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Fears for Aussie in Savile scandal

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 31 Maret 2013 | 23.08

An Australian entertainer has been arrested in the UK in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

The Australian entertainer arrested in connection with the Jimmy Savile serial sexual abuser investigation may have his life ruioned even if not charged, said a friend. Picture: AP Source: AP

A SHOWBIZ friend of the high-profile Australian entertainer arrested last week in England on suspicion of sex offences fears his mate's life may have been ruined even if he's never charged.

The 83-year-old Australian celebrity was questioned on Thursday by a British police task force set up following the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal.

He was released hours later on police bail and has gone into hiding.

"It appears there's a witch-hunt going on looking at the number of high-profile celebrities arrested," the unnamed friend of the 83-year-old told UK newspaper, The Sunday Mirror.

"Even if those arrested are never charged, their lives will still have been ruined and that's unfair.

"It's easy making historic allegations against showbiz names."

The friend said he was "dumbfounded" by the latest events.

The Australian will not be named by the Metropolitan Police unless he is charged at a later date.

He is the 11th person to have been arrested as a result of Operation Yewtree.

It was established after a TV documentary alleged former BBC disc jockey Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, sexually abused countless children over decades.

While the Australian was in the media spotlight at the same time, police have stressed his arrest was not connected to the specific allegations made against Savile.

The 83-year-old has reportedly moved out of his Berkshire home and into a London flat in recent weeks to avoid press scrutiny.

He was first interviewed under caution in late November 2012, five days after a search warrant was executed at his home.

The entertainer's British agent has not returned AAP's calls in recent days.

No one answered the door at his Berkshire home on Friday.

A police investigation concluded earlier this year that Savile was a predatory sex offender who abused youngsters as young as eight over more than 50 years, using his fame to rape and assault victims on BBC premises, in schools and hospitals.

The scandal has led to the arrests of singer Gary Glitter, comedians Freddie Starr and Jim Davidson and radio presenter Stuart Hall.

Prosecutors last week said there wasn't enough evidence to charge former BBC producer Wilfred De'ath who had also been arrested.

De'ath subsequently hit out at the MET which he said had been "arresting people on rather spurious allegations" having failed "to get" Savile when he was alive.

"Operation Yewtree has gone too far ... it really is getting silly," De'ath told the BBC.


23.08 | 0 komentar | Read More

Propaganda shows Kim's 'soft side'

In this March 7 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed by the Korea News Service, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walks with military personnel. Picture: AP Source: AP

THE outside world focuses on the messages of doom and gloom from North Korea: bombastic threats of nuclear war, fantasy videos of US cities in flames, digitally altered photos of leader Kim Jong Un guiding military drills.

But back home, North Koreans get a decidedly softer dose of propaganda: Kim portrayed as a young, energetic leader, a people person and family man.

Mixed in with the images showing Kim aboard a speeding boat on a tour of front-line islands, or handing out commemorative rifles to smartly saluting soldiers, are those of Kim and his wife clapping at a dolphin show or linking arms with weeping North Korean children.

The pictures can look odd or obviously staged to outsiders. But they're carefully crafted propaganda meant to give North Koreans an image of a country governed by a leader who is as comfortable overseeing a powerful military as he is mingling with the people.

Analysts say the images also hint at something that often gets lost amid the threatening rhetoric: North Korea's supreme commander isn't an all-powerful, isolated monarch who can govern without considering his people's approval. Kim is still busy building his reputation at home.

"Even dictatorships respond to public opinion and public pressure," said John Delury, a North Korea analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University.

"He's expected to pay attention to and make improvements in the common people's standard of living. They've put that promise out in their domestic propaganda."

It's a tall order. Living standards in Pyongyang, the capital, are relatively high, with new shops and restaurants catering to a growing middle class. But UN officials' reports detail harsh conditions elsewhere in North Korea: up to 200,000 people estimated to be languishing in political prison camps, and two-thirds of the country's 24 million people facing regular food shortages.

When it comes to North Korean propaganda, much of the world focusses on the series of outlandish videos uploaded to the country's YouTube channel and government website, largely for foreign consumption.

In one fantasy, missiles rain down on a burning American city while an instrumental version of We Are the World plays in the background. In another, President Barack Obama and US troops burn.

