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Saturday, February 1, 2014

Thursday morning, members of the Parliament of New South Wales, Australia, discussed drafts of two bills relating to liquor intoxication assault crimes starting at 10 o’clock in the morning (AEDT; 2100 UTC), and approved them later during the day: the Lower House approved at midday and the Upper House at 7pm. The new legislation imposes harsher penalties on behaviour under alcohol influence, and a set of other restrictions in the Sydney central business district (CBD).

The full formal names of the bills are Liquor Amendment Bill 2014 and Crimes and Other Legislation Amendment (Assault and Intoxication) Bill 2014. The latter was assented, while the former was still pending assent from the Governor-General. The bills were cognate. The latter formally commenced on Thursday except for Schedule 5, maximum fines changes, subject to commence on a day appointed by proclamation.

The opposition said they would support the legislation before they saw it, citing support of any progress on such laws. The opposition leader, John Robertson, said “We will support the Government’s one-punch laws. The Government had to be dragged kicking and screaming to do something about alcohol-fuelled violence.”

The parties, while actively discussing the draft, did not support amendments raised during the discussion and the bill passed more quickly than usual, on the same day. However, Greens Member of Parliament (MP) John Kaye didn’t support the bills, naming some issues he didn’t expect the bill to address but found more important, such as “the dangerous promotions of deep discounting of alcohol, the failure to enforce responsible service of alcohol in venues and excessive liquor outlet density”.

One provision defined a new offense, assault causing death while intoxicated — by alcohol or other drugs — with an eight-year non-parole period. The penalty notice fines for misconduct and swearing in public were raised from AU$200 and $150 to $500, while the maximum fine for “continuation of intoxicated and disorderly behaviour following move on direction” — direction “to leave a public place and not return for a specified period” — was increased from 6 penalty units ($660) to 15 penalty units ($1,650).

The legislation also restricted sales of alcohol from bottle shops in the CBD until 10pm instead of midnight.

The bill was drafted in response to death of 18-year-old teenager named Daniel Christie on January 11, following eleven days in hospital after allegedly being punched by drunk Shaun McNeil, 25, at Kings Cross. He allegedly also attacked Daniel’s brother, Peter; McNeil’s court case has been adjourned until March.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Police in Melbourne, Australia are on the hunt for a gunman who killed a man and injured two others in the city’s central business district this morning.

Officials warned all office workers to remain indoors, and train services to Flinders Street Station were temporarily on hold, as investigations were carried out on the intersection of Flinders Lane and William Street.

Malcom Bates, who witnessed the shootings at around 8:15 a.m., said the gunman grabbed a woman from inside a taxi. “The lady got away and he turned and shot three people basically point blank,” Mr Bates said. “I was right across the road”. He said that the incident took no longer than the “wink of an eye”.

Paramedics struggled to revive the one victim for almost an hour before declaring him dead at the scene. The two injured people have been taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition.

Police believe the incident began at the Bar Code 24-hour bar in King Street, when a woman attempted to get into a taxi. She was apparently grabbed by the hair by the gunman who then shot her and two men who attempted to come to her aid.

Police have identified the gunman as Christopher Wayne Hudson, aged 29. They believe him to be a member of the Hells Angels bikie gang. Police have described Hudson as about 180 cm tall, with short brown hair and wearing a dark tracksuit top and dark denim jeans.

A building worker on a construction site on the corner of Queen and Flinders Streets has reportedly discovered a handgun. It is understood the gunman may have thrown the weapon into the site as he fled the scene.

Monday, December 18, 2006

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The minimum wage in New Zealand will be increased by 9.8% on 1 April, 2007, the biggest increase in New Zealand for seven years.

The announcement was made today by Labour minister, Ruth Dyson, and will make the current minimum wage for workers over 18-years NZ$11.25 per hour, an increase $1.00 from the current wage of $10.25. Youth workers and youth workers being trained aged 16-years and 17-years will see an increase of $0.80 to $9.00, remaining at 80% of the adult minimum wage.

Ms Dyson said: “The boost in the minimum wage will ensure that lower paid workers share the benefits of economic growth, encourage people to join the workforce and provide protection for some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable workers.”

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand has welcomed the announcement. Sue Bradford, spokesperson for the Greens’ Industrial Relations, said: “There is no better time than during a strong economy for New Zealand to boost the current poverty level minimum wages.”

Ms Bradford said: “The rise announced today is not overly generous. When cost of living adjustments are taken into account, the $12 an hour minimum wage level called for by the Greens during the 2005 election campaign, has now moved to just over $13 per hour. If one applied the European Union social standard – which sets the minimum wage at two thirds of the average wage – we would be setting New Zealand’s minimum wage at $13.66.”

