Submitted by rickeyre on
About 7000 Iraqi citizens live in New Zealand but they will not be voting in this weekend's elections as the nearest polling booth is in Sydney and most of them cannot afford the airfare to exercise their democratic right.
The New Zealand Press Association picks up the story, while the Sydney Morning Herald reports on election day in Coalition Of The Willing Country.
Submitted by rickeyre on
I'm a big fan of those news sites that enable complete articles to be emailed for personal use. Two of my favourite on-line newspapers, the Guardian and the New York Times, are among those that have offered this facility. I think it is quite useful to be able to read an article off-line without having to continually retrieve it from the web. However, this week the NYT abandoned the idea.
Submitted by rickeyre on
At least four members of the cricketing community have been awarded medals in the 2005 Australia Day Honours List.
Keith Miller has posthumously been awarded an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) "For service to sport, particularly to cricket as a player, journalist and commentator." He had previously been named an MBE before British awards ceased to be given to Australians in the 1970s.
Mark Waugh has also been named an AM "For service to cricket as a player and to the community."
Submitted by rickeyre on
Tonight the 2005 Australian of the Year will be announced. It seems to be a shoe-in for Nicole Kidman.
Each state and mainland territory puts forward a nomination for the award, and Kidman is the New South Wales nomination. Her charity work is cited as much as her movie career.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Our favourite baseball team in the Mexican Winter League, the Tomato-growers of Culiacan, are finished for 2004-05. They lost their semi-final series in the seventh game on Thursday to the Venados of Mazatlan 8-2.
The Venados are taking on the Aguilas of Mexicali in the final series. Mexicali won game one on Saturday 7-3. Game two at Mexicali Sunday night.
Submitted by rickeyre on
An estimated 40 million USD has been spent on parties to commemorate the re-coronation of King George II and Queen Laura. Not one cent of this was given up to assist victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Everyone involved in the organisation of January 10's game at the MCG between an ICC World XI and an Asian Cricket Council XI should be commended for their efforts in putting the event together at short notice following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami of December 26. More than 14 million dollars Australian was raised for the World Vision Tsunami Appeal that day in front of a packed house and many millions of television viewers.
Submitted by rickeyre on
How many hereditary monarchies hold a second coronation for their King four years after the first one?
King George II was re-crowned today in Washington, DC. The full text of his inaugural speech can be found on the White House website, and of course many other places. Dubya invoked the word "freedom" 27 times, and "liberty" 15 times. How ironic.
Submitted by rickeyre on
Today's the day for King George's second coronation. No expense is, of course, spared in providing this event of GOP extravagence.
Submitted by rickeyre on
It was a spectacle of surrealist theatre that brought back memories of the Lillehammer Winter Olympic closing ceremony. But the unveiling of the Airbus A380 in Toulouse yesterday was such an overblown spectacle, so much so that Sky News, BBC World and CNN International were all sucked in to taking this live informercial as a "breaking news" event during their 9pm AEDT bulletins last night.
