Teenager in hospital with killer disease

September 2, 2006 from SMH

A TEENAGER suffering from meningococcal disease was last night being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in south-west Sydney.

The 16-year-old boy was in a stable condition after arriving at Campbelltown Hospital by ambulance yesterday, a NSW Health spokeswoman said. The boy's family were given antibiotics as a precaution after it was confirmed he had the disease.

Other people who may have had recent contact with him are being contacted and given information about the disease.

In most cases, the infection is treated with antibiotics and early detection and treatment can result in a full recovery.

Two weeks ago, Jehan Nassif, 18, died of meningococcal disease in Bankstown Hospital. An autopsy is to be held into her death, on August 18, just days after she visited the cousin of her boyfriend, a meningococcal patient, in hospital.

Ms Nassif's boyfriend, George Khouzame, was given antibiotics because he had been in close contact with his cousin during a holiday in Greece, but was told Ms Nassif did not need medication.

The guidelines, applied to Ms Nassif, do not recommend antibiotics for people who have had only brief contact with a sufferer.

The Health Minister, John Hatzistergos, has since urged a panel reviewing the treatment of meningococcal patients to speed up its inquiry. A three-year-old boy from Bonnells Bay died from suspected meningococcal disease at Wyong Hospital on August 28.

A 26-year-old woman from Avalon was admitted to Mona Vale Hospital last Saturday with symptoms including a rash and fever. Her boyfriend and two flatmates were given antibiotics.

A 21-year-old woman died of the disease in July and a 16-year-old boy was admitted to Royal North Shore last month.

AAP

God is fine, but internet users take the name of Allah in vain

By Nick O'Malley and agencies
February 27, 2006

YAHOO! has changed its rules on the words it allows in email addresses after a man discovered he could not register an account because his surname contained the word Allah.

Ed Callahan said he tried to establish the email account with the internet portal in the US after his mother, who has the same surname, could not get one.

He discovered that email addresses with other religious words were allowed, but not those that included Allah.

"On one level this is just silliness. But we have a war on terrorism and it's migrating to be a war on Muslims - this just shows the confusion there is between the two and how pervasive this is," Mr Callahan told the online journal The Register.

The incident has become a talking point on technology blogs. Many engaged in the debate have noted that Yahoo! was at the forefront of a recent campaign to keep the internet free of Government censorship in the US.

Yahoo! now says it has changed its policy to allow the word. In a written statement, the company defended the previous policy as an attempt to protect users from hateful speech.

"A small number of people registered for IDs using specific terms with the sole purpose of promoting hate and then used those IDs to post content that was harmful or threatening to others, thus violating Yahoo!'s terms of service," the statement said.

Another internet user with the letters of Allah in his online name, "Kallahar", claims to have tested Yahoo!'s system before it was changed to see which other words were banned. God was allowed, but Allah was banned; Bin Laden was banned, but "terrorist" was allowed.

Mr Callahan, who set up a webpage in protest at what he saw as discrimination against Muslims on behalf of Yahoo, has a new email address which includes the phrase "alla is in Callahan".

Tenants line up 10 deep

Tenants line up 10 deep - rents market turns into a scrum

By Bonnie Malkin and Jonathan ChancellorFebruary 25, 2006 from smh.com.au

SYDNEY is in the grip of a rental drought that is pushing up rents by as much as 5.5 per cent and inundating open inspections with scores of desperate tenants.

The number of vacant properties fell to a five-year low this month, and real estate experts warn that the drought will continue until the property market picks up.

They blame the squeeze on first-time buyers deciding to stay out of the market in the hope that prices will fall further, and a lack of new investment properties.

Figures from the Real Estate Institute of NSW show the vacancy rate fell to 2.1 per cent in Sydney, down 0.3 percentage points on February last year and 1.3 on February 2004. The middle ring of Sydney was hit hardest this month, with vacancy rates falling from 2.3 per cent in January to 1.7 per cent.

"There is not much to rent at all," said the institute's president, Cristine Castle. "Instead of having 10 or 15 properties, you have got two or three." Any figure below 2 per cent should set off "alarm bells", she said.

The situation is in stark contrast to the renters market of a few years ago when landlords used sweeteners of rent-free weeks and free appliances to lure tenants.

