aussieinthenews Category

Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer has commissioned a shipyard in China to build an exact replica of the Titanic, complete in every detail. The ship, that will be ready in 2016, will be equipped with all modern technology to prevent a repeat of the fateful maiden voyage a hundred years ago.

"Of course, it will sink if you put a hole in it," the billionaire said. "So it will be designed that it won't be easy to get a hole in it. But if you are superstitious you never know what could happen.".

Peter Nicholson, The Australian, Sydney, Australia

Een verpleegster bezocht met haar man een restaurant in Darwin, Australië toen ze een doffe klap hoorde in de keuken. De vrouw rende naar de keuken en zag een man in kokskleding op de grond liggen. De chef Andrew AhWong (43) ademde niet meer.

Terwijl de verpleegster probeerde de man te reanimeren, ging het personeel gewoon door met bedienen. Bestellingen werden naar tafels gebracht en nieuwe gasten kregen tafeltjes toegewezen. "Het personeel stapte gewoon over de kok heen."

Eigenares Fernanda Ferro van Fannie Bay Super Pizza verklaarde later dat Ah-Wong al jaren als chef in het restaurant werkte en dat ze 'hem zullen missen', schrijft The Australian.

Paul Zanetti, Australia

Foto: Wikimedia Commons

This is how News Corp., owner of rightwing Fox News, works. It hacked the phones of 5,800 people. It - the Sun newspaper - tried to bribe a police officer.
Now the police revealed they are investigating News Corp. for attempting to bribe a former Australian senator into voting for favorable legislation. Senator Bill O’Chee was approached to vote against digital TV legislation:

The newspapers reported that an unnamed executive of News Ltd asked O’Chee during a lunch on 13 June 1998 to vote against his conservative government’s legislation on the creation of digital TV in Australia. The news group stood to profit from the legislation failing. [...]

O’Chee, a former senator for the state of Queensland with a track record of voting against his National party’s wishes, alleged the executive told him that while voting against the digital TV legislation would be criticised, “we will take care of you”.

The executive “also told me we would have a ‘special relationship’, where I would have editorial support from News Corp’s newspapers, not only with respect to the … legislation but for ‘any other issues’ too,” O’Chee...

Hunters and Collectors

Nu begrijpt JdeW deze cartoon. De beveiligheidsdienst van President Obama vangt een kogel voor de president maar blijkbaar niet een krokodil.
Bij zijn bezoek aan Australië kreeg de Amerikaanse president Obama een gratis verzekering tegen schade door krokodillen, de ‘croc cover’. In ruil daarvoor wordt Australië verzekerd van (militaire) hulp tegen (de buitenlandse politiek van) China. 

The Secret Service will take a bullet for the President, but apparently not a crocodile:

“I was just presented with the most unique gift I have ever received as president — crocodile insurance,” Obama told about 2,000 troops in Darwin. “My wife, Michelle, will be relieved.”

Australia’s north is home to some of largest and most dangerous crocodiles in the world. Fortunately for President Obama, he was unscathed when he left the country earlier today.

On a trip to northern Australia earlier today, President Obama was given free crocodile insurance.

Peter Nicholson, The Australian, Sydney, Australia

Rightwing Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch phone hacking scandals are spreading in England. Now the police in the U.K. arrested a reporter for the Sun newspaper, the country’s largest circulation daily, on charges of bribing police officers.
This latest development is a major blow to the Murdoch empire, which has maintained that illegal activity was restricted to the now-defunct News of the World. Meanwhile, police announced today that they believe almost 5,800 people were targeted in the company’s phone hacking operations — 2,000 more than originally thought.

Nicholson Cartoons, Australia

By Joep Bertram
 

Thank God for Australian cartoonist  Nik Scott... He's the only one who got it right.

By Nik Scott

Who says the Republicans don't have a jobs plan? This Republican Florida statesman does care about jobs in America. This is real, no satire.

