6 Thursday news bites (August 4)

Morning team Mamamia.

What a bizarre night it was with the suspected bomb ordeal taking place in Mosman. It was one of those terrifying times when you think you’re watching a movie instead of real life. Thankfully, the woman is safe. Here’s what happened:

1. Teenager safe after 10-hours attached to apparent collar bomb

UPDATE: No explosives have been found in the device.

In an extraordinarily bizarre attack (where some details are still fuzzy) it appears a man entered the home of one of Australia’s wealthiest men, attached a bomb to his 18-year-old daughter’s neck and then ordered her to reveal little to police otherwise he would detonate it. He said she could phone police but that he would know if she gave too much detail away. Police bomb technicians, some of the best in the world, spent 10-hours trying to remove the girl from the device and worked with the British military (over communication channels) to free her. Technicians still do not know how dangerous the device is. Assistant Commissioner of NSW Police Mark Murdoch said he believed this was the first time any such incident like this had occurred in Australia. Police were limited in what they could reveal during the ordeal because they were concerned who may be watching. The attacker was already possessed of highly complex and elaborate methods, which had all at the scene on edge. If anybody has any information about the man or the attack which took place at Burrawong Avenue about 2.30pm, they should phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

2. Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks has assets frozen to prevent book profits

David Hicks, the Australian who was held at the infamous ‘Camp X-Ray’ prison for possible and confirmed terrorists for five years has now had his assets frozen while the Federal Government tries to prevent any profits flowing to him from his memoir. Mr Hicks penned the book Guantanamo: My Journey after being released from a further 9 months prison in Australia. His supporters say he was not a terrorist and only confessed to providing ‘material support for terrorism’ after torture and undue pressure at the prison. He has not broken any Australian law. The Commonwealth is pursuing the frozen book assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

3. Internet worth a total of $80 billion to the wider Australian economy

A look into exactly how much the Internet contributes to the Australian economy (commissioned by Google) has found it’s as big as the retail sector and almost worth as much as the iron ore industry. That’s $70 billion with a bonus $10 billion in ‘productivity gains’ for those who don’t work in the Internet economy. About 190,000 people are employed in Internet-related fields. That’s big stuff. This comes as Federal Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says Australians are lagging behind the rest of the world in allowing employees to ‘telecommute’. Only 6 per cent report having even something resembling a work-from-home-over-the-Internet arrangement. He said the National Broadband Network would help turn those numbers around.

4. $1 billion building to become the world’s tallest at 1 kilometre in height

No sooner has the 828m Burj Khalifa tower been completed in Dubai than a wealthy Saudi Arabian conglomerate has vowed to outdo it by 172m. The Kingdom Holding Company has commissioned the tower which will form part of a $20billion mega-city, appropriately named Kingdom City. It will be built by the bin Laden family, who long ago disavowed their terrorist son Osama. Get ready for more breathtaking feats of human engineering.

5. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak returns to face murder charges

He was forced out of the country earlier this year after weeks of escalating protests and now Hosni Mubarak is back to face justice. Mubarak had been in power for 30-years – a ‘friend’ of Western countries, relatively speaking – but is accused of ordering the deaths of his own citizens during the revolts to unseat him from power. He is also accused of stealing millions of dollars. He arrived at the court on a stretcher – he has been ill with heart problems – and pleaded not guilty with his two sons by his side.

6. Malcolm Turnbull warns Libs not to be too extreme, wonders what happened to ‘civility’ in politics

Addressing the National Press Club yesterday, the Coalition’s Shadow Communications Minister and Member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull told the audience that his party would win the next election from the centre. He said you don’t win elections by convincing already ardent supporters to ‘cast a vote with for you with even more enthusiasm than they did at the last election’. He also became concerned at the lack of civil debate in politics and countered several claims from his party, including by Tony Abbott, that Carbon Dioxide was ‘weightless’ and could not be measured.