Man tied up in during Sydney home invasion - NEWS.com.au

A man has been assaulted and tied up in his bathroom during a home invasion in Sydney's south. Source: AAP

A MAN'S been assaulted and tied up in his bathroom during a home invasion in Sydney's south.

Just after midnight on Saturday a man and woman armed with a knife broke into the granny flat of a home at Penshurst.

The pair assaulted the 24-year-old and dragged him to the bathroom where he was tied up, police said.

They rummaged through the flat and left a short time later.

The 24-year-old managed to free himself and call police.

He was treated at St George Hospital for soreness and bruising to his face and body.

Police say the assailant was Caucasian, about 30 years-old with dark hair and had a tattoo on his right calf.

The woman is described as 30 years-old, with a medium build and shoulder-length blonde hair.

Sydney man shot in daylight outside home - Yahoo!7 News

A young man has been shot in broad daylight outside a home in Sydney's southwest.

Paramedics were called to a house in Greenacre at 11.15am (AEST) on Saturday following reports of a shooting.

The man, aged in his late teens, was found lying outside the house with gunshot wounds, police said.

He was taken to hospital in a serious condition.

Police were told a car was seen leaving the area a short time after the shooting.

Anyone with information is being urged to contact Bankstown Local Area Command or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Sydney hospital backflips on surgery ban - Ninemsn

Critical surgeries on cancer patients will go ahead after a Sydney hospital scrapped a ban on the procedures it imposed to save money this financial year.

The delay in peritonectomy surgeries had been put in place by St George Hospital until July 1, when the next financial year begins.

The hospital in Sydney's south is the only one in NSW to perform the specialist peritonectomy operations, which are conducted by Professor David Morris.

There are 42 people currently waiting for the surgery, 20 of whom have already waited longer than is clinically recommended.

St George Hospital on Friday night backflipped on the decision, saying the surgeries would not be postponed.

The hospital's operations director, Cath Whitehurst, said the decision had been made after its clinical council reconsidered the earlier decision.

"The St George Hospital Clinical Council has today further considered the constraints to the capacity of the hospital and the peritonectomy services and has decided peritonectomy surgery will not be ceasing," Ms Whitehurst said in a statement.

"All NSW Category 1 peritonectomy patients will next week be re-assessed for surgery by the Peritonectomy Clinical Review Committee."

She said the hospital would determine "the most appropriate and urgent peritonectomy cases to be undertaken".

From June, six NSW peritonectomy surgery cases, including emergency procedures, would be performed each month, the hospital said.

However, it said the surgeries would be "subject to the capacity of the hospital, taking into account the urgency and needs of all other patients".

An independent clinician would help prioritise and determine the six most appropriate cases for each month.

Future demand for peritonectomies would be determined through a statewide process.

Earlier, NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner defended the postponement, saying the health budget was not unlimited.

Ms Skinner said Prof Morris had already performed 81 operations this year, many of them on patients from interstate and overseas, which was nine more than his limit.

Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek blamed the situation on the NSW government's $3 billion cuts to the health system.

She said it was critical for the NSW government to manage the health system better so it could provide the necessary care for its citizens.

Meanwhile, Australian Medical Association NSW president Brian Owler called for an increase in health funding of at least seven per cent in the upcoming state budget.

Patient Sara Bowers said she had to wait four months for Prof Morris to operate on her.

"It's a terrifying place to be - you can't sleep at night, you can't eat, you can't think, you can't go to work. It completely assumes your every waking moment: the fact that you have cancer and you are being left to die," she told reporters.

The NSW opposition welcomed the hospital's decision but urged the government to do more on the issue.

"The O'Farrell government should be resourcing the hospital to do three of these surgeries per week so the backlog can be fixed," opposition health spokesman Andrew McDonald said in a statement.

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Horses evicted from historic Sydney estate - Ninemsn

Horses at Yaralla Estate in Sydney's inner west have been evicted by NSW Health despite pleas from angry residents and the opposition to keep the animals at the historic site.

The privately-owned horses were shifted from the fields in Concord on Saturday morning, after owners failed to persuade the state government to stop the move.

Yaralla, also known as the Dame Eadith Walker and Thomas Walker Estates, is managed by the Sydney Local Health District.

It's putting the land out to tender after public pressure forced it to dump a secret deal to move NSW Police horses to the estate.

Local horse owners have raised concerns over the welfare of the horses during the transit from the paddocks, Labor MP Luke Foley said in a statement on Saturday.

He said one of the horses, 24-year-old Seamus, has been unable to secure an agistment facility where necessary care is able to be administered.

"(It's) a prime example of the disgraceful treatment the horses and their owners have received during this whole scandal," he said.

"Health Minister (Jillian Skinner) is fully responsible for the welfare of these horses during the eviction and must be held to account for any damage done as a result of their expulsion from their paddock".

Mr Foley said that Yaralla, bequeathed to the state of NSW in 1938, was set aside for public space and the agistment of horses.

He said he would force a parliamentary inquiry into the eviction once parliament resumes in a fortnight.

The government was this week ordered to produce all relevant reports, briefings, emails and correspondence between the health district and police on Yaralla.

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Star power and sexual fantasy about to be unleashed on Sydney stage - Sydney Morning Herald

Intense: Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert during rehearsals for The Maids. Photo: Supplied

Cate Blanchett and Isabelle Huppert are on sabbatical from their high-profile film careers, co-starring in the Sydney Theatre Company's new adaptation of Jean Genet's The Maids. But even here, the camera lens is never far away.

In director Benedict Andrews's production, the stage will be bugged with surveillance cameras. Every move his cast makes can be captured and projected on to a screen onstage. Nothing will go unnoticed.

''You're watching two women in an extreme crisis, in an untenable relationship,'' Andrews explains. ''As servants, they are the lowest of the low and so they have invented a sexual fantasy world, a game leading them towards murder.''

Poster for The Maids.

Loosely based on the sensational case of the Papin sisters, domestics who murdered then mutilated their employer in Paris in 1933, Genet's 1947 play focuses on two housemaids, Claire and Solange, and their elaborate, sexually charged, ritualised fantasies, performed while their mistress is out.

It is a difficult play to grasp, Andrews says. ''It's a kind of Chinese box of theatre and role play. [The critic] Martin Eslin called it a 'hall of mirrors'. I think of it as a labyrinth of mirrors in a fun house. As you try and get through it, you find more and more reflections. It's almost crystalline.''

Small video cameras rigged into the set are Andrews's way of highlighting the multiple facets of the play. It's a technique Andrews has used before - in his staging of Patrick White's The Season at Sarsaparilla for the STC (2007) and his Belvoir production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure (2010) - but this time the surveillance technology will be more intrusive and more obvious to the audience.

''We will be able to pan, track and zoom. The cameras can move around and find small details,'' Andrews says.

''As well as the video cameras in the set there will be two camera operators on the side of stage and you'll be able to see what they are doing, if you choose to look. It's another Chinese box; you're always aware of the artifice of the thing being made in front of you.''

Observed by up to eight cameras in a system devised by Andrews's collaborator Sean Bacon, Blanchett and Huppert are aware they are being filmed but will have no idea which camera is recording them at any one moment.

''They can't become self-conscious about the cameras,'' Andrews says. ''I have a lot of experience by now getting good performances from people and I'm aware that if people start doing things technically, it doesn't work. You don't want them ever thinking technically, you want them thinking emotionally.''

While Andrews likens the atmosphere to that of a ''luxury prison'', the world the maids inhabit is very much a feminine space. ''It clearly belongs to a woman [Madame, played by Elizabeth Debicki]. Her clothes and her makeup are there. It's like a little factory for making the public woman - another stage within a stage.''