North Korea's latest propaganda film shows American soldiers and U.S. President Barack Obama engulfed in flames, with the sequence ending in a simulated nuclear test.

But what most North Koreans see on state TV is a different propaganda message: Kim Jong Un bending down to receive flowers from children, Kim visiting families living in rustic homes on front-line islands, Kim mobbed by gushing female soldiers.

As with any propaganda or PR, the images are carefully staged. And many make foreign news headlines only when experts and photo editors discover that North Korea is digitally altering them.

For instance, in a picture distributed recently by state media, troops and hovercraft land on a barren, snow-dappled beach. Experts say some of the multiple hovercraft have been copied and pasted into the image.

This picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency purports to show the landing and anti-landing drills of KPA Large Combined Units 324 and 287 and KPA Navy Combined Unit 597 at an undisclosed location on North Korea's east coast. Picture: AFP Source:

But North Korea's propaganda makers aren't concerned about the criticism abroad to their heavy-handed photo editing.

"These efforts are aimed more at an unsophisticated domestic peasant audience than those of us who are more discerning"' said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank in Hawaii.

The caring domestic persona being built for Kim by his image specialists is aided by his wife, Ri Sol Ju.

In this July 25, 2012 photo released by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and distributed in Tokyo by the Korea News Service, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju, waves to the crowd as they inspect the Rungna People's Pleasure Ground in Pyongyang. Picture: AP Source:

She is young and glamorous, a chic and smiling presence at his side in many of the country's propaganda images. The couple is often photographed at amusement parks, nurseries, factory tours and concerts.

"It's a more complex kind of image he has as a leader," Mr Delury said. "The basis of his legitimacy domestically has to do with these other, non-military things."

The propaganda machine in North Korea also worked to build up a caring image for Kim's father, the late Kim Jong Il. He doggedly appeared at tours of factories, farms and military posts. But while Kim Jong Un puts his wife front and center and is a relaxed presence on camera, his father was stiff in photos and secretive about his family life.

North Korea takes pains to select and sometimes alter photos so its leaders appear in the best light possible, said Seo Jeong-nam, a North Korean propaganda expert at Keimyung University in South Korea.

For example, past propaganda specialists were careful not to pick photos that showed the large lump on the back of the neck of Kim's grandfather, North Korean President Kim Il Sung, Mr Seo said.

When Kim Jong Il was alive, North Korean photographers tried to make him look taller in photos than he actually was, often positioning him slightly in front of others, Mr Seo said.

As for Kim Jong Un, Mr Seo said North Korea's propaganda mill chooses photos that show off his strong resemblance to his grandfather, who still is depicted on state TV as the loving father of the nation, surrounded by children and adoring citizens. 


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Diana 'visited gay bar dressed as man'

The warning that the bar they were going to was "full of hairy gay men" didn't put off the princess.

AS the most famous princess of her generation Diana was used to posing for photos - but this was a modelling gig with a difference.

The Princess of Wales was once smuggled into a gay bar dressed as a male model, British newspaper The Sun reports. Her chaperone was the Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and the stunt was done so she could mix incognito with fellow drinkers. 

The newspaper said the claim was made in a memoir by British comedienne Cleo Rocos, who says she accompanied the princess - who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 - along with Mercury and fellow comedian Kenny Everet to the bar during the 1980s. 

Rocos says they dressed Diana in an army jacket, cap and sunglasses for a night out at the bar the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, in South London.

"Freddie told her we were going to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a notorious gay bar in London. Diana said she had never heard of it and said she'd like to come," says Rocos.

"Now this was not a good idea. 'It's not for you,' said Kenny, 'it's full of hairy gay men. Sometimes there are fights outside.' This didn't put her off in the slightest.

"When we walked in... we felt she was obviously Princess Diana and would be discovered at any minute.

Freddie Mercury and his pals reportedly dressed the princess up as a male model to smuggle her into the bar.

"But people seemed to blank her. She sort of disappeared but she loved it."


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Face transplant recipient marries

Fellow burns victims Dallas Wiens, right, and Jamie Nash dance during their wedding reception in Forth Worth, Texas on Saturday, March 30, 2013. Picture: Ian C. Bates Source: AP

AN AMERICAN man who received the nation's first full face transplant has married a fellow burns victim at the site where he was injured.

