Today's Headlines
Sunday 18th February 1996
International:
Australian supermodel Elle MacPherson was seen kissing and cuddling Sean Penn at a trendy New York restaurant, Coco Pazzo on Valentine night. Without trying to
appear some sort of a moralist I find it extraordinary that Elle who has been so selective in her partners before seems to have lowered her standards more than just a
few rungs by getting involved with Madonna's ex-husband. He is known for his violent and brooding behaviour. Elle must be getting old - seems like all the good
single men of her age must have been paired up.
On a different track, a woman who fled to Brisbane late last year has returned to New Zealand to face a charge of defrauding the Wellington City Council of
NZ$300,000. Seems like this former council manager had invented a bogus company and then paid it hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Opposition leader John Howard will today unveila Au$1 billion package of tax breaks for the Australian family as the centrepiece of the Liberals campaign policy launch.
The ambitious program will be on top of current family payments and will particularly help single income families.
Business:
Specialist home lenders trying to tempt lenders to switch their mortgages from banks are now using tax-free loan transfers as a lure. This will save borrowers hundreds
of dollars when they make the switch with the savings on a Au$100,000 loan being Au$400. The lending group that are steadily taking the bank's traditional business
is Aussie Home Loans who in the last 6 months of last year wrote nearly Au$200 million in business in Queensland alone.
Sport:
The Sri Lankan cricketers are showing just what an unsporting group they are. With the Australian cricket team taking a firm stand against playing in Colombo and last night
forgoeing 2 points in the World Cup we now have a member of the Sri Lankan team taking a cheap shot at our umpires. Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga when
asked how the Australians would fare said: "Not too well now that there are neutral umpires."
You might recall that the Sri Lankan star spinner (whose long name I can never
remember) was no-balled for "chucking" in several of the matches in Australia. The umpires decision was fully supported by the world cricketing body, the ICC, who
stated that they had been watching the fellows dodgy action for some time. It now appears certain that Australia will pull the plug on the Sri Lankan series scheduled for
August - and after all who needs to go there where the "terrorist or freedom fighters" the Tamil Tigers seem to be able to blow up what they want when they want.
The situation has got so out of hand that the Australian management have thrown a security blanket around Shane Warne our star spinner. Interesting too that a number of
our star players have been sick while in India. Is it the food or the water or is what they are putting in the food? One can only speculate.
Personal trivia:
Lovely warm day yesterday. Spent most of the afternoon tackling the grass on our river bank. The stuff grows so fast it is like some sort of an alien weed.
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