This version of The Maids, co-adapted by Andrews and STC artistic director Andrew Upton, is a ''rough and carnal translation'', Andrews says. ''Earlier versions have used good old-fashioned English. I think ours has the poetry of Genet. The language is very shocking because it would have been when he wrote it. We want the play to be a very visceral and emotional experience.''

Hints of its potential impact are heralded on the STC website: ''Warning! Contains adult themes, strong language and nudity.'' Andrews doesn't believe the ''nudity'' warning is warranted, however. ''They change clothes, bras and undies on stage but it's not really about that,'' he says. ''It's the ideas in the play that are confronting and they are extremely radical still. There's still the class war that no one wants to believe exists yet that's the fracture line the play is written on.''

The Maids also taps into the broader themes of colonisation, Andrews says. ''The emotions of the maids - the love, the hate, the oppression - are those felt by colonised people for those who colonised them. Genet was attracted to outsiders and people who were fighting for their freedom and that idea is still very much in the play.

''Then there is his depiction of incestuous love, two sisters who masturbate each other at night and tell each other stories, the closeness of that. That's much more fascinating than anything else.''

Hang on. Will audiences actually see this - on camera?

''Only air masturbation, like air guitar,'' Andrews laughs. ''No, I don't think we'll be showing too much of that. It's better if it's all in the mind. The play deals with the problem of their love, a very bruised, closed-in love. It's a love that only belongs to them up in their little attic where they have two poor cots, a statue of the Virgin Mary and their little stories. That's their life and it's very, very tangled: who's betraying who and what to do with this knot of their love.''

The Maids opens at the Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay, June 8

Sydney driver charged with police pursuit - NEWS.com.au

A DISQUALIFIED driver has been charged with leading police on a pursuit in Sydney's west.

Patrol officers detected the man driving over the speed limit in St Marys about 11.30pm (AEST) on Friday night, police say.

He allegedly ignored police directions to pull over and drove through a red light, before jumping out of the car and fleeing the scene.

Officers found the 22-year-old hiding under a car in Mount Druitt.

He was taken to Mount Druitt police station, where police found that the man had been previously disqualified for driving until 2017 for other traffic offences.

He was charged with police pursuit and driving while disqualified from holding a licence.

He was due appear in Parramatta Bail Court later on Saturday.

Lil Miles, Sydney's Oldest Barmaid, Still Serving Beers At 91 (PHOTOS) - Huffington Post

Sydney's oldest barmaid Lil Miles has never been a drinker, but after four decades in the job at her family's Bells Hotel in Woolloomooloo the 91-year-old still hasn't tired of pulling beers.

"I'll keep going," said the diminutive great-grandmother, even though the Sydney pub scene has changed vastly from the wild days of the 1970s when big spending sailors and dockside workers kept the hotel busy.

These days Woolloomooloo is famed for its expensive harbourside restaurants and cafes. Without the wharf workers, and with fewer tourists coming in for a drink, electronic poker machines bring in some of the revenue once generated by a crowded front bar.

It's a far cry from the 1970s when many of the cottages in the working-class inner city suburb were empty and derelict, while its proximity to the wharfs, the Garden Island Naval Base and the nightclub zone of Kings Cross meant it was a tough neighbourhood.

Was it wild? "Oh yes it was," said Ireland-born Miles, reflecting on her time at the hotel that has brought its joys as well as personal tragedy.

In those days, some hotels in the area allowed prostitutes to be "raffled" to the highest bidder on their premises. "It wouldn't happen today," she added.

"They used to raffle the girls -- I won't tell you which hotel -- and you'd get a girl for the night. And then, the next publican, he raffled the boys. And they got a bigger crowd, much, much bigger. So there you are. Not here."

The Hotel would see its own action, said Miles, with sailors competing in relay races around the block with burning rolls of newspaper stuffed down their backsides.

"One night there was three sailors leaving... one was lit, he'd been around the block, and he'd light the next one. Oh, it was so funny," she said.

"They were just homeless boys, away from their homes," said Miles, her silvery-white hair held neatly back with pins.

Miles and her late husband John took over the Bells Hotel in 1973, living upstairs with their six children. They worked hard to make ends meet in an area with plenty of pubs, including the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel opposite.

Back then, the managers knew each other and were friendly.

"When we first came here, we were borrowing glasses off them, and they'd borrow glasses off us and we'd go crook if they didn't return them clean," Miles says.

When times were tough, Miles would visit the brewery in the city and argue for the price of the kegs to be dropped temporarily. She was never refused.

The 1970s were a time of radical change in Sydney, as developers fought with community activists and unionists over plans to tear down historic areas of the former colonial town, including the site of the first European settlement in Sydney known as The Rocks and Woolloomooloo, for redevelopment.

For years, developers sought to demolish the lowly workers cottages that populated the area and replace them with high-rise office buildings. Landlords held back on improvements, homes fell into disrepair and residents were gradually pushed away.

Woolloomooloo was spared from office highrises but gradually the wharves saw less use as new container ports, cruise liner facilities and airports were built elsewhere and the workers moved on.

Its giant Finger Bay Wharf lay derelict and decaying for almost a decade.

But in the 1990s work began on its conservation, and it has been redeveloped to include a boutique hotel, restaurants and luxury apartments which are home to the likes of Hollywood star Russell Crowe.

But the publican's lot did not necessarily become easier, with Miles suffering more than her fair share of grief. One of her sons, Shane, died from head injuries after a brawl in the pub in 2004.

"It wasn't his night on and they got very busy and they asked him to come down and work," she recalled, saying there had been an altercation in the bar and Shane ended up being hit in the head with a bar stool.

It was a shock to an establishment that, despite its location, was not known for being a rough pub but instead "a country pub in the city".

Despite the changes she has witnessed, Miles says the qualities of a good barmaid haven't altered much.

"You've got to be a listener I think. Because all the old blokes tell you about their aches and pains," she chuckles. "It's been really great."

She does the jobs she says "the others don't want to do" such as taking the money out of the pool tables and making sandwiches for the lunch crowd.

"If they get a delivery, I pull the beers," she adds.

"I've loved every minute of it. It's been a good life."

Also on HuffPost:

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Elderly nun in hospital after attempted robbery in Sydney - ABC Local

Posted June 01, 2013 06:47:59

An elderly nun is recovering in hospital after an attempted robbery in Sydney's CBD.

Police say the 77-year-old Catholic nun was withdrawing cash from an ATM in downtown Sydney at around 1:00pm yesterday (local time).

A 49-year-old woman followed her a short distance before grabbing her and attempting to steal her purse.

The elderly woman fell to the ground during the struggle and hit her head on a wall.

Officers say bystanders intervened and the attacker was arrested.

The nun was taken to St Vincent's hospital with head injuries.

The 49-year-old has been refused bail and will face Parramatta Local Court today.

Topics: crime, law-crime-and-justice, sydney-2000, nsw

Lil Miles, Sydney's Oldest Barmaid, Still Serving Beers At 91 (PHOTOS) - Huffington Post

Sydney's oldest barmaid Lil Miles has never been a drinker, but after four decades in the job at her family's Bells Hotel in Woolloomooloo the 91-year-old still hasn't tired of pulling beers.

"I'll keep going," said the diminutive great-grandmother, even though the Sydney pub scene has changed vastly from the wild days of the 1970s when big spending sailors and dockside workers kept the hotel busy.

These days Woolloomooloo is famed for its expensive harbourside restaurants and cafes. Without the wharf workers, and with fewer tourists coming in for a drink, electronic poker machines bring in some of the revenue once generated by a crowded front bar.

It's a far cry from the 1970s when many of the cottages in the working-class inner city suburb were empty and derelict, while its proximity to the wharfs, the Garden Island Naval Base and the nightclub zone of Kings Cross meant it was a tough neighbourhood.

