Isn't this taking things a bit too far?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Sunglasses-get-thumbs-up-from-students/2007/07/31/1185647881083.html

Students at a primary school in Sydney's south have no problems wearing sunglasses in their playground, the principal says.

Arncliffe Public School has introduced compulsory wearing of sunglasses for students from kindergarten to Year 6, to protect their eyes.

The students say they would also be happy to wear their glasses after school, principal Stephan Vrachas said.

Education Minister John Della Bosca said the state government would look at making sunglasses compulsory in all public school playgrounds if there was a call for it.

Opposition education spokesman Andrew Stoner said he supported the Arncliffe scheme, but the cost to the taxpayer of supplying sunglasses and the health benefits from medical experts need to be looked at before they were introduced to all state schools.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/School-kids-film-fights-then-put-online/2007/08/12/1186857352670.html

School children using their mobile phones to film violence or bullying, then posting it on the internet, incites further trouble.

A News Limited newspaper has reported chaos in class rooms and playgrounds is increasing due to the infamy attached to popular websites like YouTube.

In a six month period to April this year, NSW government schools filed more than 25 reports to police over serious incidents filmed by video equipped phones.

This report bulges with questions ....


"Suzanne Mitchell sentenced for bigamous gay unionArticle from: ReutersFont size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print August 07, 2007 12:00am

A BRITISH mother of five who entered into a civil partnership with a woman while still married to her husband was given a suspended prison sentence overnight.

Suzanne Mitchell had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to breaching the 2004 Civil Partnerships Act, which allows same-sex unions.

She admitted falsely claiming to be single to enter into a civil union with Caroline Beddows in February last year.

The case is believed to be the first of its kind since the civil partnership law was introduced.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court, Judge Robin Onions said Mitchell repeatedly lied in pursuit of the partnership, and her offence was one of "cruelty and deception", according to media reports.

Mitchell, of Ditherington, Shrewsbury, was handed an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years.

Mitchell, who is pregnant with her sixth child, was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid community service, and was made the subject of a two-year supervision order.

The court had heard that Mitchell and Beddows became close friends after a chance encounter at a bus stop while both were pregnant, according to media reports.

Following the birth of their children the relationship blossomed and became intimate, and in September 2005 Beddows and her baby moved into Mitchell's marital home. "

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22202103-954,00.html

Someone on another forum posted this link to a story about a drug recall. Evidently anyone taking it should stop immediately.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22227017-24331,00.html

One crime I can't understand or abide by is tax evasion.
It is often the wealthiest that do it, but why, they are already rich ??

They are also trying to cheat th4e taxman, who has HUGE resources to catch them.
They are cheating us all, as we all have to pay what they dont.




If he avoided paying $300,000 in tax, he made a fair whack for himself.

"John Farnham manager jailed for tax fraudArticle from: AAPFont size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print July 19, 2007 11:44am

ENTERTAINMENT guru Glenn Wheatley has been jailed for at least 15 months, becoming the first scalp of Australia's largest-ever tax fraud and money laundering investigation.

Wheatley, who manages Australian music icon John Farnham, dodged paying more than $300,000 in tax by hiding money in a Swiss-based accounting firm and engaged in bogus offshore transactions.

At the Victorian County Court, Judge Tim Wood today sentenced him to two-and-a-half years jail and said he had to serve at least 15 months before being released on a recognisance of $5,000.

Judge Wood said Wheatley's promise to give evidence against other people who may be charged as part of Operation Wickenby had reduced his sentence by one-third.

He said although he took into account testimonials from prominent Australians attesting to Wheatley's good character, general deterrence was the most important sentencing factor.

"All taxpayers are victims of your offending,'' he said. "

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, is the leading candidate to be the next American ambassador to the United Nations, three Bush administration officials told CNN Thursday.

However, two of the sources indicated that President Bush was not yet prepared to make an announcement of the appointment.

Ryan Crocker, a veteran Middle East diplomat who is the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, is expected to be nominated by Bush to replace Khalilzad in Baghdad, two senior administration officials told CNN.

If nominated for the U.N. job, Khalilzad would replace John Bolton, whose recess appointment to the post ended Thursday.

Despite nearly two years of trying, Republican leaders could not push his permanent confirmation through the Senate.

Khalilzad, 55, a native of Afghanistan and a Sunni Muslim, has been the U.S. ambassador to Iraq since June 2005.

