Today's Headlines
Tuesday 11th June 1996
International:
Australian Susie Maroney has claimed a world long distance swimming record despite falling just 19km short of the target - a landfall at
Keywest south of the USA mainland. Susie covered an incredible 141.6 kilometres in just under 40 hours being pushed east of her target
by the prevailing current in the Florida Straits. Susie started, what can only be called a personal ordeal, at Havana and after more
than 37 hours was plucked from the ocean by concerned family and friends after an independent observer, Dr Tom Hextel of the
WMA verified that Susie had set a world record by "swimming from Cuba to the United States without assistance".
Susie had lost 11 kilograms when she was pulled out of the water near Boca Chica, an island 10km north-east of Key West.
Des Renford, a veteran long distance swimmer, expressed the feelings of many when he said, "Susie's swim was the greatest
feat of long-distance swimming in history."
Political:
The Australian Labor Party (ALP) have yet a way to go in their fall from grace with the electorate according to the party's national
secretary, Mr Gary Grace. He predicted that the Liberal/National coalition would have an extended honeymoon with the public.
Mr Grace called on the ALP to spend more time looking at policies aimed at the family to help it get more electoral support.
A rather interesting development is taking place in New South Wales with an open letter by a small business being addressed to the
Premier of that state being placed as a large advertisement in the Australian, a national paper, headed, "A CLEAR ABUSE OF THE LAW."
Business:
Pay TV operator Australis Media Ltd faces further scrutiny from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) as it prepares for today's
critical shareholder vote on its Au$200 million funding package. An ASX spokesman said that it was still considering whether
Australis had given it enough financial information to shareholders ahead of the 2.30pm meeting. This was despite Australis
releasing further details because of the pressure that the ASX had put on it late on Friday.
The additional information revealed that the participants in the refinancing, which include Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting
Ltd., and existing shareholder Lenfest Communications Inc could emerge from the deal with over 50% of Australis' issued capital.
Sport:
Things are warming up in the Australian Football League with teams like
North Melbourne, Carlton and Brisbane heading up the ladder. Brisbane, in particular, have shown a quantum leap in their performance
this year as the team used to languish at the bottom of the ladder.
Social:
Regular exercisers have inadequate diets that provide only two-thirds of their body's energy needs, risking fatigue and long-term health
problems a study of gym junkies says.
The University of New South Wales found that of 47 people who exercised about 5 times a week alcohol accounted for a fairly
high proportion of their diet, providing about 7% of the energy for women and about 3% for men.
About one in three people were not eating enough to fuel their exercise with some only eating 50% of their energy requirements. In
particular the exercisers ate insufficient amounts of carbohydrate and fibre while women risked health problems from deficiencies
in iron and calcium.
Another day in the global office. Overcast / sunny outside, but beautifully still and fairly cool. I guess that winter is starting to settle in
now.
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