Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The newly appointed leader of the Australian Labor Party, the main opposition party in Australia, Kevin Rudd has urged his supporters to “take a cold shower” after the release of a Newspoll showing a jump in support for the ALP.

The poll showed that the ALP’s two-party preferred vote has risen to 55 percent compared to the incumbent government’s 45 percent. Mr Rudd is also gaining support as potential Prime Minister with his figures in a “preferred prime minister” poll published by The Australian being only 3 points behind John Howard at 36 percent. In the prior Newspoll, Mr Rudd’s predecessor Kim Beazley had only 25 percent support.

Speaking during his “listening” tour in the Queensland city of Townsville, Mr Rudd said that the poll indicated a protest vote against the Howard government and was not an endorsement for him or the ALP.

“I think what you’re seeing in these polls today is really a protest vote against Mr Howard about becoming more and more out of touch,” Mr Rudd said. “I don’t think at this stage the process represents an entrenched vote for me, or for the Labor Party.”.

Mr Rudd conceded that he would need to “work hard over the next nine months to earn the electorate’s respect”. The next election is expected to be held in late-2007 and will be called by the Governor-General at the request of the Prime Minister.

Mr Howard said he expected for the ALP to lead polls for months as the new leader goes through a “honeymoon period”. Speaking on Southern Cross Radio, Mr Howard said “I knew that Labor would get a bounce in the polls. That was going to happen and it doesn’t surprise me in the least bit. When you have a new leader, the new leader has a honeymoon. I would expect Labor to be comfortably ahead in the polls for several months and it won’t be until well into next year that we’ll get a better fix on how the Government and the Opposition are going.”

A compilation of brief news reports for Monday, July 8, 2013.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Torture proliferates American headlines today: whether its use is defensible in certain contexts and the morality of the practice. Wikinews reporter David Shankbone was curious about torture in American popular culture. This is the first of a two part series examining the BDSM business. This interview focuses on the owners of a dungeon, what they charge, what the clients are like and how they handle their needs.

When Shankbone rings the bell of “HC & Co.” he has no idea what to expect. A BDSM (Bondage Discipline Sadism Masochism) dungeon is a legal enterprise in New York City, and there are more than a few businesses that cater to a clientèle that wants an enema, a spanking, to be dressed like a baby or to wear women’s clothing. Shankbone went to find out what these businesses are like, who runs them, who works at them, and who frequents them. He spent three hours one night in what is considered one of the more upscale establishments in Manhattan, Rebecca’s Hidden Chamber, where according to The Village Voice, “you can take your girlfriend or wife, and have them treated with respect—unless they hope to be treated with something other than respect!”

When Shankbone arrived on the sixth floor of a midtown office building, the elevator opened up to a hallway where a smiling Rebecca greeted him. She is a beautiful forty-ish Long Island mother of three who is dressed in smart black pants and a black turtleneck that reaches up to her blond-streaked hair pulled back in a bushy ponytail. “Are you David Shankbone? We’re so excited to meet you!” she says, and leads him down the hall to a living room area with a sofa, a television playing an action-thriller, an open supply cabinet stocked with enema kits, and her husband Bill sitting at the computer trying to find where the re-release of Blade Runner is playing at the local theater. “I don’t like that movie,” says Rebecca.

Perhaps the most poignant moment came at the end of the night when Shankbone was waiting to be escorted out (to avoid running into a client). Rebecca came into the room and sat on the sofa. “You know, a lot of people out there would like to see me burn for what I do,” she says. Rebecca is a woman who has faced challenges in her life, and dealt with them the best she could given her circumstances. She sees herself as providing a service to people who have needs, no matter how debauched the outside world deems them. They sat talking mutual challenges they have faced and politics (she’s supporting Hillary); Rebecca reflected upon the irony that many of the people who supported the torture at Abu Ghraib would want her closed down. It was in this conversation that Shankbone saw that humanity can be found anywhere, including in places that appear on the surface to cater to the inhumanity some people in our society feel towards themselves, or others.

“The best way to describe it,” says Bill, “is if you had a kink, and you had a wife and you had two kids, and every time you had sex with your wife it just didn’t hit the nail on the head. What would you do about it? How would you handle it? You might go through life feeling unfulfilled. Or you might say, ‘No, my kink is I really need to dress in women’s clothing.’ We’re that outlet. We’re not the evil devil out here, plucking people off the street, keeping them chained up for days on end.”

Below is David Shankbone’s interview with Bill & Rebecca, owners of Rebecca’s Hidden Chamber, a BDSM dungeon.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake shook the Hawaiian islands at 17:07:49 UTC (07:07:49 local time) October 15, 2006. The quake, centered approximately 6 miles southwest of Puak? on the west side of Hawai`i Island (the Big Island), was felt throughout the entire state, causing a statewide power outage.