Was it wild? "Oh yes it was," said Ireland-born Miles, reflecting on her time at the hotel that has brought its joys as well as personal tragedy.

In those days, some hotels in the area allowed prostitutes to be "raffled" to the highest bidder on their premises. "It wouldn't happen today," she added.

"They used to raffle the girls -- I won't tell you which hotel -- and you'd get a girl for the night. And then, the next publican, he raffled the boys. And they got a bigger crowd, much, much bigger. So there you are. Not here."

The Hotel would see its own action, said Miles, with sailors competing in relay races around the block with burning rolls of newspaper stuffed down their backsides.

"One night there was three sailors leaving... one was lit, he'd been around the block, and he'd light the next one. Oh, it was so funny," she said.

"They were just homeless boys, away from their homes," said Miles, her silvery-white hair held neatly back with pins.

Miles and her late husband John took over the Bells Hotel in 1973, living upstairs with their six children. They worked hard to make ends meet in an area with plenty of pubs, including the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel opposite.

Back then, the managers knew each other and were friendly.

"When we first came here, we were borrowing glasses off them, and they'd borrow glasses off us and we'd go crook if they didn't return them clean," Miles says.

When times were tough, Miles would visit the brewery in the city and argue for the price of the kegs to be dropped temporarily. She was never refused.

The 1970s were a time of radical change in Sydney, as developers fought with community activists and unionists over plans to tear down historic areas of the former colonial town, including the site of the first European settlement in Sydney known as The Rocks and Woolloomooloo, for redevelopment.

For years, developers sought to demolish the lowly workers cottages that populated the area and replace them with high-rise office buildings. Landlords held back on improvements, homes fell into disrepair and residents were gradually pushed away.

Woolloomooloo was spared from office highrises but gradually the wharves saw less use as new container ports, cruise liner facilities and airports were built elsewhere and the workers moved on.

Its giant Finger Bay Wharf lay derelict and decaying for almost a decade.

But in the 1990s work began on its conservation, and it has been redeveloped to include a boutique hotel, restaurants and luxury apartments which are home to the likes of Hollywood star Russell Crowe.

But the publican's lot did not necessarily become easier, with Miles suffering more than her fair share of grief. One of her sons, Shane, died from head injuries after a brawl in the pub in 2004.

"It wasn't his night on and they got very busy and they asked him to come down and work," she recalled, saying there had been an altercation in the bar and Shane ended up being hit in the head with a bar stool.

It was a shock to an establishment that, despite its location, was not known for being a rough pub but instead "a country pub in the city".

Despite the changes she has witnessed, Miles says the qualities of a good barmaid haven't altered much.

"You've got to be a listener I think. Because all the old blokes tell you about their aches and pains," she chuckles. "It's been really great."

She does the jobs she says "the others don't want to do" such as taking the money out of the pool tables and making sandwiches for the lunch crowd.

"If they get a delivery, I pull the beers," she adds.

"I've loved every minute of it. It's been a good life."

Also on HuffPost:

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Rosehill factory fire causes Sydney traffic delays - ABC Online

Updated May 31, 2013 09:37:59

There are still significant traffic delays in Sydney's west after a fire at a factory complex in Rosehill.

As fire fighters mop up, the southbound lanes on James Ruse Drive have reopened to traffic but northbound lanes remain closed.

The NSW Traffic Management Centre says diversions will remain in place for some time.

About 80 firefighters battled the blaze after crews were alerted by a passing motorist around 4am AEST.

The building was well alight when they arrived.

The fire affected three shops, causing extensive damage to an electrical shop and tile showroom.

Fire and Rescue New South Wales says the blaze has been contained but crews are working to prevent the building from collapsing.

Commissioner Greg Mullins says it could be some time before they know what started the fire.

"We're still actively fighting the fire. We have about 24 fire crews from across Sydney here with a lot of equipment," he said.

"No clues to the cause as yet, but when the fire is extinguished police and fire investigators will move in."

Nikki Sinclair from the Transport Management Centre says James Ruse Drive has been closed in both directions.

"There are diversions in place for motorists, south-bound motorists, they're being diverted at Victoria Road or River Road West," she said.

"All north-bound motorists are being diverted at Hassel Street to Arthur Street and onto River Road West, so if you can avoid the area."

One shop owner says more than 100 people are employed in the complex.

Topics: fires, rosehill-2142

First posted May 31, 2013 06:44:16

rocky road leads Rampe to Sydney - Sydney Morning Herald

Perseverance pays off: Dane Rampe, raised in Sydney, is becoming a highly valued member of the reigning premiers' back six. Photo: Wolter Peeters

Dane Rampe is not the first, nor will he be the last, footballer to reach the top via the path less trodden but, through naivete then perseverance, he finally had the chance to live his dream.

It was only last year Rampe was sitting in the SCG stands with a few mates, having a quiet beer watching Sydney play, but he is now becoming an increasingly valuable member of the reigning premiers' back six.

But before the Swans noticed the player right under their nose, Rampe, born and raised in Sydney, had to spend three of the longest years of his life in Melbourne, completing an apprenticeship that had no guarantees of leading anywhere.

At an age when most prospective AFL players are cutting their teeth in the national under 18 competition, Rampe was shooting hoops and kicking a round ball.

By the time he had finished school in 2008, Rampe had played at under 7s and 8s, a season in year 7 to keep in touch with primary school mates and a brief kick in year 11 because athletics would have interfered too much with his studies.

That, however, did not stop Rampe, who scored 95.5 in his HSC, from moving to Melbourne and trying his luck in the VFL with the hope of being drafted. What's more, he thought it was a goal he could have achieved in a year.

''It was naive to think that but that's what I thought,'' said Rampe, who turns 23 on Sunday.

Rampe had juggled two other sports yet was still good for his age, so it was only natural for him to think of the improvement he would make when football became his sole focus. What he did not consider was the different attitude to the game in Melbourne.

''Everything's about footy and they're training all year round. That was the biggest shock,'' Rampe said. ''I was doing well up here in the under 17s and 18s - that's why I thought I could make it.''

Remarkably, Rampe almost made it after one season playing in the seconds, mainly as a defender, for Williamstown, who were affiliated with the Western Bulldogs.

He had received a letter of interest from Geelong and had heard second-hand information Carlton were also sniffing but none came closer to drafting him than the Bulldogs.

At the end of 2009, then Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade told Rampe it was down to him and Patrick Rose, who was a star in the VFL, for the club's final pick in the rookie draft.

''It was a bit of a kick in the guts,'' said Rampe, who could see the rationale behind Rose getting the nod. ''They said, 'Keep working on your craft down at Willy'.''

Although the disappointment was a spur, the harder he tried the tougher it became.

''I wouldn't go out because I'd want to focus on my footy and wouldn't want to do anything else except work, because I had to, and train and come back buggered at night,'' Rampe said.

''I had the right mindset but didn't go about it the right way with work-life balance.''

It was not until last year, when he starred in the Sydney Football League, that Rampe learnt that lesson but he is now applying it with the Swans.

Clearly the most inexperienced member of Sydney's defence, Rampe is often isolated in the goal square by rival teams.

He had a few shaky moments against Hawthorn's Jarryd Roughead but clearly beat the seasoned Quinten Lynch last week in arguably the best match of his seven-game career.

Such is the faith the Swans have in Rampe they have picked him seven weeks in a row, which is some achievement given the club, more so than most, makes their players earn their games.

''If I want to be playing out here I need to be doing those jobs - why not throw me in the deep end now?'' Rampe said.

''I feel comfortable with that. I almost laugh about it. They're doing it right in front of my face. They're not being disrespectful to me. It's just the way it is.

''I'm the least experienced defender out there, but bring it on. I genuinely don't feel uncomfortable down there.