Dallas Wiens, 27, married Jamie Nash, 29, at a Texas church where a severe electrical accident destroyed his face and eyesight in 2008 as he was making repairs to a window, reports The Dallas Morning News.

The couple met in 2011 at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Fort Worth while participating in a support group for burns victims.

Wiens had spent months in the hospital after his accident at Ridglea Baptist Church, in which his head touched a high-voltage power line. Doctors there crafted a featureless face for him that qualified him to receive a full-face transplant in a Boston hospital. Wiens has already undergone more than 30 surgeries to restore function and form to his face.

Nash received burns to 70 per cent of her body in a car crash in 2010, after texting while driving. She wore a pink gown for the ceremony that exposed the scarring on her back and arms.

Both the bride and groom have been married before and have three children, aged 5, 6 and 10, between them.

"Things happened that I didn't think ever could be possible for me, and you made them possible," Nash said, during the ceremony. "You gave me hope, and you gave me tender love that I will always treasure."

The groom, Dallas Wiens, became the first in the nation to receive a full-face transplant after a 2008 power line accident. Picture: Ian C. Bates

The couple made their entrance to the reception to Bruno Mars' Just the Way You Are.

"I think their confidence in their healing process and getting better just made them a perfect match," said Ethan Gloger, a wedding guest and member of the administrative staff in Parkland's burn unit.

Dallas Wiens weds Jamie Nash, a fellow burn victim he met at a hospital support group. Picture: Ian C. Bates


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Dugan's NRL career in tatters

Troubled NRL star Josh Dugan costs himself a contract with Brisbane following an abusive exchange with fans on social media.

Josh Dugan. Picture: Ray Strange Source: The Courier-Mail

The Josh Dugan Instagram photo that kicked things off. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Josh Dugan's apology on Twitter. Source: The Daily Telegraph

JOSH Dugan will be forced out of the NRL following his vile social media comments while the Broncos have to re-launch their star search.

The Broncos ended negotiations with Dugan yesterday following the fullback's abusive comments in which he told a Canberra Raiders fan to "end yourself''.

The Broncos wanted to sign the 22-year-old on a three-year contract worth around $400,000 a season, but made a quick decision to terminate interest after reading Dugan's expletive-laden, social media rant on Saturday night.

The Broncos still want a star playmaker to replace Parramatta-bound Corey Norman and could yet chase fellow wayward fullback Kurtley Beale.

It is understood the Broncos had been impressed with Dugan during negotiations last week and were convinced he wanted to join the club for the right reasons.

Robert Craddock: Broncos wise to ditch Dugan

However, his second Instagram outburst in three weeks caused chief executive Paul White, football manager Andrew Gee and coach Anthony Griffin to hold urgent talks yesterday afternoon.

Their decision was swift when there was mainstream media online coverage of what Dugan had written, with the club revealing talks with the 22-year-old were finished.

"In light of some fresh allegations of inappropriate behaviour, the Broncos have decided not to take the matter any further,'' Brisbane chief executive Paul White said.

The Broncos still have salary cap room to sign a star playmaker.

It is understood Dugan's other suitors, St George Illawarra, have ruled out buying him and Britain's Super League is his likely path.

Raiders fans took to Instagram to criticise Dugan, with one accusing him of a lack of responsibility.

"I'd hate to be ya nuffie,'' Dugan replied. "I could never play another game of NRL and I've still accomplished more than you.

"Haha righto: go get another Raiders Tattoo then end yourself.

"Your mrs is hot too by the way haha you obviously don't read the news more the fool you haha your a joke, (expletive).

"Should call you don bradman ya batting well above average with her. Send her my way ill show her the time of her life.''

Dugan, who broke up with his long-term partner earlier this month, apologised for the comments yesterday.

"Yes I stuffed up and yes I'm paying my price. I apologize (sic) to those who I had bad words with but I am a normal person like anyone else,'' he wrote.

Josh Dugan in action for the Raiders and (inset) a picture he posted on Instagram in the moments leading up to the club sacking him. Source: The Daily Telegraph

When the apology was not accepted by one of the original antagonists, Dugan offered to meet him in Canberra to exchange "words''.

