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READ MORE When these proceedings could not be avoided, Australia changed its tune, co-operating with a process which produced a treaty that is very favourable to Australia and which, crucially, allows Australia to trumpet its commitment to “international legal order” in contrast to China’s activities in the South China Sea. The hypocrisy is brazen and shameful. No doubt fearing that action against Witness K and Collaery would jeopardise the treaty, the Australian government waited until it was signed, then sought revenge. It did so just as the Parliament passed the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill, which includes “economic relations with another country” within its expansive definition of national security, further restricting public access to information. The prosecution is a disgrace. Witness K and Bernard Collaery deserve to be honoured, not charged. David Dixon is a professor at UNSW Law. Article source: ...

READ MORE Lotto luck has struck again in Western Australia, with two winners taking out $2 million each in Saturday’s draw. The winning numbers were 5, 14, 1, 40, 26 and 20 with supplementary numbers 24 and 3. Lotto luck has struck again in WA. Photo: supplied The double millionaires come just a week after three lucky West Australians took home $2 million each in Saturday’s $20 million Superdraw on June 23rd. A Mandurah couple who bought four Lotto tickets as a spur-of-the-moment decision while out grocery shopping were one of the lucky winners last week. The husband and wife were the first winners in the state to claim their division one prizes with two other WA-bought tickets remaining unclaimed. “I was grocery shopping and thought bugger it, I’ll get myself a few tickets,” the Mandurah man said. The man bought four tickets at Mandurah Greenfields Newsagency, and said it was the second ticket which was the $2 million winner. Article source: http://feedpr...

READ MORE A man is fighting for life in hospital after the car he was driving rolled in the Moreton Bay region. Emergency services were called to the scene at the intersection of Michael Avenue and Morayfield Road in Morayfield about 5.20am. Police said when officers arrived it was believed three occupants of the car had fled the scene and left the driver inside the wreckage with multiple serious injuries. The driver, a man believed to be about 25 years old, was taken to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in a critical condition, according to the Queensland Ambulance Service. The crash scene near KFC Morayfield. Photo: Facebook Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sbsnews-topstories/~3/LOqv7MDfMWc/one-year-on-here-s-what-mueller-s-russia-probe-has-achieved Share this: Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Best Wordpress Plugin development company in India ...

READ MORE Once a week the preschool class at Melbourne’s Davis Street Kindergarten relocates to an aged care home. A large residents’ lounge at Uniting AgeWell Carnsworth is transformed into a classroom. Activity stations are set up around the room, where the four and five-year-olds, and about a dozen elderly residents, get busy playing and socialising. Young and old sit side-by-side, huddled over puzzles. They help each other with crafts, or have pretend tea parties. Residents, some in wheelchairs, others supported by walking frames, drop in to catch-up with the little friends they have made. “I think it very satisfying. Very relaxing,” said resident John Haysey, who attends with his wife of 70 years Mary. “You feel as if you have done something with the little ones. That is always important I think.” New connections “We are certainly seeing huge [benefits] in terms of [the children] being able to accept difference much more easily,” sai...

READ MORE Opposition leader Bill Shorten has promised $6 billion in federal funding for western Sydney rail projects if he’s successful at the next federal election. In a speech to Labor faithful at the party’s annual state conference in Sydney’s Town Hall on Sunday, Mr Shorten seized on the government’s “disproportionate” tax policy on the day workers’ penalty rates were cut across the country. Mr Shorten committed $3 billion to the Sydney Metro West project, linking the city to Parramatta, and another $3 billion to the Western Sydney Rail project, which will connect all of the city to the new airport planned for Sydney’s west. The NSW government has also reserved $3 billion for the Sydney Metro West project – which will double capacity between the CBD and Parramatta. “If I’m Prime Minister, my government will do our part, we’ll put in our share of the money to make Metro West a reality,” Mr Shorten told the...

READ MORE Scientists have infected 300 people with malaria at a laboratory in Brisbane to find new ways to stop the killer disease that claims about half-a-million lives a year globally. The world-leading research is part of an international effort to eradicate the disease as new emerging monkey and drug-resistant strains threaten to make current drugs obsolete and cause millions more to die.   Clinical trials at QIMR Berghofer aim to perfect a test for human-to-mosquito transmission of the malaria parasite and to test the effectiveness of drugs that can stop transmission. Their findings so far will be presented at the first World Malaria Congress being held in Melbourne this week and attended by 61 countries. “We are the world leaders, we have infected more people in a controlled environment than anyone else,” said Dr Anand Odedra, a clinical researcher at QIMR Berghofer. “We are now working towards assessing how well drugs work to treat malaria, we are looking ...