''To be out there now is a dream come true. I think that's why I'm doing all right.''

Hird wary of fired-up Sydney - The Age

Sydney Swans players training at the SCG on Thursday. Photo: Dallas Kilponen

Essendon coach James Hird hopes Sydney's turbulent week will not make the defending premiers a more challenging prospect in Saturday's powerhouse clash at the SCG.

''They're a very difficult prospect anyway, so I hope it doesn't make them more difficult,'' he said on Friday.

''They're a fantastic team, they played very well against Collingwood last week and we've got our work cut out for us.''

Speaking for the first time since Collingwood president Eddie McGuire's racial slur on Swans star Adam Goodes on Melbourne radio on Wednesday, Hird described McGuire's comments as ''very disappointing and hurtful'', but added: ''I know Eddie very well and I know he's not a racist person.

''He's apologised and I think that everyone hopes that that apology's been accepted. Everyone feels for Adam Goodes and people in the indigenous community, that this issue is not a one-off. People of Australia need to realise that it is a very big issue that has to be dealt with.

''But I also believe I know Eddie very well and I know he's not a racist person. He's a person who's done a lot for the community at all levels and someone who is remorseful of what's been said and he will work to make sure he does good for the comments he made.''

Hird said having ''media swirling around your football club for issues other than football, does take your mind off it''.

The Bombers withstood such pressures early this season, winning their first six matches despite the ASADA probe into the club's supplements program last season. They then dropped two matches before toppling Richmond at the MCG, and enter this round one win behind leaders Hawthorn and Geelong. The Swans are two points further back.

With Essendon's ASADA interviews over, Hird praised his players and coaching staff for having maintained their focus and expected the team to produce a strong second half of the season.

They will have to be on song against a Swans side featuring a midfield Hird rates as having the best balance of attack and defense in the league.

''It's not just about winning the ball, it's about defending as well. There's no doubt that their midfield is one of the best.''

A key contest could be between Josh Kennedy and Jobe Watson. ''It would be great to see them go head-to-head,'' Hird said.

''They're in great form. Jobe's winning a lot of his own ball, defending well, and Josh has taken his game to a whole new level in the last 18 months.

''[They] are two of the best inside-midfielders in the competition and it would be great to see them go head-to-head - big-bodied midfielders in a contest would be worth coming to see.''

Sydney's oldest barmaid still pulling beers at 91 - Channel News Asia

SYDNEY - Sydney's oldest barmaid Lil Miles has never been a drinker, but after four decades in the job at her family's Bells Hotel in Woolloomooloo the 91-year-old still isn't tired of pulling beers.

"I'll keep going," said the diminutive great-grandmother, even though the Sydney pub scene has changed vastly from the wild days of the 1970s when big spending sailors and dockside workers kept the hotel busy.

These days Woolloomooloo is famed for its expensive harbourside restaurants and cafes. Without the wharf workers, and with fewer tourists coming in for a drink, electronic poker machines bring in some of the revenue once generated by a crowded front bar.

It's a far cry from the 1970s when many of the cottages in the working-class inner city suburb were empty and derelict, while its proximity to the wharfs, the Garden Island Naval Base and the nightclub zone of Kings Cross meant it was a tough neighbourhood.

Was it wild? "Oh yes it was," said Ireland-born Miles, reflecting on her time at the hotel that has brought its joys as well as personal tragedy.

In those days, some hotels in the area allowed prostitutes to be "raffled" to the highest bidder on their premises. "It wouldn't happen today," she added.

"They used to raffle the girls -- I won't tell you which hotel -- and you'd get a girl for the night. And then, the next publican, he raffled the boys. And they got a bigger crowd, much, much bigger. So there you are. Not here."

The Hotel would see its own action, said Miles, with sailors competing in relay races around the block with burning rolls of newspaper stuffed down their backsides.

"One night there was three sailors leaving... one was lit, he'd been around the block, and he'd light the next one. Oh, it was so funny," she said.

"They were just homeless boys, away from their homes," said Miles, her silvery-white hair held neatly back with pins.

Miles and her late husband John took over the Bells Hotel in 1973, living upstairs with their six children. They worked hard to make ends meet in an area with plenty of pubs, including the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel opposite.

Back then, the managers knew each other and were friendly.

"When we first came here, we were borrowing glasses off them, and they'd borrow glasses off us and we'd go crook if they didn't return them clean," Miles says.

When times were tough, Miles would visit the brewery in the city and argue for the price of the kegs to be dropped temporarily. She was never refused.

The 1970s were a time of radical change in Sydney, as developers fought with community activists and unionists over plans to tear down historic areas of the former colonial town, including the site of the first European settlement in Sydney known as The Rocks and Woolloomooloo, for redevelopment.

For years, developers sought to demolish the lowly workers cottages that populated the area and replace them with high-rise office buildings. Landlords held back on improvements, homes fell into disrepair and residents were gradually pushed away.

Woolloomooloo was spared from office highrises but gradually the wharves saw less use as new container ports, cruise liner facilities and airports were built elsewhere and the workers moved on.

Its giant Finger Bay Wharf lay derelict and decaying for almost a decade.

But in the 1990s work began on its conservation, and it has been redeveloped to include a boutique hotel, restaurants and luxury apartments which are home to the likes of Hollywood star Russell Crowe.

But the publican's lot did not necessarily become easier, with Miles suffering more than her fair share of grief. One of her sons, Shane, died from head injuries after a brawl in the pub in 2004.

"It wasn't his night on and they got very busy and they asked him to come down and work," she recalled, saying there had been an altercation in the bar and Shane ended up being hit in the head with a bar stool.

It was a shock to an establishment that, despite its location, was not known for being a rough pub but instead "a country pub in the city".

Despite the changes she has witnessed, Miles says the qualities of a good barmaid haven't altered much.

"You've got to be a listener I think. Because all the old blokes tell you about their aches and pains," she chuckles. "It's been really great."

She does the jobs she says "the others don't want to do" such as taking the money out of the pool tables and making sandwiches for the lunch crowd.

"If they get a delivery, I pull the beers," she adds.

"I've loved every minute of it. It's been a good life."

Sydney surgery ban lifted - Ninemsn

A Sydney hospital has lifted a ruling that would have kept at least 42 cancer patient waiting for specialist surgery until July.

The delay in peritonectomy surgeries had been put in place by St George Hospital until July 1, when the next financial year begins.

The hospital in Sydney's south is the only one in NSW to perform the specialist peritonectomy operations, which are conducted by David Morris.

There are 42 people currently waiting for surgery, 20 of whom have already waited longer than is clinically recommended.

In a statement on Friday night, NSW Health said the hospital had lifted the ban.

"The St George Hospital Clinical Council has today further considered the constraints to the capacity of the hospital and the peritonectomy services and has decided peritonectomy surgery will not be ceasing," the statement says.

"All NSW Category 1 peritonectomy patients will next week be re-assessed for surgery by the Peritonectomy Clinical Review Committee."

NSW Health said the hospital would determine "the most appropriate and urgent peritonectomy cases to be undertaken".

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Jail for hairdressing apprentice who smuggled drugs through Sydney Airport - Sydney Morning Herald

Seventeen people have been arrested as part of a two-year federal anti-corruption and organised crime probe into suspected drug trafficking at Sydney Airport’s international terminal. Photo: Jon Reid

The ringleader of a drug smuggling operation who bribed a Sydney Airport customs officer and imported enough pseudoephadrine to make $2.3 million worth of drugs has been jailed for at least five-and-a-half years.

Joseph Harb, 28, confessed to bringing 14 kilograms of cold and flu tablets from Thailand to Australia in August and paying the officer, Paul John Katralis, $50,000 to help him get through Sydney Airport.