No tsunami warning was issued as a result of the quake; however, a tsunami measuring around 0.1 meters (four inches) was recorded. There were 50 aftershocks reported after the quake, the strongest being a 5.8 tremor reported at about 17:14 UTC (7:14 a.m. local time).

There were no fatalities reported and only scattered reports of minor injuries.

Electric power was lost statewide shortly after the quake. As of about 8:00 p.m. HST, power was restored to all the neighbor islands, but Hawaiian Electric personnel still had work to go on Oahu, the island with the highest population. Power was eventually restored to most areas of Oahu by midnight.

Structural damage occurred at Kona Hospital, where ceiling tiles fell and electricity was lost, forcing an evacuation of patients to Hilo Medical Center on the other side of the island. Damage was also reported at the Honokaa Long-term Care Facility and the Royal Kona Resort.

Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, who was in Kona at the time of the earthquake, issued an emergency declaration for the entire state of Hawaii at about 11:00 a.m. local time (2300 UTC Sunday).

Air service in Hawaii was temporarily suspended shortly after the quake as airports were forced to operate on emergency power. The power outage caused delays to incoming and outgoing flights, as TSA agents had to conduct manual searches of all bags. Airlines have canceled numerous flights scheduled to depart Honolulu International Airport Sunday evening.

Communication links are problematic. Most radio stations lost power and stopped broadcasting immediately after the quake. (Metroblogging Hawaii) Honolulu radio station KSSK, operating on emergency generators, became a central information source for Oahu residents. A landslide has blocked at least one major highway from a section of a cliff at Kealakekua Bay.

USGS Volcano Observatory equipment has not been significantly damaged. Monitoring stations report “no significant changes in the past 24 hours” of the eruption of the K?lauea volcano.

According to USGS records, this earthquake is the fourth largest Hawaiian earthquake in the last 100 years. Previous earthquakes include a magnitude 7.2 quake in 1975, a magnitude 6.9 quake in 1951, and a magnitude 6.8 quake in 1938. The last magnitude 6.7 quake was in 1983.

Wednesday, June 1, 2005

People all over the Netherlands are voting today in a referendum on the EU constitution. This the first national referendum for two hundred years and it is non-binding. Though most major political parties have stated they will abide by the referendum if the outcome is sufficiently clear and a large enough percentage of the voters have actually voted.The question put to voters will be:

Bent U voor of tegen instemming door Nederland met het verdrag tot vaststelling van een grondwet voor Europa?

“Are you for or against approval by the Netherlands of the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe?”

All the main political parties have asked for a voor (for, or yes) vote. However polls have been saying that two-thirds of the people will be voting tegen (against, or no).

One reason for people to vote no is the expansion of the European Union with large countries like Turkey, which they fear will cause less influence for the smaller countries. The view of an European super state in which the Netherlands would loose its own identity is another reason for voting no. Some of the no voters do this to show they don’t agree with the current political situation and the supposed risen prices since the introduction of the euro.

As of 14:00 CET, 9% more voters had turned up for the referendum than for the European elections.

21:25 CET: According to a Interview/NSS-NOS exit-poll, 63% have voted against the EU constitution, while 37% voted for.

• “Dutch vote on Europe constitution” — BBC News, June 1, 2005

• “Journaal:Dossiers EU Constitiution” — Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, June 1, 2005

Thursday, October 19, 2006

New Zealand Post has introduced fees for redirecting mail to a new home and also holding mail from being delivered, the fees will be introduced from November 1, 2006, unless the redirector is officially old.

The new fees will mean for the first two months you have mail redirection in place will cost NZ$20, instead of the usual free two months. It is double price for international going mail. It will cost $5 for residential users placing a hold on their mail, $10 for businesses per week.

Graham Smith, marketing general manager for New Zealand Post, said: “The Redirection service provides peace of mind for busy people moving house and protects against other people receiving private mailed information.”

New Zealand Post says the reason behind the fee introduction is because it is expensive and includes a lot of labour as it is an entirely manual process. “It involves lots of manual intervention and the reprocessing and delivery of mail and we need to recover some of the costs of providing these services,” Smith said.

Elderly have been exempted from all hold charges and given the first two months of redirection for free.

“We thought long and hard about this decision. We believe that the Redirection and Hold services still offer excellent value for money and provide our customers with a convenient way of making sure all their mail gets to them when they move, or keeping it secure when they are away from home,” said Smith.

It will cost $20 for two months redirection, $30 for four months, $45 for six months and $85 for a year, it is double for international. It will cost $125 for two months redirection for businesses, $190 for four months, $250 for six months and $475 for a year, it is, again, double for international mail.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.