READ MORE Gold Coast Titans have spoiled Robbie Farah’s homecoming – and all but ended Wests Tigers’ hopes of reaching the NRL semi-finals – on a deflating afternoon for Ivan Cleary’s men at a sold-out Leichhardt Oval. There was great anticipation in Sydney’s inner west about the return of premiership winner Farah after two years away from the joint venture, as well as the club debut of fullback Moses Mbye. Robbie Farah’s return to the Tigers began with a defeat by the Titans. Photo: AAP A crowd of 16,984 turned up on a glorious Sunday afternoon to mark the occasion but they left disappointed, many filing out well before full-time, as a mistake-prone Tigers produced an underwhelming performance. The 18-point defeat, a fourth in a row, leaves them six points out of top eight with nine rounds remaining. If that predicament was not troubling enough for their finals aspirations, there was concern over relative newcomer Josh Reynolds, who played out ...

READ MORE A unique partnership between Maroondah Principal Network, the City of Maroondah, the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Positive Psychology and Geelong Grammar’s Institute of Positive Education hopes to address this issue by embedding positive education in schools. In a bid to help students lead psychologically healthy lives, teachers will focus on students’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. They hope talking about what is working well, helps the negatives dissipate. And instead of focusing on what constitutes bullying, schools will try to teach students to be kind. Edwina Ricci, Heathmont College’s Head of Positive Education, or aptly-named HOPE leader, said positive psychology taught people to “thrive instead of just to survive”. “It is the science of flourishing,” she said. “If you think about your physical fitness, to get fit, you have to run around the block and go to the gym. To get mentally fit you have to und...

READ MORE Tim Membrey finished off that work well in the forward 50 by kicking four goals while Gresham was influential everywhere with four of his own and a hand in a number of others. The Saints simply ran harder to overlap and carry the ball quickly forward, while the Demons looked to rely on their inside midfield strength too heavily, and lacked either the ability, desire or game plan to hurt St Kilda with similar outside run. Angus Brayshaw was the only Melbourne player who seemed able to match inside grit and outside poise to a damaging standard for long enough. The Demons kicked the first three goals of the game, however, with the Saints rarely advancing past the halfway point of the ground. Melbourne were expertly setting a trap, letting the Saints out of the 50 but then pouncing across half-forward. Two goals to Brayshaw, his first a fine show of strength and poise, set the tone, but the Saints hit back with four of their own. The best of those was thanks to 2017 first-round d...

READ MORE An initial flood of about 50,000 earlier this week rose to more than 160,000 people fleeing their homes, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report on Friday. Many of the displaced have settled in the fields near the Jordanian-Syrian border and in Qunaiterah province, close to the Golan Heights. Children with their family belongings in the back of a truck fleeing from Daraa, southern Syria. Photo: AP “We’ve managed to get [the refugees] assistance despite the difficulty of using the land crossing offered by Jordan,” said Mohammad Hawari, a spokesman for the UN’s refugee agency in Jordan. He said about 34,000 people had been provided with basic assistance, including tents, plastic protectors, blankets, mattresses, water, as well as basic foodstuffs and hygienic materials. Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sbsnews-topstories/~3/LOqv7MDfMWc/one-year-on-here-s-what-mueller-s-russia-probe-has-achieved Share this:...

READ MORE New Delhi : Police say they have found 11 bodies, 10 of them blindfolded and hanging from the roof of a home in the northern part of the Indian capital. The bodies of 11 people were found in a house in the northern part of the Indian capital New Delhi. Photo: ANI The police control room says they are investigating whether they were members of a family who died by suicide or were killed. Police said on Sunday there were no bullet marks on the bodies of seven women and four men. Police say 10 bodies were found hanging from the ceiling and the body of a 70-year-old woman was lying on the floor of the house. AP Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sbsnews-topstories/~3/LOqv7MDfMWc/one-year-on-here-s-what-mueller-s-russia-probe-has-achieved Share this: Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window) Best Wordpress Plugin development company in India     ...