Dugan's best chance of a new rugby league contract would seem to be the English Super League.

If so, he would follow in the footsteps of disgraced Raiders back Joel Monaghan, who had to flee Australia in 2010 after he was photographed in a simulated sex act with a dog.

Broncos players were sceptical of signing former NSW Origin fullback Dugan.

Brisbane winger Josh Hoffman took to Twitter yesterday morning to ``favourite'' comments from ex-Canterbury winger Steve Turner who said the Broncos leadership group should be consulted about signing Dugan.


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Forrest and Rinehart: Top End growth

Fortescue Metal's Andrew Forrest wants government tax breaks to encourage people to build homes in Australia's north. Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIA'S biggest mining entrepreneurs, Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest and Gina Rinehart, have outlined their blueprints for populating the north, with Mr Forrest urging the federal government to remove capital gains tax on people who build second homes in the north.

As powerful voices, including senior members of the Coalition and major players in private enterprise come together in a push to transform the northern frontier, the key point of common ground is that families must be encouraged to settle north.

Northern lights of north's prosperity

Andrew Forrest, whose Fortescue Metals Group has in rapid time become one of the world's leading iron ore suppliers, out of WA's Pilbara, told News Ltd the north would only grow in human terms if people were encouraged to build homes.

Northern Exposure as Tony Abbott goes troppo

Gina Rinehart prefers the idea of personal income tax breaks and creating special economic zones. She wants a mass relaxation of regulations in a model that first assists business, after which population growth will follow.

Gina Rinehart offered daughter $300 million

Mr Forrest, who believes big cities will one day span the north, favours a direct bricks and mortar approach. But he said workers would not invest in northern towns because the tax department treated second homes "like a luxury property, like someone who wants to invest in a ski chalet in the mountains''.

"And so they take the Fly In, Fly Out option, whereas we should be encouraging through our taxation system everything we can to build up remote communities and we can only do that most effectively in the longer term with investment.

"Apply first home-owner benefits to people who only invest in one, two, three or four houses. These are the people who are directly for the permanence of building the communities.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart believes mass relaxation of regulations that first assists business, after which population growth will follow.. Picture: Jane Dempster

"Don't look at that like a second--home luxury, look at it as a building Australia's frontier investment. Allow them the breaks they'd get on a first home. They're not going to be able to buy a place in Thredbo; these are applied to parts of Australia where the government knows you need new investment."

Mrs Rinehart, the world's richest woman, believes special economic zones, or SEZs, where regulations relating to Customs and foreign investment are relaxed, will encourage the free market economy and bring new settlers north.

"SEZs are all over the world, thousands of them, and when these are set up to encourage investment have been of considerable benefit to their respective countries," said Mrs Rinehart.

"We have vast resources in our north, but only about five percent of our population live there," she said.

"Our north is close to our Asian neighbours with their growing needs. But we cannot sit back and think that this will automatically encourage investment and opportunities for growth and increased revenue, unless we can reduce our costs and become more cost competitive.

"The North has a great spirit. Getting the policies right is critical to the success of encouraging more wealth generation in this region, and to me that means less regulation, less taxes, which are critical to being able to be cost--competitive."

Mr Forrest said he was not privy to Coalition draft papers, which propose a dramatic rethink on populating the north with dams, public servants and permanent populations to support medical, mineral and agricultural food bowl developments.

"I've got a deep knowledge of the bush, and the isolated parts of Australia, and I can only give you a personal perspective," he said.

"I'm fairly squarely in the camp that Fly In Fly Out workers are necessary when there's precisely no other choice, but I'm more deeply convicted that you do everything you can to build up the community in which you're working from or visiting.

Gina Rinehart's daughter Hope Welker has formally withdrawn from Supreme Court action against her mother.

"And you encourage your workers to invest in those communities."

Mrs Rinehart said she was excited by the Coalition draft papers.

"There's certainly positives happening," she said. "I hope they keep developing well and I hope this will give those already living in the north and those who move there, too, a much better chance."

One of the authors of the leaked Coalition papers, the shadow minister for northern development, Ian MacDonald, expressed concern about SEZs, even though it was raised as a talking point in the papers.

