massage. A witness said he saw 4 policemen in plain clothes outside the shop and another two under-cover officers close to the beach where the boy is alleged to have bought 6.9 grams of marijuana for $25. When the boys came out of the shop, police led the 14 year old away. The boy told police he bought the drugs from a man who told him he hadn't eaten all day and needed money.

Bali psychiatrist Dr Danny Thong, who also treated Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine visited the boy at the request of his lawyers. He said the boy admitted using marijuana occasionally over the past two years but only in the company of friends and never alone, so he would classify him as a light user.

But that's not the end of the story. On the streets of Bali you can find any drug you like and tourists, especially Australians, are the drug dealers prime targets. Apparently you don't need to go looking for drugs, they are pushed onto you. There's a strong rumour circulating that Indonesian police are going undercover to catch people, even pretending to be drug sellers, so there's a chance that this boy was set up. One of his school friends said he is definitely not "street smart" and would be "dumb enough to do something like this."

He said he was approached by a Balinese man who said he was starving and begged him to buy $25 worth of cannabis so he could eat. Expats who live in Bali are aware of the problem and say dealers actually wait at the Jetstar airport carousels and target new Aussie arrivals.

So to all the slow learners out there who still insist on holidaying in Bali - don't go there!

Graham Richardson's New Media Career

It's obvious Graham Richardson doesn't like Kevin Rudd. He made a scathing attack on him in his column today, accusing the former PM of being expert at undermining leaders. Pretty harsh words but he suggests he did it with Mark Latham and Kim Beazley and also Julia Gillard at the last election. And he's pretty sure Rudd doesn't have the numbers for a leadership challenge because he doesn't have "able lieutenants" and a "factional base" to work with.

He says that Julia Gillard came from the "soft Left" and that's where most of Rudd's support is coming from. With Labor's popularity falling to an all-time low, it's obvious many MP's are scared witless about losing their jobs and are looking to Rudd as a possible saviour.

The PM is asking them to hold their nerve, that it will all turn around in time, but they aren't listening. Richo calls them the "jilted lover faction" - those passed over when the PM chose her team and the MP's unlikely to be pre-selected again. People like Alan Griffin and Mark Bishop are stirring them up, constantly talking about a Kevin Rudd return.

But there's a big problem if they do decide on giving Rudd a second chance, how would he handle the independents? They seem to have struck up a personal friendship with Julia Gillard and there's no guarantee they would work with Rudd and if just one pulls the plug, it's all over.

Richardson was born in Sydney in 1949, his father Fred was the state secretary of the Postal Workers' Union. He was elected to the Senate at age 33 and went into Bob Hawke's Cabinet as Environment Minister when he was 37.

He's a man with many friends from both sides of politics and his insider political gossip is irresistible. His career in the media seems to have taken off, he now has his own one-hour television show on Sky.

Pauline Hanson and Celebrity Apprentice

Pauline Hanson says she's determined to win Celebrity Apprentice. Generous customers paid $1000 to watch the 57 year old wash cars in a skimpy outfit at Bondi Crystal Car Wash when filming started last month.





Pauline and Miss Universe Jesinta Campbell were busy at work raising money for charity when Russell Crowe was riding past on his bike and dropped in for a chat. He then tweeted the address so everyone could visit. Led by peoject manager Campbell, the women's team including Deni Hines, Lisa Curry-Kenny and comedian Julia Morris raised $60,000 for the Reach Charity.






Meanwhile, over in Gladesville, Celeb agent Max Markson was managing the boys team and Wendell Sailor and Warwick Capper hammed it up for the cameras.

Hanson says she wants to get back into politics. "Politics is in my heart, I want to do everything I can for my country" she said. This little woman was able to strike terror into the hearts of our politicians, so much so, they plotted to kill her off. Some people remember the role Tony Abbott played in events that not only destroyed her political career, but put her behind bars.

Because she was naive, she made a very grave mistake - she put into words what the average Australian was thinking - issues about immigration, multiculturalism, the Aboriginal situation -

but it wasn't politically correct and she had to go. And after all that, she wants to come back for more.

Shane Warne proposes to Liz Hurley

Love him or hate him, the King of Spin was special. He was the first cricketer ever to reach the 700 test wicket milestone. It happened at exactly 3.18pm on Boxing Day, the 26th December 2006 when he bowled English batsman Andrew Strauss out at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The crowd of 89,155 people roared and rose to their feet to recognise the moment which was described as a "Classic Warne dismissal." In his final test in Sydney, he reached 1,000 test wickets when he bowled England's Monty Panesar lbw for a duck.