READ MORE New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has celebrated the launch of her families’ package with a message from her couch – baby Neve in arms. Going live on her Facebook page, Jacinda Ardern made her first public comments since she and partner Clarke Gayford left Auckland Hospital following the birth of their first child, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford. The $5.5 billion package is expected to boost the incomes of an estimated 385,000 New Zealand families by $75 a week by the time it’s fully implemented, in 2020-21. Looking happy and calm, with baby Neve bundled in a blanket on her lap, Ardern said she was most proud of the Best Start tax credit for newborns, which affords families up to $60 a week for a child’s early years. “Many years ago now, one element of it at least – the Best Start payment – I started designing, on the floor of a friend’s house in Hastings,” she said. Ardern would have been the Opposition spokeswoman f...

READ MORE Racing is a mastiff eats Chihuahua industry but Kerry Parker, who did so well with Dark Dream, deserves sympathy. Dark Dream went to Parker in the category of what Tommy Smith described as a “penny dreadful” –a horse that wouldn’t have made a major yearling sale, being out of a no-account mare, Buchanan Girl, by a stallion, All American, deported to Western Australia. Penny dreadful: Dark Dream wins the group 1 Queensland Derby. Photo: AAP Parker, who tunes his string at Kembla Grange, developed him to group 1 success and nearly $600,000 in prizemoney, plus huge offers from Hong Kong. “Dark Dream’s going elsewhere,” Parker declared last week. “They said they were looking for change, or something – they’re going to spread their wings … I’m not the first trainer to lose a horse and I won’t be the last, but it’s a shame it is Dark Dream, that’s for sure. “He’s talented and I wish...

READ MORE In extreme cases, skilled chefs at the Rockpool Dining Group’s restaurants are earning as little as $15 an hour some weeks, well below the minimum wage, while working up to 30 hours’ unpaid overtime. Company emails seen by Fairfax also advised workers on how not to record the actual hours they worked, another likely contravention of workplace laws. Mr Laundy told Sky News on Sunday he would ensure that the Ombudsman asked Fairfax’s reporters for the documents which backed up the worker’s claims. “All allegations of this type … should be followed up and are followed up by the Fair Work Ombudsman,” he said. In a statement to Fairfax, the Minister said the Liberal Government had reinforced the Ombudsman’s powers to investigate such issue. Article source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/fisheries-find-shark-is-unlikely-to-have-attacked-perth-boys-warning-cancelled-20180315-h0xj8x.html?utm_medium=rss&utm_sou...

READ MORE Cameron Bancroft’s return to competitive cricket has been short-lived with the banned Australian Test opener dismissed for just one in an NT Strike League match. Long drive: Cameron Bancroft posted just one run in his return to cricket in Darwin. Photo: Glenn Campbell Bancroft opened the batting for the Desert Blaze team at Marrara Oval in Darwin on a sunny, 32C day in the Top End. He was out driving to cover on his third ball off the bowling of Southern Storm pacemen Blade Baxter. Bancroft was suspended for nine months for his role in the infamous ball- tampering incident against South Africa at Newlands in March, while captain Steve Smith and David Warner were banned for 12 months. Warner will play two matches this month in the Strike League, which features numerous first-class players including Alex Ross and Kelvin Smith. AAP  Article source: https://www.smh.com.au/national/western-australia/fisheries-find-shark-is-unlikely-to-have-attacked-perth-boys-warning-can...

READ MORE Her alleged killer has been charged but police are still attempting to establish how Brisbane teenager Larissa Beilby’s body wound up inside a barrel north of the Gold Coast. Zlatko Sikorsky, 34, was on Sunday charged with murder and misconduct of a corpse after being arrested on Saturday following a 28-hour siege on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Sikorsky will face Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Monday accused of killing the 16-year-old high school student. Police however said their investigation was very much ongoing with the cause of Larissa’s death yet to be determined and question marks over how many people helped Sikorsky. A 40-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man have already been charged with being accessories after the fact to murder and will both face Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Monday. But detectives told reporters on Sunday they were still investigating if Sikorsky received additional help. “Information is still vital to the investi...

