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Since October 1995

Saturday 18th January 1997

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International:

It's not often that we write about non-Australian news, but in this case we will make an exception.

Spare a moment for that incredible actor and comedian Bill Cosby who's 27 year-old son Ennis was murdered in an unprovoked act after his car broke down in Los Angeles this week.

For me the world changed when I read about it, and saw the distraught face of the man that everybody loves. Somehow I think that the world has changed forever for him..... and for us.

The man accused of over 150 child sexual assaults, Phillip Bell, was arrested in the beautiful surfing town of Jeffreys Bay, South Africa after an extended police search - on the lines of Skase, the failed Australian businessman.

Bell has eluded police by keeping on the move but was eventually tracked down to Jeffreys Bay and arrested at his home by a New South Wales detective accompanied by the South African Police acting as agents for Interpol.

The hunt for the millionaire businessman spanned seven countries Including Gstaad, Switzerland (where he was tracked down last year by Channel Nine's A current Affair programme), Italy USA, England, then Albania (where he went to Tirana and landed up as director of of an English language college), then South Africa.

62 year old Bell, dubbed the "Pied Piper" or "Filthy Phil", denied that he was a paedophile saying he was a "hebaphile" - a father figure who initiated teenage boys into the adult world.

President Mandela has ratified the extradition treaty between South Africa and Australia meaning that Bell can now be sent back to Australia to face the courts in Sydney - where most of his alleged paedophile activities took place.

Political:

Democrat leader Senator Cheryl Kernot has claimed that the Howard Government is creating an Australia where greed is encouraged and a person's worth is measured in their ability to consume.

In an advance copy of a speech to be delivered in Canberra to the Demorat Party faithful today Kernot lashes the Howard Government for putting economics before people.

"We are being valued as consumers first and citizens second and our rughts and entitlements and responsibilities arte tied not to our status as citizens but to our capacity t6o buy goods and services," Kernot's speech notes say.

Senator Kernot also attachs Howard for his definition of the meaning "mainstream Australia".

She says to Howard mainstream Australia represented "Mum and Dad and two or three kids living in a leafy suburb, earning a reasonable income, buying a house, waiting to send their children to private school, and resenting having to pay taxes to fund assistance to others".

Senator Kernot will tell delegates that the next Federal Election will provide an opportunity for the Democrats to regain the balance of power in their own right in the Senate, with only two of seven existing senators up for re-election in a normal half-Senate poll.

You say:

Subject: Re: AOC

Let me see if I have this right.

AOC invests 7.2 million in Cairns casino owned by "Reef"

AOC loses 5 million due to "Reef" share price drop

John Coates is President of AOC

John Coates is Chairman of Reef.

Therefore, two plus two equals 5 million.

Therefore, my socks must need washing because something certainly does not smell right.

Jason

Business:

Ford Australia, the nation's premier car manufacturer, will halt production at its two Victorian plants for four days in February and March and stand down almost 2,000 workers in response to a fall in demand for new vehicles.

Ford, which holds over 20% of the Australian market, said yesterday that production at the Broadmeadow plant and selected production lines at the Geelong plant would be halted to clear the current "overstocking situation".

1800 employees from Broadmeadow's 3,355 workforce and 150 of 2,800 employees at Geelong will be affected by the short term closures.

The closure has the support of Unions as Ford has guaranteed that it will pay 50% of the wages normally paid to those staff affected by the move.

The glut in motor vehicles became apparent during the Christmas period.... Mitsubishi, on the other hand, are claiming that the last two months have been very good with sales being very brisk - maybe that's where the Ford buyers are going!

Sport:

After Australia's dismal performance in the recent one day series the flack has started to go off with the first casualty being the sensational sacking of the Australian Cricket Board's Chief (ACB) Executive Officer, Graham Halbish. ACB Chairman Dennis Rogers announced at 8pm last that Halbish, who has been with the ACB since 1981, had departed their ranks and that the search for a new Chief Executive was now on.

Halbish was the driving figure behind the Australian Cricket Academy which has become a role model for other nations.

Social:

Seems like the Australians and British are worst when it comes to simple mathematics... according to an international numeracy survey conducted by British based Basic Skills Agency. The survey showed that Japan and France were at the top of the pile while Australia and Britain left the impression that educational standards had fallen way behind those of other Western nations.

Britain wagged the tail with only 20% of those surveyed being able to respond to the 12 exercises (see below) designed to represent the basic maths needed in everyday living.

About 33% of Australians got it right with Sweden at 34%; Denmark 36%; Holland 38%, France 40% and Japan at the top with 43% - or more than double of the British.

Here are the questions:

  1. Subtract 1.78 from 5
  2. Take away 2.43 from 5
  3. Add together 5.5, 7.25 and 3.75
  4. What is the total of 4.25, 6 and 7.74?
  5. Multiply 6 by 21
  6. What is the area of a room 11 metres by 18 metres?
  7. How many apples does each person get if a box of 72 is shared by six people?
  8. What is 15% of 700?
  9. How many children are there in a crowd of 7,900 if the proportion is 10%?
  10. What is 5/6 of 300?
  11. How many books are not in a sale if a third are in the sale and the total number is 420?
Answers:
  1. 3.22
  2. 2.57
  3. 16.50
  4. 17.99
  5. 126
  6. 198 sq m
  7. 12
  8. 105
  9. 790
  10. 250
  11. 280

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Very soft rain falling at the moment. We need it - it has been warm and dry for weeks now, and a touch of rain will do wonders to the dry looking grass outside.


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