Now Shane and Elizabeth Hurley are officially engaged after he popped the question during a visit to St Andrews where he was playing in a golf tournament. Both have been married before, Hurley's four year marriage to Arun Nayar ended in divorce and she has a son from a previous relationship. Warne was divorced in 2006 from wife Simone and they have three children.

There has been a big change in Shane's appearance since his love affair with Liz Hurley started. His teeth are a dazzling white, he's lost 13 kilos and his face looks completely different. He strongly denies having a facelift and Liz says he's been using her beauty products, including her moisturizer. "I have always taken pride in my appearance and an attack on Liz is unfair, I'm proud of how I look and worked my butt off for four months" he said.

St Kilda AFL star Steven Baker introduced Warne to the Taislim diet shake program. "I signed him up about 4 months ago, he loves the stuff, he's addicted" he said. Baker said he had even shipped the supplement to India for Warne's final season.

The Taislim regime recommends replacing two meals and all snacks with liquid supplements but nutritionists say the shakes will work well for a while, but later on when you stop, the weight will slowly come back and then some. Sadly, you have to stop the shakes sometime, it can't possibly be a life-time commitment and the thought of never being able to eat another Aussie pie with sauce is too terrible to contemplate.

But hat's off to you Warnie and good luck. You wanted to look good for your new love and you do, and here's wishing you both a long and happy life together.

Anwar al-Awlaki killed by US drone

Anwar al-Awlaki was al-Qaida's Operational Commander in Yemen. From his hideout in the rugged mountains, he recruited young men to kill Americans and its allies. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was one, the Nigerian who tried to blow up a US jet with explosives sewn into his underpants and the Pakistani-American behind the botched car bombing in Times Square. He knew how to reach out to the English-speaking world because he was born in the USA.

When he was seven years old, he went back to Yemen with his family and stayed there for 11 years. They returned in 1991 and he earned a B.S. in civil engineering at Colorado State University where he was president of the Muslim Student Association. He also had an M.A. in Education Leadership from San Diego State University.

As al-Awlaki and his men emerged from their hideout in the mountains of Yemen and were driving through a desert region, the drone struck. The raid was carried out by the same US special unit that killed bin Laden at his hideout in Pakistan.

There are plenty of young Muslims in the world who hate America and its allies for waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and al-Awlaki was able to give al Qaeda its international voice. He made sermon videos on You Tube and other sites that flooded the western world. Being born in America, he knew all about Western culture and how to get his message across - that the US must be punished for killing innocent Muslims. Downloads of his sermons were found on laptops and computers of several groups arrested for plotting attacks in the US and Britain.

When he left the US in 2002, he spent several months in the UK and did a grand lecture tour of the country. In one of his sermon he said "The lesson to be learnt here is never to trust a kuffar (non-Muslim) because they are plotting to kill this religion." He also translated the jihad into English.

Experts predict that his death won't affect al Qaeda's operations in Yemen but it will limit their ability to put out more English-language propaganda, at least for now. But his sermons and calls for jihad still remain on the web and they could become more effective because he is now a martyr for the cause. He also has 4,800 fans on Facebook.

Samir Khan killed in Yemen

Samir Khan's parents were worried about their son's radical thoughts and turned to their Islamic leaders for help. His father, Zafar Khan, a Pakistani American and successful technology executive, bought his family a two storey home near a golf course in Charlotte, a neighbourhood where most kids went to college. He gave his son every opportunity to achieve whatever he wanted to be, but didn't expect him to choose the dangerous path of jihad.

Samir Kahn described himself as a "traitor to America because my religion requires me to be one" and spent several years editing a website that supported al-Qaida. He relied on his US right to free speech to become more vocal about his fury at American foreign policy but when he found he was being closely watched by the FBI, he cut off all ties with his family and went to live in Yemen in 2009.

He came to America with his parents when he was seven and grew up in Queens, New York and didn't move to Charlotte until he was a teenager. It is thought that by that time, his thoughts of jihad were firmly established. Yesterday he was killed in a drone strike in Yemen at the age of 25.

After the September 11 attacks, his father became so alarmed by his radical views that he arranged an intervention of sorts with Islamic scholars who tried to change his thinking. But it was no use, he listened and promised to change but his mind was already made up and there was no turning back.

He wanted to start a "media jihad" war and went to Yemen to promote the Muslim extremist message to the English-speaking world. He started a magazine called Inspire - the latest issue includes an article entitled "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."

American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsular is also reported to have been killed in the drone strike.