READ MORE Australian Federal Police officers have arrived in Thailand to help search for boys from a local youth football team who’ve been trapped in a cave in northern Thailand for more than a week.  A group of six AFP Specialist Response Group members who have search and rescue and cave diving skills, arrived at Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non Cave early on Sunday.  “We’re here to support the Thai government in its operation,” said Cameron Noble from Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.  The frantic effort to locate them has picked up pace as a break in the rain eased flooding in the system of caverns and more experts from around the world joined the anxious rescue mission. They join other multinational teams in the desperate search, including US military personnel and experts from a British cave exploration club. China sent a six-person team of rescue and disaster experts to the cave, the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok said....

READ MORE Fed up with corruption and violence, Mexicans will elect their next president Sunday, deciding whether to believe in the change promised by the anti-establishment leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the heavy favourite. Leading by more than 20 points in the polls, the sharp-tongued, silver-haired politician has successfully tapped voters’ anger with a seemingly never-ending series of corruption scandals and horrific violence that left a record 25,000 murders last year – an orgy of bloodshed fueled by the country’s powerful drug cartels. Many voters are sick of the two parties that have governed Mexico for nearly a century: the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the conservative National Action Party (PAN). Lopez Obrador, 64, calls them both part of the same “mafia of power,” a message that resonated with many people – even if the former Mexico City mayor has been vague on what the change he promises will look like. The pol...

READ MORE Vylet​ spent 12 years developing the play (in which she also stars). That dogged determination to distil an idea is evident, as is an incomplete clarity about how best to do it. Even now it can feel we are privy to a process, because for the play to be refined to its ultimate potential required greater ruthlessness in understanding and amplifying what Vylet​ does best – which is to make her play dazzlingly theatrical. The closer it tiptoes to naturalism, the more cracks appear in the writing and acting. The truly exceptional phases, were Vylet​ and her play are both funniest and most moving, are often non-verbal, exploiting her skills as a mime, or her capacity to spear you on non-linguistic sounds. The story is about a Muslim girl of Lebanese parentage transitioning​ to womanhood in Sydney and, later, London, and also about the travails of this character’s mother, played by Nisrine​ Amine. As both writer and actor Vylet​ is enga...

READ MORE The psychologist Bruno Bettelheim knew what made a good children’s book. “It must stimulate his imagination,” he said in his essay The Uses of Enchantment , “help him to develop his intellect and clarify his emotions, be attuned to his anxieties and aspirations.” What you want from a child’s book is an overpowering desire to find out what happens next. Photo: Peter Rae So what did Bettelheim recommend? Fairy tales, that’s what. Unexpurgated, bloody, gory, preferably by the brothers Grimm. It’s hard to imagine what he would make of contemporary children’s books, though I think I can guess. Geraldine McCaughrean, who has just won the Clipp Carnegie Medal, used her acceptance speech to lay into the publishing industry for its prescriptive approach to writing for children. “With a book that’s going to be sold into schools you get a list of things that are unacceptable – no witches, no demons, no alcohol, no de...

READ MORE Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is adamant the Green Machine can overcome the noise of Jack Wighton’s looming court date as they look to keep their season from flatlining. The Raiders fullback will face the Galambany Court – a specialised court for Indigenous offenders – for assessment as to his eligibility for circle sentencing before returning to the magistrates court on Friday on two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, three counts of common assault, and one charge of public urination. Jack Wighton will return to court. Photo: Fairfax Media Wighton was stood down for Canberra’s agonising loss at the hands of the Brisbane Broncos which has left them six points out of the top eight with nine rounds remaining. The 25-year-old will remain sidelined until legal proceedings come to a close but Stuart says Wighton’s absence will not be a distraction as the Raiders fight to salvage their sinking NRL campaign. Canberra ...

READ MORE “It’s important for this administration to know that these policies that rip apart families – that treat people as less than human, like they’re vermin – are not the way of God, they are not the law of love,” said the Reverand Julie Hoplamazian, an Episcopal priest marching in Brooklyn. Three Trump supporters hold flags and yell at people while being kept apart by the LAPD at the ‘Families Belong Together: Freedom for Immigrants’ march on Saturday. Photo: AP Though seasoned anti-Trump demonstrators packed the rallies, others were new to activism, including parents who said they felt compelled to act after heart- wrenching accounts of families who were torn apart. Marchers took to city parks and downtown squares from Maine to Florida to Oregon; in Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico; on the international bridge between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico; even in Antler, North Dakota, population 27. Some of the demonstrations were boist...