500 TALIBAN TUNNEL FREE

Tuesday Telegraph 26^th April 2011: Sydney Australia.

KABUL: Nearly 500 Taliban prisoners dug a 360m Tunnel and escaped from Kandahar prison in southern Afghanistan, according to officials.

The Taliban said it was behind the huge jail break and that all of those who had escaped were members of the militant Islamist organisation.

A tunnel hundreds of metres long was dug from the south of the prison into the prison and 476 political prisoners escaped last night, prison director-general Ghulam Dastageer Mayar said.

The acting police chief of Kandahar, Shair Shah Yousufzai, confirmed the escape.

Last night some political prisoners broke out of the prison and escaped, he said.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahamdi said militants were responsible for the breakout.

Prisoners dug a 360-metre-long tunnel to the south of the prison. They started getting out of the prison at 11pm last night and by early morning today, 541 prisoners escaped the prison, he said.

They all have made it [safely] to our centres and there was no fighting.

Ahmadi said 106 escapees were Taliban commanders and the rest were soldiers.

The Taliban are known to exaggerate claims of their successes in relation to incidents during the insurgency.

The jail break was the second major escape from Kandahar prison in three years.

In 2008, about 1000 prisoners including Taliban militants escaped after the Taliban used a truck bomb to blow open the gates. It was also the scene of a mass hunger strike by inmates the same year.

Kandahar is seen as the birthplace of the Taliban movement and the city and surrounding area has endured some of the worst fighting of the long war.

COMIC BOOK VIGILANTES COME TO THE AID OF PROSTITUTES

Monday Telegraph Sydney Australia 25^th April 2011:

NEW YORK: Self-styled superheroes have offered their help in fighting the serial killer thought to be behind the murders of over a dozen prostitutes.

The New York Initiative – a group of vigilantes who model themselves on comic book heroes as portrayed in the hit film Kick Ass – posted an advert on classified ads  website Craigslist offering “rescue teams” for hookers whose clients turn violent.

NYI, who identify themselves as a group of “martial arts trainers,” security specialists, emergency first responders, drug counsellors, former military police and former law enforcement, are also offering martial arts and weapons training to the women.

The murderer stalking New York, dubbed the Craigslist Killer because he targets women selling sex through Craigslist, is thought to be behind the deaths, of up to 13 prostitutes.

Most of the bodies so far found had been dumped in scrub land on the southern coast of Long Island, New York, all strangled and stuffed in burlap sacks.

According to their advert, NYI have offered their help to prostitutes because “apparently the law doesn’t respect your personal choices and that means cops are slower to follow through when it comes to you.” The group is offering “a number to call and a few one-number of one-word codes you can say or text to them so that they can contact someone to assist you with a possibly violent date.”

   

LEFT IDLE BY BUS BLUE

LEFT IDLING BY BUS BLUE

Monday Telegraph Sydney Australia 25^th April 2011:By: Rhys Haynes (Transport Reporter)

Brand new public buses are sitting idle in depots while officials argue over the colour scheme of the vehicles.

The buses – worth about $500,000 each – remain off the road, while the industry urges Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian to immediately scrap the aqua blue and white colour scheme.

The blue and white livery ordered by former Opposition Leader John Robertson, was expected to last more than 20 years, with each bus to have a uniform colour scheme.

The design was intended for all public and privately-run buses on routes in Greater Sydney, Wollongong, the Central Coast and Newcastle.

About 30 vehicles have already been painted and controversial colours, but private operators are fighting to keep their own colour scheme.

And commuters will suffer, as orders for new buses are being delayed because of the paint dispute.

A government spokesman said its integrated transport authority would determine the ‘overall policy and timetable’ for the bus colour scheme.’

The Daily Telegraph last week saw five buses worth more than $2 million parked behind a shed at the Busways Glendenning depot.

Two buses were delivered before the before the state election, and the three others shortly after, but they are not being used because the colour scheme was rejected by the operator, according to an industry source.

That’s more than $2 million paid by the taxpayer just sitting there not being used because of the colour of the bus, the source said.

A Busways spokeswoman denied there was a dispute, saying the delay was caused by new technology being installed.

As it is school holidays these vehicles have not been required on the road, but it is envisaged that when school recommences they will be used on routes services, the spokeswoman said.

BusNSW, the peak industry body representing bus operators, said the paint scheme was a shambles and urged Ms Berejiklian to scrap the project.

