Today's Headlines

an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper.

Search news archive

Friday 2nd August 1996

International:

A Qantas flight attendant was found guilty of drugging a female cabin crew member with a powerful sedative in a hot chocolate drink so that he could indulge his sexual fantasies. John Robertson, who was found with explicite photos of the woman was jailed for six years. Two other female flight attendants were treated in a similar manner but did not go to court.

The incidents occured between 1992 and 1994 at stop overs which included London, Los Angeles, Pretoria and Harare.

Political:

Federal treasurer Peter Costello has forecast more interest rate cuts. However Mr Costello warned that interest rates could rise again if the Democrats tried to block the budget in the Senate.

"If a hostile senate led by an obstructionist Labor Party tries to pull the budget deficit reductions apart, that could put pressure on interest rates," he said.

He also warned banks that they would be reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission if they attempted to claw back interest rate cuts through increased fees and charges. National Australia Bank charge me a Au$8 "administration fee" every month on our home loan. What a con, but that's the banks all over.

Business:

The Australian Superannuation industry is up in arms over claims that the Federal Coalition might take away the tax free status of payments to superannuation funds.

Personally I don't see that this move will do anything worse than the current scam where administration fees and commission levied by those in the game make this investment worse than useless.

Sport:

Its all happening at the Atlanta Olympic Games.

Social:

A United States study suggests that heterosexual men who hate gays are likely to have homosexual leanings. The result supports what has long been a murmur in the gay and lesbian society.

According to the study when scientists exposed two groups of men. One which had an irrational hatred of gays and the other which really didn't care. Apparently more than half of the former group got aroused when shown gay videos compared to fewer than a quarter of the other group.

Only comment I've got is I wonder what the leanings of the researchers were.

Excuse my cynicism.

Global Gripe of the day:

Going to the big smoke today. It was cold overnight, beautiful day ahead of us.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Return to Australian National News of the Day

#
Web development, design, and storage by Global Web Builders - Email: global@gwb.com.au

See GLOBE International for other world news.