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World-News
Airport expansion plan has wings clipped
Jun 8th
By Phoebe Stewart
Posted June 8, 2011 18:27:00 Darwin Airport has altered its proposed $40 million extension to the passenger terminal.The Northern Territory Transport Minister approved the airport “major development plan” in February 2009, which included expanding one end of the terminal and adding a third level to the building.
But after negotiations with airlines, Darwin Airport has now decided to expand both the east and west ends of the terminal and scrap the planned third level.
The revised plan is out for public comment until June 30.
The airport expansion project has been a drawn-out affair. A $60 million development was proposed in More >
Premier denies power station sell-off
Jun 8th
Posted June 5, 2011 09:21:00
The Tasmanian Premier has denied the Tamar Valley power station in the state’s north is being prepared for a potential sale.The Opposition says documents obtained under Right to Information show that in December last year the then Treasurer Michael Aird asked Aurora to start preparing non core assets for sale which included the possibility of selling the Tamar Valley power station.
The Premier, Lara Giddings, says the gas-fired power station was bought to drought proof the state.
“I’ve certainly not been part of any direction to Aurora to look at selling off the Tamar Valley power station.”
“What More >
Gillard joins celebration of mining lease deal
Jun 8th
By Rick Hind
Posted June 8, 2011 18:36:00 Julia Gillard has signed the first lease agreement between a mining company and traditional Aboriginal owners.The Prime Minister is on the Gove Peninsula for a ceremony recognising the new lease agreement for Rio Tinto’s bauxite mine and alumina refinery.
When bauxite mining started at the Alcan alumina refinery in the 1960s, it sparked a bark petition, a royal commission and a land rights movement.
The new 42-year agreement covering the Northern Territory town of Nhulunbuy and surrounding Aboriginal land is the first to be negotiated with traditional owners rather than the Crown.
Ms Gillard told More >
Australian experts sent to Indonesian abattoirs
Jun 8th
By Helen Brown in Jakarta and staff
Posted June 8, 2011 08:04:00 A team of Australian officials will arrive next week to help lift standards in Indonesian abattoirs.The news comes as the Federal Government is set to announce a suspension of live exports to Indonesia until safeguards are adopted to stop the brutal slaughter of animals.
The Government has been under increasing pressure since ABC’s Four Corners investigation last week exposed shocking cases of animal cruelty and abuse at 12 Indonesian abattoirs.
Indonesia’s minister for agriculture now says his department will work with the team of four experts from Australia to investigate abattoir More >
Traditional owners agree to landmark mining lease
Jun 8th
By Rick Hind
Posted June 8, 2011 18:36:00 Julia Gillard has signed the first lease agreement between a mining company and traditional Aboriginal owners.The Prime Minister is on the Gove Peninsula for a ceremony recognising the new lease agreement for Rio Tinto’s bauxite mine and alumina refinery.
When bauxite mining started at the Alcan alumina refinery in the 1960s, it sparked a bark petition, a royal commission and a land rights movement.
The new 42-year agreement covering the Northern Territory town of Nhulunbuy and surrounding Aboriginal land is the first to be negotiated with traditional owners rather than the Crown.
Ms Gillard told More >
Mum put methadone in boy’s bottle, court told
Jun 8th
Posted June 8, 2011 19:45:00
A court has heard an Adelaide woman allegedly put methadone in her sick five-year-old son’s cordial bottle, causing his death.The 44-year-old woman appeared at the Holden Hill Magistrates Court on Wednesday charged with manslaughter and administering prescription medication to the boy.
Police prosecutor Jessica Esplin alleged the woman’s two teenage sons, aged 15 and 16, told police that their mother had given their younger brother the drug during the night after she and the child had been sick with coughs.
Ms Esplin told the court that the older boy said he woke with his mother yelling that More >
Crafty contortionist turns suitcase thief
Jun 8th
Posted June 8, 2011 19:41:00
A flexible thief squeezed into a large suitcase and then emerged to plunder valuables from other bags while inside the luggage compartment of a Spanish airport bus, police say.The thief had a partner who would buy a bus ticket and place the suitcase in a bus from Girona airport to Barcelona in north-eastern Spain, police said in a statement.
“Once the trip began, he would get out of the suitcase, search for valuable objects and hide them in a smaller bag he carried with him,” regional Catalan police said.
The thief would then get back into the More >
No link found for fish deformities: report
Jun 8th
By Melinda Howells
Updated June 8, 2011 12:38:00 A report has found no definitive link between farm chemicals and fish deformities at a Noosa River hatchery on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.The State Government ordered a scientific review in 2009 after two-headed bass hatchlings were discovered at the Sunland fish hatchery.
There were claims that chemical spray from a neighbouring macadamia farm had caused the deformities.
But Queensland Agriculture Minister Tim Mulherin says the panel could not find definite proof that chemicals were the cause.
Mr Mulherin says not everyone on the panel agreed on the findings, but independent toxicologists also backed More >
Bernanke’s comments drag US stocks lower
Jun 8th
Posted by admin in World News
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Posted June 8, 2011 07:41:00
A speech by the US Federal Reserve chairman weighed on Wall Street in late trading, sending the market down for a fifth straight session.Ben Bernanke acknowledged a slowdown in the US economy, but he gave no indication the central bank was considering any further stimulus measures to boost growth.
Earlier in overnight trading, stocks rose as profit seekers snapped up some bargains in the resources, energy and consumer sectors.
But banking stocks were the best performers after their heavy sell-off in recent weeks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 19.15 points to 12,070.81.
The S&P 500 eased 1.23 More >