Mr Harb, who was doing a hairdressing apprenticeship at TAFE, bought the tablets for $7000 in Phuket in 2011, with a plan to bring them back to Australia to make up to $200,000, Sydney's Downing Centre District Court heard on Friday.

He had $800,000 in gambling debts owed to his family, and was hoping the profit from the importation would help pay them back, Judge Robert Sorby said.

"It does not alter that ... he committed the offences for financial gain," Judge Sorby said.

The judge set a maximum term of eight-and-a-half years, saying that Harb, who also organised for a drug mule to accompany him back to Australia, extensively planned the offences.

"He had initiated and orchestrated the entire importation knowing what he was doing was illegal," the judge said.

Katralis, who the judge described at the "facilitator" of the crimes, was last month handed a four-year non-parole period in jail, with a maximum term of seven years.

According to agreed facts before the court, Harb left the tablets with a friend in Thailand and in June 2012 approached Katralis for his help.

In August he arranged for a drug mule to travel with him, paying more than $5000 in cash for plane tickets.

Harb and the drug mule collected the tablets in Phuket, and Harb wrapped them in a pair of jeans and packed them in his suitcase along with wooden items, after Katralis advised him to make his bag look "busy".

When Harb arrived at Sydney Airport on August 18, Katralis showed him where to get his luggage and pointed out the exit.

Little did they know they were being watched by Australian Federal Police officers.

Katralis sent Harb a text message just before 6am saying: "Just don't make any contact here for a while ... the cops are hanging around and I don't know why."

The officers saw Harb "swiftly" leave the airport after getting the message, the court heard.

Police later arrested and searched Harb, finding the tablets which contained 3.18kg of pure pseudoephadrine, which could have made 2.9 kilograms of methamphetamine.

As revealed in a Fairfax Media investigation, a total of four customs officers and one quarantine inspection service official are among 17 people arrested by Operation Marca, a two-year federal anti-corruption and organised crime probe into suspected drug trafficking at Sydney Airport's international terminal.

Judge Sorby took into account his early guilty plea and character references, including from his lifelong friend Wests Tigers captain Robbie Farah.

Harb's earliest possible release date is February 16, 2018.

TechBizz arrives at Sydney Opera House on July 17 - ZDNet

Summary: Join ZDNet Australia for this special livestream event that will explore whether users, or administrators, are driving change in IT decision making.

Large multi-national corporations are still able to impose their technological will upon their workforce, but for companies yet to reach that size, there is now increasing pressure to meet demands from employees, customers, or even business partners for pervasive access to corporate applications and data from any device.

On July 17, ZDNet will host a panel of executives that will discusses the changes that mobile computing has imposed on businesses, how can businesses best embrace the apps and devices their workforce is using, and what challenges does this change pose to enterprises across the board?

Register now to make sure you don't miss out on our largest panel event of the year.

This event forms part of our TechBizz series, which will see companion events taking place in Singapore on July 4, and India on August 7.

Bomb found under car outside Sydney home - Sydney Morning Herald

• Do you know more? Email us, message us on Twitter @smh

A bomb has been found under a car and a Molotov cocktail has been hurled at a home in separate incidents in Sydney.

Police say they are investigating the discovery of an improvised explosive device under a car parked in front of a house in Granville on Friday.

The area was evacuated and bomb squad officers rendered the device safe.

Meanwhile, police say a house in Sandringham was damaged by fire when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at it about 8.45pm on Thursday.

The residents were alerted to the attack when they heard the sound of breaking glass and discovered the Molotov cocktail had been thrown against their door.

They had put the fire out by the time police arrived.

AAP

Sydney teacher charged with sexual assault - Ninemsn

A Sydney teacher accused of sexually and indecently assaulting a 12-year-old boy on numerous occasions is behind bars after turning himself in to police.

Detectives from the child abuse squad on Thursday charged a 31-year-old man who taught at a school in Sydney's inner west.

It's alleged the sexual and indecent assaults started after the teacher befriended the boy early in 2012.

The abuse continued through the year, police say.

The teacher turned himself in at Bankstown police station about 2pm (AEST) on Thursday and was charged with aggravated sexual assault and two counts of aggravated indecent assault with a person under 16.

He was refused bail to appear in Central Local Court in June.

Do you have any story leads, photos or videos?

AFL: Andrew Demetriou hopeful Adam Goodes plays for Sydney despite the ... - ABC Local

Updated May 31, 2013 09:12:14

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou says Adam Goodes should play for the Sydney Swans this weekend as a way of putting aside the controversy surrounding Eddie McGuire's racial slur for at least a "short time".

Goodes has not spoken publicly about McGuire's comments on Wednesday, where he suggested the two-time premiership player be involved in the promotion of the musical King Kong.

McGuire's slur came only days after Goodes was called an "ape" by a young Collingwood fan in the Swans' match against Collingwood at the MCG last Friday night.

Goodes has accepted an apology from the embattled McGuire, who will remain as Magpies president but will undertake an AFL education program related to racial vilification.

Demetriou acknowledges Goodes is "absolutely shattered" but feels he will benefit from focussing on his playing duties this Saturday against Essendon at the SCG.

I think it is important that he (Goodes) plays but he was just really, really disappointed as you would expect.

Andrew Demetriou

The Swans have named Goodes to face the Bombers but have left the decision to play up to him.

"Hopefully he can try as best as possible to put this aspect aside for a short time to play football, which I think is going to be very challenging for him tomorrow," Demetriou told 774 ABC Melbourne.

"But hopefully he does. I think it is important that he plays but he was just really, really disappointed as you would expect."

The AFL will not punish McGuire for his comments, as its racial vilification policy does not involve sanctioning an individual unless they refuse to take part in the league's education program.

"It's not part of the policy to sanction unless of course the people do not participate in the process, they don't want to subject themselves to education [and] if they haven't apologised sincerely," Demetriou said.

Demetiou backed the comments of Magpies defender Harry O'Brien, who stated a "casual" racism exists in Australia in light of McGuire's slur.

O'Brien, who has expressed his disappointment in McGuire, linked such behaviour to 'larrinkism', often embraced by Australians.

Demtriou agrees with O'Brien's view, outlining it is a much more serious problem than many choose to believe.

"It's absolutely true that it is worse than people think," he said.

"I think we heard Harry O'Brien say, and full credit to Harry he identified this issue around this casualness and this commentary, this sort of language he is subjected to on a daily basis.

"And it does exist. I've got to say, it doesn't just relate to issues around racism it's the casualness about other comments."

Topics: australian-football-league, sport, melbourne-3000, sydney-2000

First posted May 31, 2013 09:04:31

Rosehill factory fire causes Sydney traffic delays - Yahoo!7 News

A factory fire is causing significant traffic delays in Sydney's west.

About 80 firefighters are battling the blaze at a factory complex in Rosehill.

Crews were alerted by a passing motorist around 4am AEST and the building was well alight when they arrived.

The fire affected three shops, starting in one and then spreading quickly to two others.

One shop contained electrical equipment and another was a tile store.

Fire and Rescue New South Wales says the blaze has been contained but crews are working to prevent the building from collapsing.

Commissioner Greg Mullins says it could be some time before they know what started the fire.

"We're still actively fighting the fire. We have about 24 fire crews from across Sydney here with a lot of equipment," he said.

"No clues to the cause as yet, but when the fire is extinguished police and fire investigators will move in."

Nikki Sinclair from the Transport Management Centre says James Ruse Drive has been closed in both directions.

"There are diversions in place for motorists, south-bound motorists, they're being diverted at Victoria Road or River Road West," she said.

"All north-bound motorists are being diverted at Hassel Street to Arthur Street and onto River Road West, so if you can avoid the area."