Republican Florida Representative Ritch Workman filed a bill this week to bring back "dwarf tossing," the barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989.
"I'm on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people," Workman said. "This is an example of Big Brother government.
"All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get," Workman said. "In this economy, or any economy, why would we want to prevent people from getting gainful employment?"

Paul Zanetti, Australia

Serena Williams rant.., while playing against Samatha Stosur in the U.S. Open final.

Danglar, Slovakia  

Peter Lewis, Australia, Politicalcartoons.com

By Peter Nicholson, Australia

The Australian government has suspended live cattle exports to Indonesia until safeguards are adopted to end the brutal slaughter of animals.
The move follows an investigation into Indonesian abattoirs by Australia's ABC broadcaster, which showed graphic footage of animals being mistreated. 

The good news is: Australia admits that greenhouse gas emission is a problem.
The bad news is... for camels.

Kill a camel and earn cash for cutting greenhouse gas.
That offer may be coming soon in Australia, where 1,2 million of the non-native, methane-belching animals have been trampling the Outback for more than a century.
The government has proposed that killing camels be officially registered as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Het liep behoorljk uit de hand bij deze nieuwsshow in Australië onlangs. Het gesprek gaat over lange, stekende objecten die mensen bij hun bed houden om inbrekers mee te lijf te gaan.
De objecten worden besproken door twee mannelijke en twee vrouwelijke presentatoren. Oftewel kent u die van die tv-presentator die aan de presentatrice vraagt: “Wat hebt je bij je bed dat lang is en steekt.”
Het duurt niet lang of beide mannen maken zich uit de voeten.

.
what long stabby thing do you have by your bed?

by r.j matson, the st. louis post dispatch

Mark Rutte heeft zijn Australische ambtgenoot Julia Gillard Nederlandse hulp op watergebied aangeboden. Maar Australiërs verzuipen nog liever dan zich door Nederland te laten helpen. Daar komt het antwoord van BZ-minister Rosenthal op vragen van de PvdA op neer hoewel hij het wel iets anders heeft opgeschreven.

Thanks but no thanks: Australia rejects Dutch flood offer 

WAtoday.com.au - They might be the world’s foremost authorities on keeping land dry, but the Australian government says it doesn’t want them - yet.
The Dutch government has offered technical expertise to Australia to help out in the devastating Queensland floods, but Prime Minister Julia Gillard has turned it down.
About 26 per cent of the Netherlands is below sea level and its flood mitigation measures, both from rivers and the sea, are widely considered the most advanced in the world.
[read on]

Leading Dutch news website nu.nl reported that the country’s Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, had made the offer to Ms Gillard, but was told it was not required at present.

However, Dutch foreign affairs minister Uri Rosenthal would continue to liaise with...

by frederick deligne, nice-matin, france  

UPDATE, oktober 23rd, 2010 at 5:00 pm - Het Ministerie van Defensie zei vrijdag dat de lezing dat Nederlandse miltairen in 2008door de Taliban aangevallen Australiers en Amerikanen niet hebben geholpen, niet klopt. ‘Drie keer werd één Nederlandse Apache ingezet ter begeleiding van een medische helikopter. Deze moest de gewonde militairen naar een medische faciliteit afvoeren.’
De prioriteit lag bij die opdracht, ‘niet bij het gevecht op de grond’.
Later werd gevraagd bombardementen uit te voeren. Het vuurgevecht met de Taliban was toen al voorbij; daarom werden geen wapens ingezet. Defensie baseert zich op gesprekken met Nederlandse militairen en schriftelijke verslagen van de gevechtshandelingen. Een vrijdag gepubliceerde verklaring van de Australische minister van Defensie, Stephen Smith, lijkt die weergave van de gebeurtenissen te bevestigen.

The Sydney Morning Herald - The Dutch defence force will review claims that its personnel refused to help Australian special forces soldiers ambushed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, Defence Minister Stephen Smith says.
The claims were made in a new book by ex-SAS soldier Rob...