The NSW manager of Century 21, David Colman, said rentals were traditionally scarce in late summer, but this year was worse than usual.

His opposite number at RUN Property, Michael Conolly, said one open inspection in Woollahra this week had attracted more than 30 viewers. Units and houses in the inner west and North Shore attracted about three applications each, and other properties in the eastern suburbs between 8 and 10.

Between one and two applications per property was the norm, Mr Conolly said.

The squeeze on rentals has already driven prices up. Figures from the institute show rents rose most in inner Sydney, where the median price of three-bedroom properties jumped last year from $450 a week to $475.

Across Sydney the median rents of two-bedroom properties rose by $10 during the year. Mr Conolly said rentals in Crows Nest, Bondi Junction, Newtown and Coogee were the most popular and some parts of the inner-west were demanding $20 to $40 a week more for properties than they had in 2005.

"On some occasions we see people fighting for the property. They rush to get back and put a deposit down," he said.

Mr Colman blamed the problem on a lack of first-time buyers and said the situation would not improve until investors returned.

Ms Castle agreed, saying: "Whenever we sell an investment property it's not an investor buying it but a home owner, so there are less rentals." She warned that rents would continue to increase and if people wanted to avoid soaring prices "they should think about buying".

One prospective renter, Todd Sly, is already feeling the pressure. The 22-year-old has been looking for a two-bedroom apartment in the eastern suburbs for a month and has seen 15 so far.

Initially he expected to pay about $300 a week for a unit in Bondi Junction, Coogee or Centennial Park, but was now looking at between $350 and $400.

Mr Sly, who is lucky to be able to look midweek, said he shared most open inspections with between eight and 10 other hopefuls, and the competition was fierce. "If you see an older couple there, you think you're probably not in the running because they have probably both got jobs and are more stable as tenants in the eyes of the property agents."

Mr Sly has resorted to asking agents to alert him before properties come onto the market.

Court bans 'sexy little thing'

January 12, 2006 - 12:33PM


Not just anybody can call themselves a "sexy little thing," a Manhattan court had ruled.

Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Audrey Quock was blocked from launching her own line of panties emblazoned as "sexy little things" when US District Judge Harold Baer ruled in New York yesterday that Victoria's Secret could sue her for trademark infringement.

Baer said that Victoria's Secret appeared to acquire priority in the trademark use of "Sexy Little Things" because it had used the label on lingerie since July 28, 2004.

The judge refused a request by Quock to declare that Victoria's Secret had no right to stop her from launching a line of women's underwear called "Sexy Little Things".

Quock appeared in the sports magazine's annual swimsuit issue between 1998 and 2003 and has been featured in other magazines and advertising campaigns. She and publicist Ronit Menashe said in the lawsuit that they came up with the term "Sexy Little Things, Sexy Little Things" in July or August 2004 and registered a domain name to build a website.

After sending a manufacturer diagrams for the production of "Sexy Little Things" labels and preparing publicity, the pair received a letter from Victoria's Secret telling them their line would constitute trademark infringement.

The women then stopped development of the clothing line and sought relief in court, saying no one had registered the trademark when they checked with the US Patent and Trademark Office in September 2004.

The judge ruled after hearing evidence that the Victoria's Secret marketing department settled on the name "Sexy Little Things" for its panties collection between March 2004 and June 2004.

After hearing evidence in the case last month, the judge said he concluded that the phrase "sexy little things" was suggestive, entitling it to greater legal protection than if it were merely descriptive.

"While the term describes the erotically stimulating quality of the trademarked lingerie, it also calls to mind the phrase 'sexy little thing,' popularly used to refer to attractive lithe young women," the judge wrote in a 17 page ruling.

AP

Pay the mortgage - or educate your child

By Justin Norrie Education Reporter
January 12, 2006

FOR the cost of putting a baby born in 2006 through private schooling, parents could pay off a mortgage on a two-bedroom suburban Sydney flat.

Calculations by the Australian Scholarships Group, an education investment fund, show the cost of an elite school education for a baby born this year will approach $300,000.

Even parents who send their child to government schools will have to pay almost $110,000, the projected costs reveal.

