7 Tuesday news bites (August 2)

Morning team Mamamia.

The week has already proven itself to be news heavy and it’s only early days yet. There’s plenty happening out there. If you don’t have the time to get across it all, settle in and study up on these handy news bites:

1. Queensland flood inquiry releases first report

The devastating Queensland floods from late 2010 and early 2011 affected more than two thirds of the state, wiping $5 billion from the economy in lost produce, industry and damage. It also claimed 35 lives. The inquiry was looking specifically at the operation of the flood-mitigating Wivenhoe Dam in the months and weeks before the deluge of wet weather, which the Bureau had predicted would be strong but which it had no way of predicting actual rainfalls. The inquiry made 175 recommendations, including that the dam be kept at 75% storage for the next wet season if similar ‘strong rainfall’ predictions are made. A separate report found the operation of the dam was close to spot on, despite about 59 per cent of floodwaters in south east Queensland being made up of water releases from the dam and not rainfall. The Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said the Government would implement all of the recommendations.

2. Iranian woman forgives attacker in dramatic final minutes before she abandons blinding

Amenah Bahrami was blinded in both eyes and suffered traumatic burns to her face, neck and scalp when a man whose proposal she had refused chucked acid at her in 2004. The Islamic law system ‘qisas’ (an eye-for-an-eye) ruled she was able to blind her attacker in one eye as retribution. The acid would be dropped into the man’s eye on live television. But in the final minutes, as the doctor asked Amenah what she wanted to do, she said:”I forgave him, I forgave him.” When asked why she made the decision, she said: “It is best to pardon when you are in a position of power.”

3. Men catching up on household chores … at the rate of 27 extra minutes every decade

According to Britain’s Office of National Statistics, men are putting in 27 extra minutes of household chores every decade, closing the gap between them and their harder domestic working female counterparts. The stat is for both employed and unemployed folk. But men still spend scarcely any time on washing or ironing. Most of the extra time made up is in the cooking department. The gap should be closed by the end of the decade.

4. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd recovering from heart surgey

Former PM and current Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is resting up in intensive care after a successful operation yesterday to replace his aortic valve. The original was replaced about 20-years ago after it was damaged due to a childhood bout of rheumatic fever. His wife Therese Rein told reporters that the real struggle would not be whether he got better during his 2 month recovery period, but whether she could keep him still for long enough to rest properly. She also thanked medical staff and doctors at the hospital.

5. Syria condemned after Government massacres 100 citizens in Hama

Citizens in the Syrian town of Hama have been massacred again. The Government had previously mowed down about 10,000 in 1982. This time, the Government sent a rush of tanks and heavy weaponry into the town, killing at least 100. Among them were women and children. World leaders have condemned the attack but ruled out a military response, saying the situation was ‘entirely different’ to Libya. Protestors had said they would use the holy month of Ramadan to ramp up unrest against the Government, which they claim no longer represents the people’s best interests.

6. High speed rail study in Australia says line would cost $100 billion

A Federal Government ordered report into high speed rail along the East Coast of Australia has found it would cost about $100 billion but urged the Government to snap up land now in the corridor from Brisbane to Melbourne, lest the cost blow out even further. The line would likely run from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Goulburn, Canberra to Melbourne. The rail link would take decades to build. Former deputy Prime Minister and high speed rail advocate said a line built for speeds of up to 330km/h would sustain trains easily at 280km/h and be well within international standards.

7. Writer gains unprecedented access to men behind the Osama kill raid

Writer Nicholas Schmidle has penned a gripping feature article for the New Yorker with exceedingly specific details of the raid that took place using an elite Navy SEAL team within Pakistan’s borders. The raid killed the world’s most infamous terrorist Osama bin Laden.

“The Americans hurried toward the bedroom door. The first SEAL pushed it open. Two of bin Laden’s wives had placed themselves in front of him. Amal al-Fatah, bin Laden’s fifth wife, was screaming in Arabic. She motioned as if she were going to charge; the SEAL lowered his sights and shot her once, in the calf. Fearing that one or both women were wearing suicide jackets, he stepped forward, wrapped them in a bear hug, and drove them aside. He would almost certainly have been killed had they blown themselves up, but by blanketing them he would have absorbed some of the blast and potentially saved the two SEALs behind him. In the end, neither woman was wearing an explosive vest”