11 Wednesday news bites (10 August)

Good morning, sleepy heads!  Ready to get your head around the early news? Today’s 10 newsy morsels are being brought to you by Bec.

1. London in lockdown: Police lose control

“This is criminality pure and simple and it has to be confronted and defeated.” – British Prime Minister David Cameron

London is a city in lockdown as riot police fail to wrest control away from the hundreds of rioters who continue their reign of terror across the British capital smashing windows, looting and setting fire to buildings. Here’s the latest:

• Sixteen thousand police have been called in as the anarchy continues to spread across the city.
• The Independent Police Complaints Commission has stated there is no evidence that Mark Duggan opened fire on police before he was shot dead.

• At 1.23am (AEST) the arrests stood at 523. Police are considering the use of plastic bullets to bring the rioting under control.
• A soccer international between England and The Netherlands – due to be played at Wembley Stadium tomorrow – has been cancelled.
• One particular video has gone viral. It’s of an injured youth who is looted at a train station.

The unrest was sparked by the death of a Tottenham man who  (allegedly) shot at police before being gunned down himself.  With just a year to go before the Olympics, these are hardly the images and videos the UK wants beamed around the world:

This is a shocking video of a number of boys stealing from a boy who is clearly injured:

And from one extreme to the other, this is heart-warming:

2. Cattle exports resume to Indonesia today … but not all of them.

About 3000 head of cattle will leave Darwin Port today bound for Indonesia, the first load of cattle sent to the nation since the Federal Government announced a temporary ban on exports in June following an explosive story on Four Corners. The Government changed the permit system for exports – putting the onus on producers to show their cattle are going to ‘ethical’ abbattoirs – and since the change only two companies have received permission to export.

3. Judy Moran given 26 years’ jail for role in planning murder of brother-in-law

Underworld figure Desmond Moran was gunned down while having a beer in Melbourne, shot seven times by Geoffrey Armour in 2004. Today Geoffrey was sentenced to 26 years’ jail for the crime and Judy Moran, Desmond’s sister-in-law, was later given 26 years’ jail for her role in planning the hit. Justice Lasry said the murder was appalling in its ‘method and location’. Judy Moran’s own children, Jason and Mark, have been murdered in the long-running Melbourne gang feuds.

4. Baby Bonus not behind Australia’s baby boom

In 2004 when former Treasurer Peter Costello dangled $3000 in front of Australians as a way to lift the nation’s declining fertility rate a baby boom ensued. Or did it?  A new study by Griffith University has revealed that while Australia’s total fertility rate increased from 1.73 to 1.96 babies per woman between 2001 and 2008, the famed Baby Bonus was not the cause. Instead education,  income, occupation, marital status and age all played a role as  women in their 30s decided to have children during an economically prosperous time. Sorry Peter.

5. Last diggers leave Iraq

There was no fanfare, no big media call but eight years after Australian special forces first arrived, the last 17 Aussie diggers left Iraq on the weekend. They had been guarding Australian diplomats but that job will now be taken over by private contractors.

6. Migaloo found dead on Palm Island

He’s the most famous whale since Moby Dick and has a number of websites and fan sites dedicated to him. But there are now early reports that Migaloo – who found fame as the only known white humpback whale in the world —  has been found dead on Palm Island.  A white humpback has been discovered on the North Queensland island and researchers intend to check Migaloo’s DNA (which they have on file) to confirm if it is the much-loved celebrity whale. UPDATE: It was confirmed at 10am that the deceased whale IS NOT Migaloo.

7. Princess Kate is ‘ordinary’ according to famed British fashion designer

Is it her love of black eyeliner? Or her penchant for High Street fashion?  Legendary British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood claims the Duchess of Cambridge’s look is too ‘ordinary’ for her liking. Westwood told Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine: “It seems to me, that her image is ‘ordinary woman’. Therefore, High Street shopper. And I just think she should be an extraordinary woman, wherever she gets her clothes from.”

Westwood went on to critcise the Duchess’s penchant for heavy black eyeliner.  Ouch!

8. Work hard, drink harder

Here’s some research that perhaps won’t surprise you. A New Zealand study has revealed that the harder someone works the more likely they are to abuse alcohol. An Otago University study of more than 1000 people aged 25-30 found that long working hours can more than triple the risk of alcohol abuse and addiction. Interestingly the figures were similar for males and females.  Is this drinking a form of stress relief at the end of a long day or a result of the constantly blurred line between our work and social lives?

9. Snake handler lets death adder bite daughter to prove a point.

Snakes alive!  Snake handler Raymond Hoser is under fire for allowing both a taipan and a death adder to bite his 10-year-old daughter to prove they were de-venomised and safe. In a demonstration in front of a shopping centre audience, Handler, 49, said that had the snakes been venomous, his daughter would have been dead in two-minutes. According to Hoser, the stunt was to prove that he never uses venomous snakes. Despite his good intentions, the Country Court fined Hoser (from Victoria) $12,000 for (amongst other things) demonstrating with venomous snakes less than three metres from the public.

10. STC production gets early thumbs-up from Broadway critics

They’re notoriously tough but it looks like New York’s theatre critics have once again fallen for the charms of the Sydney Theatre Company.  Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, adapted by the STC’s co-artistic director, Andrew Upton, and starring Cate Blanchett, Richard Roxburgh and Hugo Weaving has been described as both ”outrageously funny” and ”heartbreaking” by New York Times critic Ben Brantley. Brantley went on to say the three hours he spent watching the play were  ”among the happiest of my theatergoing life”.

11. UK actor tells women to ‘man up’

So this is odd. Actor Jeremy Irons (best-known for his role in Brideshead Revisted) has spoken out about his loathing for political correctness and the mountain of legislation that has been created in the UK to deal with it.  Interestingly, Irons chose to cite sexual harrassment as his example of the world gone mad.

“Most people are robust. If a man puts his hand on a woman’s bottom, any woman worth her salt can deal with it. It’s communication. Can’t we be friendly?”

Define ‘friendly’, Jeremy.  What do you think?