Add a three-year stint at university, totalling $140,000, and the costs blow out to $430,000 and $250,000 respectively.

A spokesman for the fund, Warwick James, said the "confronting" figures were averages taken across several states, and that costs were likely to be much higher for NSW.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show education fees have been rising at 2½ times the rate of inflation for the past 15 years.

Mr James said government school expense forecasts were determined using payments that fund members made for items such as uniforms, bags, books and stationery, sports clothing, excursions and computer access.

They also covered tangential "and often unforeseen expenses, such as bus and train fares for getting to school, or petrol, or out-of-school costs for music tuition - things that are considered essential to education", he said.

For a child born in 2011, the costs of private and public schooling will rise to almost $425,000 and $160,000 respectively.

Although the difference between the two was largely due to tuition fees, "there are some things such as excursions and camps that cost a lot more at private schools because they're longer and more involved", Mr James said.

The president of the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW, Sharryn Brownlee, said that assistance schemes were in place to ensure no public school student missed out on education opportunities such as excursions or subjects not taught at their school.

She warned parents against being "duped into paying private school fees. With the difference between those and public school costs, you could pay for a university education and put a deposit on a first home or buy a car."

Duncan McInnes, the executive officer of the NSW Parents Council, said the survey was "not a definitive and absolute costing schedule".

"There are some fairly wild guesstimates in the figures that don't really make sense - if you go through it, it seems the average parent with a kid at a private school is paying nearly $14,000 a year in tuition fees and we know that's just not true.

"It's offensive to say parents are being duped because they are increasingly choosing independent schools. There has to be something that is attracting them to those schools."

Chris Bonnor, the president of the Secondary Principals Association of NSW, said that "if anything, it seems that public schools give their students the edge for success in later life. Research into the progress of students at university shows students from government schools outperforming those from private schools."

A Herald analysis of last year's HSC results showed that public selective high schools dominated the roll of honour, taking eight of the top 10 places.

Killara High School was the only public comprehensive school to make the top 50.

SCHOOLING: AN EXPENSIVE EXERCISE

For a child born in 2006

Catholic: $178,494

Independent: $288,990

For a child born in 2011

Government: $158,862

Catholic: $261,054

Independent: $422,659

Government: $108,621

Voters disagree with Howard over racism

By Damien Murphy and Anne Davies
December 20, 2005 from SMH

THREE out of every four voters disagree with the Prime Minister's claim there is no underlying racism in Australia.

The surprising results of a Herald Poll came as the Premier, Morris Iemma, declared the beaches safe and the racial violence hitting Sydney quashed. "As of this morning, the intelligence and the security assessments are such that people are encouraged to return to normal business," Mr Iemma said yesterday.

The Herald Poll reveals deep concerns about the long-term impact of the riots: 59 per cent of respondents believe the violence at Cronulla and other Sydney beaches would damage Australia's international reputation. Only 38 per cent think Australia's image has not been tarnished.

The results are in stark contrast to John Howard's statement following the Cronulla riots: "I do not accept there is underlying racism in this country."

According to the poll, 75 per cent of respondents disagree with Mr Howard's statement and 22 per cent agree.

The proportion of people who believe there is an undercurrent of racism was highest among minor party and independent voters (84 per cent) and Labor voters (76 per cent). However, more than two-thirds of Coalition voters - 68 per cent - also disagreed with Mr Howard.

The poll found people were more comfortable with immigration levels than they were immediately after the Tampa crisis. Only 33 per cent polled over the weekend by ACNielsen considered the current intake "too high" compared with 41 per cent in September 2001.

The number of people who thought immigration levels were too low climbed by one point to 11 per cent.

The poll revealed 81 per cent backing for multiculturalism.

Although 16 per cent oppose the policy, support for it has been growing steadily since 1996, when a Herald Poll taken after Pauline Hanson's maiden speech to Parliament found 70 per cent of people disagreed it should be abolished.

ACNielsen's chief, John Stirton, said the poll suggested Australians were not "terribly impressed" with the events in Cronulla.

Although there were fears the riots would shut down the traditional Christmas Day party on Bondi Beach, Mr Iemma said police had no plans to cancel it. "Next weekend will depend on the intelligence and assessment."