"Some of the special economic zones that are spoken about could not in my view happen in that same form in Australia," said Mr MacDonald, who likes more traditional notions of governments assisting private enterprise with the streamlining regulations and supporting land releases.

"There are other ways local, state and federal governments can encourage new industries in the north."

Anthony Albanese, Minister for Regional Development, did not respond to requests for comment.


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Face of 'betting plague' takes aim

Bookmaker Tom Waterhouse is considering legal action against Fairfax. Picture: Stuart Walmsley Source: Herald Sun

BOOKIE Tom Waterhouse is understood to be considering legal action against Fairfax for an article in yesterday's Sun Herald which attacked his betting business and Waterhouse personally.

The 30-year-old bookmaker has been the subject of ongoing criticism for his omnipresent television commercials and appearances on Channel 9's NRL coverage spruiking the odds on matches.

But that criticism reached a crescendo over the Easter weekend with Fairfax media publishing a report yesterday in which Waterhouse was accused of being "the smiling face of this (sports betting) plague".

Waterhouse did not return calls from The Daily Telegraph last night but a family spokesman said the bookmaker was looking at taking legal action.

"Let's just say the Waterhouses are the most litigation-conscious family there is," the spokesman said.

The personal attack came as his mother, champion racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse, defended her son in The Sunday Telegraph.

"They (politicians) should stop criticising - all they can ever do, the Greenies and all the rest of them," Waterhouse said.

"He is out there working his butt off. If everyone worked as hard as my son Tom we'd have a much better Australia."

Tom Waterhouse was quoted in The Sunday Telegraph as saying he has not been rattled by the criticism.

"Whether it is rugby league or other things, people will go: 'What are you doing?' And heckling a bit," Tom Waterhouse said.

"I just try and take it in my stride and just do it."


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Ambos do their lolly over eating ban

AMBULANCE dispatchers complain of low morale at call centres. Source: The Courier-Mail

THEY are entrusted with one of the most critical jobs in society but ambulance dispatchers aren't trusted to feed themselves or drink without spilling.

Call centre workers have been banned from eating lollies at their desks and are being forced to drink only out of "sippy cups".

The "micro-managing" has sparked claims that workers fear being burnt out as the busy flu season approaches.

The Courier-Mail revealed on Saturday that communication failures and meal break issues contributed to the tardy response to a Brisbane man left to treat himself after crushing his leg under his own truck.

Documents showed the man died of a heart attack last year after waiting almost 40 minutes for the right paramedics to arrive after a hungry dispatcher wrongly coded his case as non life-threatening before going on a break. At the same time, a key clinical supervisor was also in the mealroom.

QAS Commissioner Russell Bowles acknowledged there were systemic failures in the case of the man's death, but said they had been fixed.

But workers say low morale in the communications centres was putting lives at risk.

Dispatchers in southeast Queensland communications centres are not allowed to keep lollies, fresh fruit or other food in their drawers or water bottles or cans of soft drinks on their desks.

United Voice ambulance co-ordinator Jeanette Temperley said it was harming morale for frontline staff.

"It's been a long-running issue, particularly in the Brisbane comms," she said.

"They can't even have a snack, like a muesli bar or anything. They're definitely micro-managed."

Australian Paramedics Association president Prebs Sathiaseelan said the Queensland Ambulance Service needed to "deal with real issues" and focus on boosting morale instead of crafting "trivial rules".

He said dispatchers felt over-monitored and over-scrutinised.

"They're forgetting the basic principle of what they're there for - worrying about a can of soft drink or lolly is absolutely trivial," he said.

One southeast-based dispatcher told The Courier-Mail the rules created a "ridiculous work environment".

"You can't have fresh fruit, you can't have even a lolly," he said.

"So when your break comes around, we're very anxious to get out."

He said the conditions made it harder to concentrate.

A QAS spokesman said the "carefully researched" rules ensured staff remained "focused on their task at hand and to protect vital technology".

"Staff are allowed to consume fluids during their shift in special containers supplied by the QAS," he said. "This is to minimise the risk to vital technical equipment."

Dispatchers get two 30-minute meal breaks and three 15-minute screen breaks per 12-hour shift.

A spokeswoman for Community Safety Minister Jack Dempsey said the minister was too busy to be interviewed on the issue.


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