Sheikhs in Sydney's Al Risalah book store encouraging young Muslims to fight ... - Yahoo!7 News

A secretive and radical program operating inside an Islamic book store in western Sydney is encouraging young Muslims to fight in Syria, a 7.30 investigation has revealed.

The bloody conflict in Syria has become a magnet and a new training ground for militants around the world, including Australians.

ASIO has estimated around 100 Australians could be currently fighting in Syria, and four Australians have so far died in the conflict.

Since it opened just over a year ago, the Al Risalah bookstore has gained a reputation as a centre of Islamic extremism.

Four key sheikhs preaching at Al Risalah

7.30 has been investigating Al Risalah's activities and the people behind it, identifying four key sheikhs.

All are radical, and all are encouraging Australians to get involved in the Syrian crisis.

The most famous of the sheikhs is Abu Suhaib, known to authorities as Bilal Khazal.

Khazal is a former baggage handler for Qantas, trained at a military camp in Afghanistan, and was a confidant of Osama bin Laden.

He was lecturing at Al Risalah in 2012 until he was convicted and sentenced to nine years in jail for producing a do-it-yourself terrorism book.

The possibility that militant sheikhs are radicalising youth at home - before they go to Syria - has Australian authorities on high alert.

Police 'aware' of shop's activities

Community leaders like Jamal Dahoud are concerned about what is taking place.

"The Al Risalah bookstore especially is very secretive, very secret," he said. "They conduct their business in a very secret way. I tried to explore who is behind this group - we can't."

The head of the New South Wales Police counter-terrorism unit told 7.30 they are aware of Al Risalah.

"I am aware of some of activities that go on there and some of the individuals involved," Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas said.

He said federal authorities are "very much involved in some of the issues" raised by 7.30.

"It's a matter of us sitting down with our colleagues in the federal sphere and then working out where we go from there, but there has to be tangible evidence and it has to be available to the police," he said.

Deputy Commissioner Kaldas said it is "not advisable" to encourage people to partake in the Syrian war.

"Sending people into a war zone is something that's quite heartless and quite selfish," he said.

"I have to say for someone to be advocating for someone to go and fight in a war but are not prepared to do it themselves tells me something about those who are advocating that."

Government warns fighting in Syria is against the law

Questions have been asked as to whether the Australians who have died in Syria so far were providing humanitarian relief, or if they were also fighting at the front line against the brutal Assad regime.

Their families maintain they weren't fighting and were there to aid the humanitarian effort by helping the maimed and wounded, including women and children caught in the crossfire.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says Australians fighting in Syria could be breaking at least three laws, including the Foreign Incursions Act, which makes it an offence for Australians to participate in this kind of civil war.

Mr Dreyfus also holds concerns that Australians would return from the conflict having been further radicalised.

"Clearly there is a radicalisation that's involved in wanting to participate in this military and violent activity," he said.

"There is a concern before people go, but there is also a concern when they return - as the director-general of ASIO has spoken about.

"If you've gone to Syria, participated in the conflict there - particularly with a terrorist group - and then returned to Australia, it's likely you'll return with terrorist ideology [and] with more knowledge."

Man charged with impaired driving after mother, baby injured in Sydney - CTV News

SYDNEY, N.S. -- Police say a 25-year-old man is facing charges after he allegedly crashed a car while impaired, injuring a seven-month-old baby and his mother.

Cape Breton Regional Police say the accident happened on Mira Road near George Street in Sydney around 4:50 a.m. today.

They say the mother and child were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The car was severely damaged in the crash.

The driver, who police say is the father of the child, has been charged with impaired driving and impaired driving causing bodily harm.

Fire closes major road in Sydney's west - Ninemsn

A major road in Sydney's west has been closed to traffic following a fire in a factory complex.

James Ruse Drive remained closed in both directions at Grand Avenue North early on Friday as 15 fire trucks attended the blaze in Rosehill.

Firefighters responded at 3.56am (AEST) to find two units of the seven-unit complex well alight, a Fire & Rescue NSW spokesman told AAP.

He said crews had contained the blaze but the road remained closed.

The Transport Management Centre said southbound motorists were being diverted at Victoria Road or River Road West, while northbound motorists were being diverted at Hassall Street to Arthur Street and onto River Road West.

Motorists travelling on the M4 are advised to use Silverwater Road exit instead of James Ruse Drive.

Do you have any story leads, photos or videos?

Guns seized in Sydney's northwest - Ninemsn

Police have seized 26 firearms, including semi-automatic rifles, during a house search in Sydney's northwest.

A large amount of ammunition was also seized during the search in Rydalmere, from 6.30pm (AEST) on Thursday.

No arrests have yet been made.

NSW Police are engaged with interstate counterparts in Operation Unification, a two-week nationwide hotline to help authorities target and seize illegal firearms.

Do you have any story leads, photos or videos?

Attacking Sydney's 'enclaves of Islam' - The Daily Telegraph

Daniel Nalliah with Christian supporters / Pic: David Caird Source: The Daily Telegraph

A CONTROVERSIAL anti-Islamic political leader who says he is prepared to die for his cause has denied he is inflaming violence with a talk about "Muslim enclaves" at Blacktown tonight.

Police are on alert for the speech by Rise Up Australia Party national president Daniel Nalliah at the town's RSL and have warned Mr Nalliah and the local community to say nothing that "might incite violent or criminal behaviour".

Mr Nalliah said yesterday "gutless politicians" had to stop "pussy footing" around the issue of "Muslims taking over whole suburbs and turning them into no-go zones".

He said his "patriotic" views had led to several death threats and the machete murder of a British soldier in a London street last week was in the forefront of his mind.

"I'm not going to back off," Mr Nalliah said yesterday.

"If I have to get killed for this cause, I'm willing to do that for the sake of the future of our children."

MIRANDA DEVINE UNDERCOVER AT LAKEMBA MOSQUE - ONLINE FROM 8AM

Mr Nalliah, a migrant from Sri Lanka via Saudi Arabia, who describes himself as black, denied RUP was another "white Australia" party.

It is one of several new political parties registered in time for the federal election which are expected to attract votes from the major parties.

The spectre of Muslim ghettos was raised by a federal parliamentary committee into multiculturalism which recently handed down its report.

"References were made to Muslim 'enclaves' in Sydney and Melbourne and the riots in Cronulla in 2005 to suggest a lack of willingness on the part of Muslims to embrace the Australian lifestyle, values and behaviours," the report said.

A police spokesperson said they were aware of the speech to be delivered tonight.

"Individuals and groups have a right to express their opinions as long as this is done in a lawful and respectful manner," the spokesperson said.

"We would remind people that care must be taken so nothing is said that may incite violent or criminal behaviour."

Muslim leader Keysar Trad said groups such as Rise Up Australia should be ignored: "The community should continue to ignore Islamaphobic groups such as this and let them continue to do what they want to without any publicity."

Sydney ceremony marks WWII sub attack - The Australian

THE sinking of an Australian navy vessel by a Japanese midget submarine in WWII will be commemorated in Sydney on Friday.

The submarine, known as the M24, was one of three midget submarines that entered Sydney Harbour on May 31, 1942.

It fired torpedoes at the cruiser USS Chicago, but instead hit the HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 naval personnel.

The submarine was missing until 2006, when scuba divers discovered its wreck off a Sydney beach.

In a statement, the Defence Department said a ceremony at Garden Island Fleet Base in Sydney Harbour on Friday would commemorate the 71st anniversary of the attack, including an indigenous smoking ceremony.

Australian and Japanese representatives will attend, as well as officials from the US, Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

Sydney ceremony marks WWII sub attack - NEWS.com.au

THE sinking of an Australian navy vessel by a Japanese midget submarine in WWII will be commemorated in Sydney on Friday.

The submarine, known as the M24, was one of three midget submarines that entered Sydney Harbour on May 31, 1942.