He was previously U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

Crocker, 57, has previously served as U.S. ambassador in three countries bordering Iraq -- Lebanon, Kuwait and Syria.

In 2003, he was also a high-ranking official in the Coalition Provision Authority, which governed Iraq after the U.S. invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

In March 2005, Bush nominated the outspoken Bolton, then an assistant secretary of state, to be U.N. ambassador.

But amid opposition from most Democrats and a handful of Republicans, Senate GOP leaders could not push through his confirmation.

So, in August 2005, when Congress was in recess, Bush used his constitutional power to make recess appointments to put Bolton in the post temporarily, without Senate approval, while continuing to fight for his confirmation.

Bush resubmitted Bolton's nomination to the Senate in November, just two days after Democrats won control in the midterm elections.

But when it became clear that he would not be confirmed, Bolton informed Bush he had decided to leave the post when his recess appointment expired at the end of the year.

CNN's John King and Elise Labott contributed to this report

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/04/iraq.ambassador/index.html


Ryan Crocker
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Ryan C. Crocker, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan

Ryan C. Crocker (born on June 19, 1949 in Spokane, Washington) is the current United States Ambassador to Pakistan. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon in 1990, Kuwait in 1994, Syria in 1998, and earlier served as in his country's embassies in Iran, Qatar, Iraq and Egypt. He attended University College Dublin and Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, where he received a B.A. in English Literature in 1971.

Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Crocker became the Director of the Iraq-Kuwait Task Force.

After Persian language training, he was assigned to the American Consulate in Khorramshahr, Iran in 1972. His subsequent assignment was to the newly-established embassy in Doha, Qatar in 1974 as an economic-commercial officer and in 1976 Crocker returned to Washington, DC for long-term Arabic training. He completed the 20-month program at the Foreign Service Institutes Arabic School in Tunis in June 1978 Crocker was then assigned as chief of the economic-commercial section at the U.S. Interests Section in Baghdad, Iraq. Crocker served in Beirut, Lebanon as chief of the political section from 1981 to 1984. He spent the academic year from 1984 to 1985 at Princeton University under State Department auspices pursuing course work in near-eastern studies. He served as deputy director of the Office of Israel and Arab-Israeli affairs from 1985 to 1987 and was political councillor at the American Embassy in Cairo from 1987 to 1990.

Crocker's experience and his vast knowledge of Middle Eastern cultures, history, and languages make him one of the State Department's leading experts on Middle Eastern affairs. He has received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Civilian Service.

In January 2002, he was appointed interim envoy to the new government of Afghanistan, and was confirmed as Ambassador to Pakistan in October 2004.
Media reports in November 2006 speculated that Crocker would be appointed as US envoy to Iraq, beginning in Spring 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ryan_C_Crocker.jpg
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What I am interested in is what conspiracy theories are going to derive from this? This man looks like he is primed for the job.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/NZ-child-discipline-bill-passed-into-law/2007/05/16/1178995228993.html

Green MP Sue Bradford's controversial child discipline bill was on Wednesday night passed by the New Zealand Parliament, with only seven MPs voting against it.

The bill removes from the Crimes Act the statutory defence of "reasonable force" to correct a child, meaning there will be no justification for the use of force for that purpose.

The legislation also carries an amendment agreed earlier by Prime Minister Helen Clark and National leader John Key that says the police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against a parent where the offence is considered to be inconsequential.

The bill was passed on Wednesday almost two years after it was introduced in June 2005. The at times acrimonious debate on the bill has seen Parliament and the public sharply divided between the bill's supporters and its opponents.

But with the compromise amendment, most of that opposition faded away.

---

Democrats want NZ-style smacking ban

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/democrats-want-nzstyle-smacking-ban/2007/05/17/1178995314944.html

The Australian Democrats are increasing pressure on the federal government to ban any physical punishment of children after it was outlawed in New Zealand.

---

Minister says smacking is okay

http://news.smh.com.au/minister-says-smacking-is-okay/20080208-1r0c.html

NSW Community Services Minister Kevin Greene has defended himself against accusations of hypocrisy for smacking his children and then supporting his department taking a six-year-old boy away from a grandmother who smacked the child.

He had smacked his children in the past, he said, but did not think it had done them any harm.

"My children, I'd like to think, are all pretty average normal children," he told Fairfax radio Network.

Asked about the department's policy on reports of smacking, Mr Greene said: "We have a law in NSW that basically says that children can be smacked but they can't be abused.