However HealthCare Providers New Zealand is criticising the wage increases as currently the difference in minimum wage and the average caregiver wage rate is 10% ($10.25 and $11.33 respectively). Martin Taylor, chief executive officer, said: “If more funding is not made available then the government is agreeing to caregiving becoming a minimum wage occupation.”

Mr Taylor said: “We believe caregiving is an important job that deserves better wages, but you cannot pay out more than you are funded for. This sector is depended on government funding and we have already been waiting 9 months for DHBs to agree to our funding claim for the last minimum wage increase.”

The government believes that the change will benefit 110,000 adults of which the majority are woman, and 9,200 youth workers.

“With four months till the changes come into effect, businesses will have time to prepare. The date of 1 April was chosen to reduce compliance costs for businesses as it will coincide with the implementation date of four weeks’ annual holidays,” Ms Dyson said.

The government wishes that by the end of 2008 they will be able to increase the minimum wage of adults to at least $12.00 per hour, however the government will be keeping a close eye on the economy.

Monday, April 26, 2010

A protest on the Japanese island of Okinawa calling for the closure of a United States military base attracted almost 100,000 people on Sunday, after speculations that the Japanese government may back out of an election promise to force it off the island entirely.

The base, Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, has been long criticized by the Japanese people, as it and other bases on the island have served as the location for most of America’s 47,000 troops stationed in Japan. The US military presence on the island is seen by some as a legacy of Japan’s defeat in World War II by the US.

Japan’s current prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged to move the base off of Okinawa entirely, and transfer 8,000 military personnel to Guam, superseding a 2006 agreement between the Japanese and American governments to move the base to a less urbanized part of Okinawa. Hatoyama said that he would make a decision about the matter by the end of May, and on Friday told Parliament that he would “stake his job” to do so. Opposition leaders in Japan have demanded that Hatoyama should resign as Prime Minister if he does not make a decision by the end of May.

According to media reports, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada had met with U.S. Ambassador John Roos last week, and had told Roos that Tokyo was in favor of the most of the 2006 deal, a charge which Okada denied, saying that he had met with Roos, but that no concessions on the matter had been made. The reports inflamed Okinawans, and the mayor of Nago, Okinawa said that the government was “playing with the Okinawans’ feelings.”

Support for Hatoyama’s government has fallen sharply in recent months, to 30% approval from 70% late last year, as he has been criticized both in Japan and from the US for his handling of the situation. He has been unable to gain support for alternate sites for the naval base, and has thus far been unable to conduct talks with local officials about the matter. Meanwhile, the US government has pushed for the 2006 agreement to be retained, saying it is the only “viable” solution to the controversy.

Thursday, April 6, 2006

Patrick Owomoyela, a soccer player in the German national team, has achieved a preliminary injunction against the far-right NPD over a pamphlet of the party depicting Owomoyela.

On the cover of the pamphlet concerning the upcoming Soccer World Cup in Germany, the NPD had shown the torso of a man wearing a jersey of the national soccer team with the number 25, which is the fixed number of Owomoeyela in the team. Below it were the words: “White. Not just the color of the jersey. For a real national team.”

The court found that this portrayal “defames [Owomoyela] in an unbearable racist manner” and ordered that the NPD cease distributing the pamphlet under penalty of 250,000 €.

Owomoyela’s lawyer and the German Football Association also intend to press criminal charges for defamation and hate speech against the party.

NPD spokesperson Klaus Beier said the reference to the word “white” was not related to skin color, but rather to a series of betting and corruption scandals in German soccer in recent months.

He also claimed that “neither the player nor his number were recognisable”. However, although partially covered by the caption, the number 25 is easily identifiable on the image.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

The European Space Agency has spotted a pair of supermassive black holes orbiting one another, believed to be the product of two galaxies merging. The results were published on Tuesday in The Astrophysical Journal.

The agency’s XMM-Newton Observatory, which is in space, detected X-rays emitted from the black holes pulling a star to shreds. Called ‘tidal disruption events’, items being consumed by black holes and giving off X-rays as they do are the primary method of spotting black holes.

This is problematic because only younger galaxies where stars are still forming are regular hosts to such events, with most galaxies believed to have a supermassive black hole at the centre. Mature systems, known as quiescent galaxies, only see items enter black holes from time to time and scientists have to be looking in the right place at the right time to find them.

The discovery dates to June 2010 when Dr Fukun Liu from China’s Peking University noticed an apparent tidal disruption coming from a galaxy known as J120136. XMM-Newton was tasked to investigate, as was NASA’s Swift satellite. The resultant data indicates a pair of black holes orbiting one another.

“There might be a whole population of quiescent galaxies that host binary black holes in their centers,” said co-discoverer Stefanie Komossa of Germany’s Max Planck Society. She said ongoing work to spot tidal disruptions could lead to “reliable statistics about the rate at which galaxies merge”.