We felt that this short-term knee-jerk reaction to advertise the [previous] government was half baked, and needed to be reversed, BusNSW executive director Darryl Mellish said.

We are very keen to try and get early clearance on this because operators and waiting on the decision to paint new vehicles.

FROM OARADISE TO BARBED-WIRE HELL

FROM PARADISE TO BARBED-WIRE HELL

(Monday Telegraph 14^th March 2011) By: Samantha Townsend. (Regional Reporter)

It once topped the list as the best town for tourists in all of Australia.

But the sleepy surfing hamlet of Yamba, a place where residents could leave the back door unlocked, has been woken from its slumber by a wave of crime.

It had become so bad that some residents have erected barbed wire on the top of their fences to deter intruders from breaking into their homes.

Other residents have resorted to partially hammering nails into fences to try to deter thieves.

The recent spate of robberies, harassment and break and enters is the last straw for many who want the State Government to provide more police to man a 24-hour police station.

The town as a shopfront station but officers have to travel 64km from Grafton to service the area.

A leaked internal police report revealed by The Daily Telegraph suggests the region needed another 49 officers.

One resident, who did not want to be named for fear of retribution, said they moved to the region seven years ago because the town offered a great lifestyle.

But since they were broken into three years ago, they lived in fear and wanted more done to protect their home.

They have put barbed wire on top of the fence.

It was a great place to live but we are fed up, the resident said. Many people have moved out of our street because of the crime.

Another resident, when asked about the barbed wire, said: There is a reason for it and it’s for safety.

When The Daily Telegraph visited Yamba, there were about a dozen homes with barbed wire fencing.

A home that was let for holiday rentals had stickers throughout the property that stipulated guests should lock up and not leave personal items around.

Grafton Inspector Murray Gillett said crime was predominantly caused by young adults because of unemployment and socio-economic problems.

Yamba is also a large tourist town and tourists attract crime, Inspector Gillett said.

Clarence Valley Mayor Richie Williamson said the crime was being caused by those under 25.

In 2008, Yamba boasted it had the best climate in the world, and it beat tourist destinations Broome, Bryon Bay and Port Douglas to top the list of the best 100 towns in an Australian Traveller Magazine.

Mr Williamson backed calls for more police and said there needed to be a 24-hour police station at nearby Maclean to service the lower Clarence region including Yamba, despite the Yamba community wanting one in their town.

Police are critically understaffed, which is part of the problem but we need youth development programs like PCYC to help, Mr Williamson said.

TWO-CHILD SMITH FAMILY

TWO-CHILD SMITH FAMILY

(Thursday Telegraph March 31^st 2011) By: Vikki Campion (URBAN AFFAIRS REPORTER)

Every Australian family should be limited to just two children to curb the population explosion, millionaire Dick Smith said yesterday.

He called for a China-like quota on the number of kids, warning the growing burden on our resources was like ‘a plague of locusts.’

Likening high-rise apartments to chicken coops, the former Australian of the Year thanked properly developers at an Urban Taskforce population debate for ‘not lynching’ him after he attacked their drive for profits and called for an end to growth addiction.

It’s either going to be forced on us or we are going to plan, Mr Smith said. I would like to see Australia stabile at 24 to 25 million.

I don’t see it by force. I see it by saying to parents, ‘It’s best to have two kids.’ I see us having an immigration intake of 700,000 per year.

He said unaffordable land prices had left generations of children stuck in apartments. We descended from hunter gatherers – not from termites. We are putting our kids into high-rise because we are running out of land.

We pay $50 million a year for free-range eggs for our bloody chooks to be free range – what about our kids?

He said population growth had to slow to allow housing to become affordable again.

Mr Smith also called for an end to ‘stealing resources’ from future generations.

We have to decide – are we like locusts that breed to huge numbers and then die off? Or are we like the majority of other magnificent natural creatures in this country which have lived in balance for millions of years? he said.

Mr Smith said the economic system was built on ‘perpetual exponential growth.’

We are addicted to growth. It’s like the religion of capitalism, but it is a false god, he said.

MacroPlan economist Brian Haratsis called Mr Smith alarmist and accused him of using scare tactics.

He said the population debate in Australia had been stolen by ‘anti-growth people with a Green sentiment.’

We could triple the population of Australia and we wouldn’t use much land. Fly from Sydney to Perth and what do you see? Not much!