It fired torpedoes at the cruiser USS Chicago, but instead hit the HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21 naval personnel.

The submarine was missing until 2006, when scuba divers discovered its wreck off a Sydney beach.

In a statement, the Defence Department said a ceremony at Garden Island Fleet Base in Sydney Harbour on Friday would commemorate the 71st anniversary of the attack, including an indigenous smoking ceremony.

Australian and Japanese representatives will attend, as well as officials from the US, Britain, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

The 'Coathanger' to get a makeover: Landmark Sydney Harbour Bridge due for ... - The Independent

The landmark Sydney Harbour Bridge is to get its first makeover in 81 years with a new paint job that will take two years to complete, the New South Wales state government has said.

The iconic bridge, which spans the central and northern parts of the city, will be sanded back to bare steel and repainted using a lead-free paint that is fade-resistant.

The job, which will involve fifty painters, is expected to take around two years to complete.

The bridge, which was once the world's widest long-span bridge, at 48.8 meters (160 feet) wide, carries vehicles along the the Bradfield Highway and is about 2.4 kilometres (1.5 mi) long.

It takes around 30,000 litres of paint for just one coat on the Harbour Bridge, which is nicknamed 'The Coathanger', and huge sections of the bridge have suffered from heavy rust and erosion.

Sheikhs in Sydney's Al Risalah book store encouraging young Muslims to fight ... - ABC Online

Updated May 30, 2013 23:10:30

A 7.30 investigation has uncovered a secretive and radical program operating inside an Islamic book store in western Sydney, which is encouraging young Muslims to fight in Syria.

The concerns of authorities have been heightened by the bloody conflict in Syria, which has become a magnet and a new training ground for militants around the world, including in Australia.

ASIO has estimated around 100 Australians could be currently fighting in Syria.

Four Australians have so far died in the conflict. Questions have been asked as to whether they were providing humanitarian relief or if they were also fighting at the front line against the brutal Assad regime.

Their families maintain they weren't fighting and were there to aid the humanitarian effort by helping the maimed and wounded, including women and children caught in the crossfire.

Since it opened just over a year ago, the Al Risalah bookstore has gained a reputation as a centre of Islamic extremism.

Community leaders like Jamal Dahoud are concerned about what is taking place.

"The Al Risalah bookstore especially is very secretive, very secret," he said. "They conduct their business in a very secret way.

"I tried to explore who is behind this group - we can't."

7.30 has been investigating Al Risalah's activities and the people behind it, identifying four key sheikhs.

All are radical and all are encouraging Australians to get involved in the Syrian crisis.

The most famous of the sheikhs is Abu Suhaib, known to authorities as Bilal Khazal.

Khazal is a former baggage handler for Qantas, trained at a military camp in Afghanistan, and was a confidant of Osama Bin Laden.

He was lecturing at Al Risalah in 2012 until he was convicted and sentenced to nine years in jail for producing a do-it-yourself terrorism book.

The possibility that militant sheikhs are radicalising youth at home - before they go to Syria - has Australian authorities on high alert.

The head of the New South Wales Police counter-terrorism unit told 7.30 they are aware of Al Risalah.

"I am aware of some of activities that go on there and some of the individuals involved," said Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas.

He said federal authorities are "very much involved in some of the issues" raised by 7.30.

"It's a matter of us sitting down with our colleagues in the federal sphere and then working out where we go from there, but there has to be tangible evidence and it has to be available to the police," he said.

Deputy Commissioner Kaldas said it is "not advisable" to encourage people to partake in the Syrian war.

"Sending people into a war zone is something that's quite heartless and quite selfish," he said.

"I have to say for someone to be advocating for someone to go and fight in a war but are not prepared to do it themselves tells me something about those who are advocating that."

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says Australians fighting in Syria could be breaking at least three laws, including the Foreign Incursions Act, which makes it an offence for Australians to participate in this kind of civil war.

Mr Dreyfus also holds concerns that Australians would return from the conflict having been further radicalised.

"Clearly there is a radicalisation that's involved in wanting to participate in this military and violent activity," he said.

"There is a concern before people go, but there is also a concern when they return - as the director-general of ASIO has spoken about.

"If you've gone to Syria, participated in the conflict there - particularly with a terrorist group - and then returned to Australia, it's likely you'll return with terrorist ideology [and] with more knowledge."

Topics: islam, religion-and-beliefs, unrest-conflict-and-war, sydney-2000, nsw, australia, syrian-arab-republic

First posted May 30, 2013 22:06:50

Redesigned Sydney Tar Ponds in search of new name - CBC.ca

Related

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Final plan for Sydney Tar Ponds clean-up announced

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(Note:CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)

Children in Sydney are anxiously waiting if their suggestions will be picked to rebrand the area that was once home to the Sydney Tar Ponds.

The federal and provincial governments are spending $17 million on a park, sports field and outdoor stage.

This follows hundreds of millions of dollars that were spent to clean-up the area that was once considered one of Canada’s worst toxic waste sites.

The Sydney Tar Ponds Agency has asked kids in the area for suggestions to name the park. The final list has been trimmed down to five names.

They include New Beginning – Piley Poqtamkiaq, History Heroes Park, Phoenix Park, S.P.A.R.C.K. Park, and the Open Hearth Park.

The winner will be announced in June.

'Sydney bypass' motorway one step closer - ABC Online

Updated May 30, 2013 17:11:46

Plans for a continuous motorway between Sydney's western and south-western outskirts, and the Central Coast and the Hunter region, are closer to reality.

The New South Wales Government says an unsolicited proposal for a motorway linking the F3 freeway to the M2 motorway has moved to the final stage of its three-step assessment process.

Minister for Roads Duncan Gay says the next step will see negotiations begin with tollroad operator Transurban on a binding contract to build the 8km link, which is expected to cost more than $2.5 billion.

If a deal is struck, Mr Gay says construction of the tunnel could start as soon as the end of next year.

"This would be mostly by tunnel - it is virtually the Sydney bypass," Mr Gay said.

"It could mean that trucks could leave Adelaide, could leave Melbourne and head through to Brisbane without going through our city and in some instances, without going through a traffic light."

The road will be jointly funded by the State and Federal Governments, and will have tolls.

Mr Gay says work is expected to start at the end of next year, and will be complete by late 2018.

Topics: road-transport, urban-development-and-planning, state-parliament, sydney-2000, gosford-2250

First posted May 30, 2013 16:37:38

HMAS Sydney wreck to be preserved on film - Yahoo!7 News

Modern technology will be used to further investigate Australia's greatest naval tragedy, with a grant of almost $500,000 allowing high-resolution pictures to be taken of the wreck of HMAS Sydney for the first time.

The Western Australian Museum has been handed a $483,248 heritage grant from the Commonwealth, which will enable them to survey the wrecks of the Sydney, and the German raider Kormoran, which sank the Sydney with the loss of 645 on board in November 1941.

The location of both wrecks were finally discovered in 2008, after years of searching.

Now, the WA Museum, Curtin University and other partners will use high-resolution imaging technology to survey the wrecks in much greater detail than has ever been possible.

"This is an incredibly important story to tell," said WA Museum chief executive Alec Coles.

"Both ships lie approximately 2500 metres deep on the seabed and, partly because of their isolation and inaccessibility, they are still in a state which is recognisably the same as immediately after their sinking.

"However, both wrecks also show evidence of decay which will inevitably lead to structural collapse so it is imperative that we capture the heritage value of the ships now and plan, as much as possible, for their protection and conservation into the future."

The imaging will be used to first build a heritage management plan for the sites, and eventually help create a 3D "virtual tour" of the wrecks.

It is hoped that project, which will need more funding, will be finished by 2016 in time for the 75th anniversary of the battle which saw the destruction of both vessels.

