What's in the News

Hullo! What's going on here???

"Ten Australians have been taken hostage by a Chinese national in China today, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says.

The Australians were all later released unharmed after being taken hostage on a tourist bus in the city of Xian, in central China, a DFAT spokesperson said.

Nine of the Australians were released and transported to safety early in the crisis.

But a 48-year-old woman from NSW was not released with the rest of the group.

"Chinese police authorities intervened and secured the release of the woman," the spokesperson said.

Australia's Consulate-General would meet the group on arrival in Shanghai and provide assistance, the spokesperson said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said he was pleased the situation was resolved so quickly and the hostages were safe.

"Our Embassy in Beijing and our Consulate-General in Shanghai are providing consular assistance to the Australians affected by this incident," Mr Smith said."

I promise it wasn't me!!

Ned Kelly's remains found in Victoria

Ned Kelly's resting place has been found among bones dug up at the former Pentridge Prison site.

The breakthrough solves an 80-year-old mystery, News Limited newspapers report.

The grave site of Australia's most notorious bushranger was unearthed after historians and archaeologists found a Department of Justice document that contained a vital clue.

Bone hunters last week found an unknown mass grave where the remains of Kelly and other executed prisoners, removed from the Old Melbourne Gaol in 1929, were interred at Pentridge.

"We have still some testing to do, but it's pretty clear we have found them," Heritage Victoria senior archaeologist Jeremy Smith said.

The bones are believed to belong to five prisoners and have been sent to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine at Southbank in Melbourne.

Planning Minister Justin Madden confirmed the find almost certainly included Ned Kelly's grave.

"Heritage Victoria has co-ordinated extensive archaeological and historical investigations, which began in December 2006 after the possibility of multiple burial areas at the former prison site came to light," Mr Madden said.

Mr Smith said identifying the individuals might prove difficult because of advanced decomposition and the mingling of remains.

"Ned Kelly's remains were . . . not handled with a great degree of care," Mr Smith said.

The mass grave was found near the former F Division of Pentridge.

Kelly was hanged at Melbourne Gaol on November 11, 1880. His notorious crimes included murder.

Exactly how evil was this guy?  I've heard of him before, and get the impression he was a sort of anti-hero, the Jesse James of Australia. 

You gotta love this.

Bars in Minnesota have found a dramatic way to get around the US state's recently introduced smoking ban.

The law grants an exception from the ban to performers in theatrical productions. So the bars have become theatres, and their customers, actors.

Now some bars print bills listing the "cast" of bartenders, and ashtrays become "props". Drinkers don costumes and attempt strange accents.

But a health official said it was time for the curtain to fall on the ploy.

'Before the Ban'

At the Rock, a heavy-metal bar in Maplewood, owner Brian Bauman explained why his clientele were doing little more than sitting around, smoking and drinking to a soundtrack of deafening music.
They're playing themselves before 1 October - you know, before there was a smoking ban," he said, according to the Associated Press.

"We call the production, Before the Ban!"

Exactly how evil was this guy?  I've heard of him before, and get the impression he was a sort of anti-hero, the Jesse James of Australia. 

From what I gather, Ned Kelly behaved in much the same manner as other legendary outlaws did in the US. Now you mention Jesse James, The Robin Hood of Missouri. Jesse James derailed trains, causing lots of civilians to die. He was not a nice man. Billy the Kid was not a nice man. His sole achievements rest on his ability to get out of jail and shoot people.
I read a critical biography on Ned Kelly, which painted a different picture of the man than the legend. He was a cold-blooded killer, he did not seem to have any scruples killing police officers. He probably was not evil but, in all honesty, if it had not been for the famous armour, I doubt he would have been more than a foot-note in Australian history.

I have to confess I now feel like a total ignoramus - I had thought Ned Kelly was American!

I have to confess I now feel like a total ignoramus - I had thought Ned Kelly was American!

 
There are mixed feelings about Ned Kelly. In the North-East of Victoria, there are many people who will not tolerate a bad word against him. He robbed banks, robbed graziers, stole horses, etc. Apparently didn't kill anyone till the police ambushed him at Stringybark Creek. Then he was definitely way outside the law. He made the big mistake of holing up in the Glenrowan Hotel. He had , I think, damaged the rail line, hoping that the train full of coppers from Melbourne would be de-railed. The stationmaster ran down the tracks to warn the train, and they all had a big shoot-out  at the Hotel. Ned was captured and subsequently hanged.
There were many other famous outlaws around at that time, but he captured the imagination.

Just in on Yahoo.

BEIJING - Police captured and killed alleged terrorists plotting attacks targeting this year's Beijing Olympics, a Chinese official said Sunday.

Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in the western region of Xinjiang, said materials seized in a Jan. 27 raid in the regional capital, Urumqi, had stated the plot's purpose as "specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."

"Their goal was very clear," Wang told reporters in Beijing.

Wang mentioned the raid during a meeting on the sidelines of the parliament's annual session but provided few specifics.

China has been fighting a simmering insurgency amongst Muslim separatists from the Xinjiang region's Uighur population.

sounds like a good excuse to me.

Any bets on whether there will be terrorist activity in Xizang as well??

The Irish may tell you that Ned Kelly was a wonderful son and freedom fighter.  But ... outlaws is outlaws - no matter how romantic they come across.  Of course, he did create Australia's first suit of armour.

Armour?  What, as a gimmick, or to stop bullets?

To stop the bullets.

Is this the start of something??

China foils attempted terror attack on flight

Beijing
March 10, 2008

CHINA has foiled an attempt to crash a passenger jet en route to Beijing and the aircraft made a safe emergency landing, a senior official said yesterday in what state media called an attempted terrorist attack.

The China Southern flight originated in Urumqi, capital of the restive far western Chinese region of Xinjiang, where militant Uighurs have agitated for an independent "East Turkestan".

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/china-foils-attempted-terror-attack-on-flight/2008/03/09/1204998289521.html

Oh, My.  This doesn't sound good for the sporting event planned for this summer.