He said an extra 800 police would be on standby to deal with threats of rioting and that police would issue bulletins twice daily to alert people if security deteriorated this week. Mr Iemma and the Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, denied the weekend lock-down of beaches from Newcastle to Wollongong was an over-reaction, or that the road blocks and the 2000 police on the streets had achieved what rioters in Cronulla had sought - stopping people from south-west Sydney visiting the beach.

Mr Moroney said roadblocks would not be in place unless the police received specific intelligence. "If people seek to enjoy the beach - Bondi or any other place - they should do so."

Since December 12 police have arrested 162 people over the riots, almost all of whom have been released on bail.

Nice one, Brian: Marilyn Manson married

December 4, 2005 - 11:07AM

US shock rocker Marilyn Manson married his longtime girlfriend in Ireland on Saturday.

Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, married 33-year-old Heather Sweet in front of about 60 guests at Castle Gurteen, the home of a friend in Kilsheelan, County Tipperary, People magazine reported on its website.

Sweet is a burlesque dancer who uses the stage name Dita Von Teese. They have been dating for four years and Manson proposed at their Los Angeles home in March 2004, People said.

It was the first marriage for both.

Manson, 36, wore a black silk taffeta tuxedo and Von Teese was in royal purple silk taffeta with a corset.

They traded vows and were married in a non-denominational ceremony conducted by underground filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, a friend of Manson, the magazine reported.

AP

How being rich stops you from getting fat

By Amy Lawson
November 27, 2005

RESIDENTS in Sydney's south-west are among the fattest in the state, with more than half the inhabitants of the Campbelltown and Camden area overweight or obese, new figures reveal.

Meanwhile, Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs and North Shore have the lowest percentage of overweight and obese residents, with just one in five women above the healthy weight range.

Figures from the NSW Health Department, compiled for The Sun-Herald from the 2002, 2003 and 2004 adult health surveys, highlight the correlation between weight and wealth.

They come as doctors grapple with the nation's obesity crisis and experts call for the regulation of food outlets and subsidising of healthy, fresh food.

Compiled from interviews with 32,877 people across the state over three years, the figures also draw attention to the disparity between obesity levels in rural and city regions.

Rural and regional areas account for the top four places in NSW with the highest ratio of overweight and obese residents.

The Macarthur region in Sydney, which includes Campbelltown, Camden, Macquarie Fields and Glenfield, comes in fifth, with 55.8 per cent of adults overweight or obese - almost 8 per cent above the state average.

The western NSW region of Barrier, which includes the towns of Broken Hill, Wilcannia and Ivanhoe, has the highest rate of overweight and obese inhabitants in the state.

More than 62 per cent of the residents in that region are overweight, classified as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9, or obese with a BMI of 30 or more.

Social researcher Neer Korn, a director of research organisation Heartbeat Trends, said the figures showed the direct correlation between socio-economic status and obesity problems.

"People from a lower socio-economic background eat more junk food and they have less time to care for themselves," Mr Korn said. "If you have a nanny and you're not working, you have all day to go shopping for food to get something nice to cook for dinner which is healthy, and you can afford gym membership."

Mr Korn said Australia's obesity problem was more pronounced in rural areas because fresh food was more expensive and the health message was a lower priority for residents there.

"Try getting fruit and vegies in Wilcannia - it's so expensive there, it's much cheaper just to go to Maccas," he said.

Ian Caterson, Boden Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Sydney, said the availability of food was a major contributor to the increasing obesity problem.

He told a WeightWatchers-hosted discussion forum on obesity last week that an American study found the abundance of food outlets accounted for 68 per cent of the increase in obesity levels.

He recommended introducing legislation to police the number and type of food outlets that could be built in any one area to ensure people could obtain, say, fresh fruit as easily as fast food.

NSW Health Department nutrition and physical activity manager Philip Vita said there were no immediate plans to target western Sydney in obesity campaigns.

"There seems to be a higher proportion of obese and overweight in Sydney's west, but people in Sydney's west are working on that," he said.

Mr Vita said the department's main focus was on preventing and reducing childhood obesity.

A $7.5 million, five-year obesity prevention program for kids in the Hunter/New England region was being planned.

Source: The Sun-Herald