Friday 29th of March 2024

Gus Leonisky's blog

blind as a bat...

blind as a bat...

A former top lawyer for Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers insists he told the mogul's son there was evidence of widespread phone hacking more than three years before a scandal over the practice erupted.

Tom Crone questioned claims made by James Murdoch - chairman of News International, the British arm of his father's media empire - that he had not been fully informed about an email indicating that hacking was rife.

For many months, News International insisted the illegal accessing of the mobile phone voice messages of celebrities and crime victims was confined to reporter Clive Goodman who, along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was jailed in 2007.

by the shorten and curlies...

by the shorten and curlies...

Stevedoring company POAGS and the Maritime Union of Australia have agreed to suspend all industrial action after an intervention by new Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten.

POAGS had locked out around 120 workers at its Bunbury and Fremantle operations after the union took industrial action.

But both parties have agreed to return to the negotiating table after Mr Shorten intervened on his first day in the job.

A Fair Work Australia-appointed mediator will now oversee the negotiations.

The Maritime Union is demanding an 18 per cent wage increase and improved safety conditions for workers.

conflict of the golden bulldust....

goldenbulldust...

The gold bugs will be pleased. Analysts at the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE) reckon gold is going to be a star performer in 2012 with a forecast average price for the year of $US1850 an ounce.

That would represent a 17 per cent increase on the expected average for the just about completed 2011, and because BREE is also forecasting dollar parity for 2012, we don't have to worry about a currency conversion.

BREE reckons gold's bumper outlook is supported by a number of factors - low interest rates in the US (confirmed overnight) and Europe, net buying by central banks and continued strong investment and fabrication demand from US dollar-weary consumers in developing economies.

sister act...

sisters

From the Rudds to the Bolts, an issue that divides the nation also divides families.

This morning, Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd's sister Loree Rudd said she quit the Australian Labor Party last week in protest at its policy shift from opposing to supporting gay marriage after the national Labor Party Conference.

"I no longer liked the direction the Labor Party was going at state or federal level and I couldn't work for a party that had endorsed homosexuals marrying," she said.

out of the cold...

Canada Announces Exit From Kyoto Climate Treaty

canadafreeze

truancy memories

Howard launches 'anti-warmist manual' for kids

 

droning about the drone....

droning

US president Barack Obama says the United States has asked Iran to return a captured spy drone, as a top Iranian official says his country will reverse engineer the plane and is in the "final stages" of unlocking its software secrets.

Mr Obama confirmed the request for the drone, which Tehran said it brought down while overflying its territory, at a news conference with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"We've asked for it back. We'll see how the Iranians respond," he said.

Tehran says it is planning to use the downed craft to produce a fleet of its own drones.

top bunks...

topbunk...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has denied ministers threatened to resign from Parliament if they were demoted in yesterday's Cabinet reshuffle.

Two of the so-called faceless men who engineered Ms Gillard's coup against Kevin Rudd last year, Bill Shorten and Mark Arbib, were promoted yesterday as Ms Gillard unveiled an expanded Cabinet.

Rudd supporter Kim Carr was booted out of Cabinet and there have been reports two ministers - Robert McClelland and Peter Garrett - threatened to resign from Parliament and force by-elections if they were sacked.

the cost of our own money....

sheehan

From Paul Sheehan...

Everyone has a bad banking story, and we take for granted all the productive things the banks do for us. It is the bad stories that come to mind when the big four banks issue their profit statements. In the latest financial year the big four made a combined profit of $24 billion.

poetry of the twits...

phelpsx

The O'Farrell government's whip in the upper house has become a minor sensation on Twitter this afternoon, attacking other users, telling one to "go fuck yourself" and declaring himself the "Marieke Hardy" of the Right.

Peter Phelps, a member of the hard right of the NSW Liberal Party, who notably once described traffic lights as a "Bolshevist menace", joined the social networking site less than a month ago with some trepidation.

Dr Phelps quickly responded: "go fuck yourself, commie! And you can't complain because I put in smiley ;-)".

A number of Twitter users criticised him for the response, which only elicited further strong reactions from the politician.

titanic, déjà-vu...

titanic...

Britain is facing isolation in Europe after prime minister David Cameron vetoed a radical change to the treaty governing the European Union.

All EU countries except Britain signed a "new fiscal compact" treaty giving Brussels ultimate authority over the way EU governments raise taxes and spends revenue.

After two years of foot-dragging on deepening integration, 26 member nations are set to approve a series of tough new rules that will include "automatic consequences" for countries whose public deficits exceed 3 per cent of GDP.

dirty work but someone has to do it...

newyourp
New Treaty to Save the Euro May Also Divide Europe


By STEVEN ERLANGER and STEPHEN CASTLE 12:40 PM ET

Euro zone members agreed to a treaty that requires stricter fiscal discipline, but efforts to reach unanimity among the members of the European Union failed as Britain refused to go along.

 

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the little prince...

the little prince...

Lack of urgency in the Durban meeting halls and pressing issues elsewhere threaten to block progress as the UN climate summit enters its final days.

Some delegates said there was no clear process for bridging divides.

Others suggested that the EU summit on Thursday and Friday would see European leaders "thinking of the euro crisis, not the climate crisis".

Most nations appear to want a strong deal - but the exceptions are some of the world's most powerful countries.

cowthanol...

HOW do you feel after imbibing a bit of red wine? Euphoric, excited, or perhaps simply cheery? Or are you one of those drinkers prone to suffering a nagging feeling of guilt, combined with an uncomfortable sensation inside your head?

Well now, thanks to new research by Victorian scientists, you could instead simply feel content that you are doing your bit for the environment, as well as for the nation's dairy herd.

New research has found a convenient and practical use for the leftover material from wine-making that will help two sometimes fiercely competing worlds; the environment and agriculture.

When fed the stems, seeds and skins that were left over from making red wine, material known as grape marc, the methane emissions from dairy cows dropped by 20 per cent.

riley addicted to poker machines...

rileyed

One wonders about charitable souls when they loose it...:

Leaders in the charity sector have questioned the wisdom of a prominent youth worker who has joined Clubs Australia to fight the Government's proposed poker machine reforms.

Youth Off The Streets founder Father Chris Riley has become the face of the clubs' campaign against the reforms, which include mandatory pre-commitment technology.

Father Riley appears on a pamphlet that will be sent today to almost 50 electorates across the eastern states.

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