Sydney Swans father-son recruit Tom Mitchell to make AFL debut against ... - Herald Sun

Shane Crawford says Will Minson is the answer to the SuperCoach ruck crisis and backs in a Magpie super scorer

Sydney coach John Longmire with their father-son draft pick Tom Mitchell. Source: News Limited

BALL magnet and father-son recruit Tom Mitchell will make his long-awaited AFL debut for Sydney on Saturday.

Mitchell, the son of Swans great Barry Mitchell, will play his first senior match against Essendon at the SCG.

The star junior midfielder - who has collected an incredible 106 disposals in the past two weeks in the NEAFL, was picked by the Swans at selection 21 in the 2011 national draft.

He has since been plagued by knee tendonitis and a foot stress fracture, but has forced coach John Longmire's hand with his outstanding form in the past month.

Robbo: Eddie's Goodes gaffe 'sheer stupidity'

Mitchell, who celebrates his 20th birthday tomorrow, said he arrived at training today and was told to wait in Longmire's office.

"A few minutes later him and Kieren Jack walked in the door and just said 'Congratulations, you've got your first game'.

"I was over the moon to hear that and that's how it happened," Mitchell told the Swans website.

"I called mum and dad as soon as I heard the news and they were really happy for me and they've been part of my footy journey my whole life so they were just as happy as I was to hear the news."

See all the AFL Round 10 teams as they are named in SuperFooty's live chat from 5.30pm today

Sydney family leaves home amid NBN asbestos safety breaches - ABC Online

Updated May 30, 2013 14:15:44

A Sydney family is demanding answers from Telstra and the Federal Government over fears asbestos fibres have contaminated their home during the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Work has stopped at some sites in New South Wales and Victoria, improvement notices issued in Tasmania, and Telstra subcontractors are being investigated for asbestos safety breaches by Comcare.

Thousands of telco-pits across Australia are being prepared for fibre optic cables, including old pits containing asbestos.

There are concerns the deadly fibres have been released into residential areas during the works.

The first time I found out that this was asbestos, my stomach sank. I've been on edge ever since, nervous of everything I do.

Matthew O'Farrell

Matthew O'Farrell, his wife and their two children aged 12 weeks and six years old have been moved out of their home in Penrith, in Sydney's west, and into a motel after being told there was asbestos in a pit outside their home and their street may have been contaminated.

"The first time I found out that this was asbestos, my stomach sank. I've been on edge ever since, nervous of everything I do. I started to get very paranoid about how far this stuff had got," he said.

"I've had no reassurance from anyone when we'll be able to go back to our home, when it is safe and whether my children or wife have come into contact or breathed in any of this material.

"I just hope that over the next 20 years I'm not having to say to my children that they've got this from living in that house."

'It's just exploding everywhere'

Mr O'Farrell says the Telstra contractors who had been working on the pit had "no idea" what they were doing and he says some of them cannot speak English.

"I've watched the owner of the company communicate with them from metres away with hand signals, telling them to break up the pits with their hands and putting it into bags," he said.

"[They were] hitting the pits with sledgehammers, pitchforks and crowbars.

"It's just exploding everywhere, all over the road, down the driveways, all over the front yards of our properties."

'Urgent investigation'

Telstra chief operations officer Brendon Riley said his team reacted immediately to the concerns of residents on the Penrith street earlier this month.

"As soon as we received the information we sent our team out to the pit to inspect the site and as a result immediately suspended the contractor from further work and safely secured the area," he said.

He says Telstra did further investigations.

"We also re-visited all sites remediated by this contractor to make sure the removal of asbestos was conducted in the appropriate way," he said.

"I ordered an urgent investigation into the incident and my team has been liaising regularly with the local residents including bringing in asbestos experts to talk to them.

"We understand this is a distressing time for the residents who have every right to expect that this type of work will be conducted safely and in accordance with the strictest of safety procedures."

Government taking safety breaches seriously

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has moved to reassure the public that the Government is taking the safety breaches very seriously.

"The Office of Asbestos Safety will work closely with Comcare to address any asbestos hazards in a nationally coordinated way to protect Australians from asbestos exposure," he said.

"This is a very serious issue and as you know lives can be put at stake."

Comcare is investigating the work, health and safety systems of Telstra in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria.

The National Office of Asbestos Safety has also been called in to investigate.

Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten says the Government is working with Telstra and its contractors to address asbestos safety issues.

"We take any potential cases of asbestos exposure extremely seriously and a national approach to asbestos awareness, handling and eradication is urgently needed," he said.

"There is no excuse, if it's proven to have happened, for this to have happened full stop.

"Asbestos is a killer.

"We are determined to have a national action plan and I've spoken with Telstra about best practice."

Union calls for fund for future victims

The Union representing NBN technicians is calling for Telstra to set up a fund to pay for the care and treatment of future asbestos disease victims caused by poor asbestos management on the NBN project.

CEPU NSW assistant secretary Shane Murphy wants Telstra to set up a register for all workers who have been exposed to asbestos while working on the Telstra network.

"The impacts of this mess will be felt decades into the future," he said.

"Telstra needs to take responsibility for the health impact on its own workers as well as the broader community."

Subcontractors are 'cowboys'

Asbestos Diseases Foundation president Barry Robson says some of the subcontractors involved with the NBN work "are just cowboys".

"They had no protection, the four workers [in Penrith]," said Mr Robson.

"The residents tell me they just got stuck into this particular one, some of the workers smashed it all up ... asbestos went everywhere."

Kevin Harkins from Unions Tasmania says Comcare has not been checking sites often enough.

"Hopefully this will be a wake-up call, but Comcare don't have any officers based in Tasmania," he said.

"We need more people on the ground inspecting health and safety risks to employees and the community.

"As I understand it, in New South Wales, a number of houses have actually been evacuated because of the dangers of asbestos, we don't want that happening in Tasmania."

Topics: asbestos, health, computers-and-technology, information-and-communication, penrith-2750, australia, vic, tas, nsw

First posted May 30, 2013 09:20:35

New $2.65 billion motorway closer for Sydney's north-west - The Australian

A MAJOR new motorway has moved one step closer to being built in Sydney, closing a missing link in the national highway network and providing a continuous motorway-standard bypass of Sydney.

The NSW government announced that the 8km motorway proposal between the M2 and the F3 freeways had advanced to the final stage of its unsolicited proposals process, virtually guaranteed it will proceed.

HMAS Sydney wreck to be preserved on film - The West Australian

Modern technology will be used to further investigate Australia’s greatest naval tragedy, with a grant of almost $500,000 allowing high-resolution pictures to be taken of the wreck of the HMAS Sydney for the first time.

The Western Australian Museum has been handed a $483,248 heritage grant from the Commonwealth, which will enable them to survey the wrecks of the Sydney, and the German raider Kormoran, which sunk the Sydney with the loss of 645 on board in November 1941.

The location of both wrecks were finally discovered in 2008, after years of searching.

Now, the WA Museum, Curtin University and other partners will use high-resolution imaging technology to survey the wrecks in much greater detail than has ever been possible.

“This is an incredibly important story to tell,” WA Museum chief executive Alec Coles said.

“Both ships lie approximately 2500 metres deep on the seabed and, partly because of their isolation and inaccessibility, they are still in a state which is recognisably the same as immediately after their sinking.

“However, both wrecks also show evidence of decay which will inevitably lead to structural collapse so it is imperative that we capture the heritage value of the ships now and plan, as much as possible, for their protection and conservation into the future.”

The imaging will be used to first build a heritage management plan for the sites, and eventually help create a 3D “virtual tour” of the wrecks.

It is hoped that project, which will need more funding, will be finished by 2016 in time for the 75th anniversary of the battle which saw the destruction of both vessels.