1. G20 conclusion
The weekend’s G20 Summit has culminated in a G20 communique in which leaders have agreed to “support strong and effective action to address climate change.”
Prime Minister Abbott told reporters “It has been a weekend of achievement,”
“I believe that the G20 this weekend has shifted a gear from responding to events to setting an agenda for growth.”
Mr Abbott said he believed that the countries of the world and their people, “will be better off” because of the G20.
The agreement includes pledges to reform labour markets, boost trade around the world and promote competition which will add 2% to economic growth over five years compared with a “business as usual” scenario. This communique would increase output by about $2 trillion.
One initiative the “25 by 25” will look to cut the gap between men and women participating in the workforce 25 per cent by 2025.
Russian President Vladimir Putin controversially left the summit early before the leaders’ lunch yesterday, telling a press conference he needed to get home and get some sleep before work on Monday morning.
2. Obama slammed for chewing gum
The US President Barack Obama has been criticized by Chinese bloggers after he has been spotted smacking gum as he chatted with British Prime Minister David Cameron at the G20.
Chinese bloggers thought the president looked like “an idler” or a “rapper” .
3. Free trade agreement
Australian will today sign a free trade agreement 10 years in the making with China that will see billions of dollars in new markets for Australian exporters.
The Chinese President Xi Jinping will sign the agreement with Prime Minister Tony Abbott this afternoon after giving a historic speech to a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament reports Fairfax Media.
4. IS Militants claim to have beheaded US hostage
Islamic State (IS) militants fighting in Iraq and Syria claim they have beheaded American hostage Peter Kassig, also known as Abdul Rahman Kassig.
The Prime Minister, Tony Abbott has condemned the act.
“I don’t have any confirmation of the authenticity of any new video so I don’t want to comment on specifics just to say that this is a death cult, it can’t be dignified with any other title.” He said.
“It has nothing to do with religion, it mocks god, it mocks Islam, it’s nothing but a death cult and one of the many reasons we are fiercely taking action against this death cult.
For more read this post here.
5. Jihadi John wounded
Meanwhile Jihadi John, the British terrorist who is thought to be responsible for beheading British and American hostages held by IS terrorists, is reported to be injured in an air strike led by US forces.
The Mail on Sunday reports that he was wounded while attending a meeting of IS leaders in an Iraqi town close to the Syrian border.
6. Brothers sent mother a sms “See you in paradise”
The mother of the four western Sydney men believed to have joined IS received a SMS from one of her sons the day before they were due to return home.
The message read “Arrived in Syria. We will see you in paradise.”
The Australian reports that the mother went to the airport expecting to pick them up from their holiday in “Thailand” but they never showed up.
7. Court orders dying girl have traditional medicine
A court in Canada has intervened in the case of a dying 11-year old girl rejecting a hospital’s bid to force her to undergo chemotherapy instead ruling she can be treated with traditional Aboriginal medicine.
The case has outraged many.
For more read this post here.
8. Warning on adoption
Supreme Court judge Paul Brereto has spoken to The Australian warning that ramping up adoption from countries such as Ethiopia, South Korea and Taiwan that are not signatories to The Hague adoption convention could see a return to the ‘travesties’ of the past.
“It would be unfortunate if in … freeing this up we were effectively enabling the types of travesties that occurred here in the 50s or 60s to be perpetrated elsewhere,” he said.
He urged that birth parents should be given an ongoing role in a child’s life.
“I think we have learnt that kids are pretty adaptable to blended families and what might be perceived as confused parenting situations,” he said.
For an opinion piece on this topic read this post here.
9. Gordon Wood to face trial again
Gordon Wood will face trial again over whether he killed his girlfriend Caroline Byrne — but this time in a defamation trial reports Fairfax Media.
Wood is suing Nationwide News for alleging he killed Carline Byrne.
Fairfax Media reports that Nationwide News intends to defend the defamation case on the basis that the allegation of murder is true.
Supreme Court Justice Lucy McCallum said this would involve the publisher, in effect, “re-running the Crown case in the criminal trial” with a lower standard of proof that applies in civil cases.
The trial will take place next year.
10. Child abuse helpline calls increase
Fairfax Media reports that calls to the Adults Surviving Child Abuse helpline have quadrupled since the start of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse with a study out today showing that many survivors wait 30 years or more before seeking support.
100 people a week are coming forward.
The study found the most common age for abuse to occur was between 6-10 years of age but most of the survivors were over the age of 40.
If you need help you can call Adults Surviving Child Abuse on 1300 657 380
11. Pope denounces euthanasia as a sin against God
Pope Francis has denounced the right to die movement saying it is a “false sense of compassion” to consider euthanasia as an act of dignity when in fact it’s a sin against God and creation.
Francis has echoed comments made earlier this month when the Vatican’s top bioethics official condemned as “reprehensible” the assisted suicide of Brittany Maynard.
While the Pope was at it he also condemned abortion, in vitro fertilization and embryonic stem cell research.
“This is playing with life,” he said. “Beware, because this is a sin against the creator, against God the creator.”
12. The state with the cowboy mentality
A leading expert in women’s health has said that the Northern Territory has a ‘cowboy mentality’ as women have to rely on surgical terminations.
The Northern Territory is the only state where RU486 is still illegal illegal.
Robyn Wardle, CEO for Family Planning NT, wants the pill to be legalised saying “It just so unfair that women in the NT don’t have the same rights as those everywhere else in Australia.”
She told The Daily Mail “Half the women who come into our clinics want the medical termination and we cannot offer it to them, it’s a crime.
“It’s just beyond me why this has not been reviewed, it’s shocking, the government is working from a law that is 40 years old, so much has changed and modernised since then.
13. Teens sun tanning less
A study by the Cancer council has shown that teenagers are developing healthier attitudes towards tanning.
The survey found 40% of teenagers like to get a sun tan, compared with 60% ten years ago.
17% still attempt to get a tan compared with 32% a decade ago.
23% of teens still get sunburnt on weekend in summer though – similar in numbers to in 2003.
Top Comments
Re the 4 Sydney men going to join their true spiritual home. There will be 4 less dole recipients this month at centre link but the local KFC will be disappointed as 2 of their "biggest " customers just left, never to return. At 140 kg each, I think a large, slow moving target is an easy shot. Please spare Sydney the details of their soon to be demise.
Think of the poor parents who knew nothing of it and will in all probability hear of their deaths and not be able to go to their funerals.puts me in mind of young gullible men who enlisted in ww1 seduced by stories of glory and glamour,only to end up as cannon fodder for someone else s war
Not to mention the ones in Britain who dashed off to fight in the Spanish Civil War (and both sides were as bad as each other!)
Firstly, the parents are involved. Not directly but indirectly. When you raise your children and fill them with hate, distrust and loathing for Australia, its people, its culture and the west in general, then there is little surprise when your sons grow up and want to support the followers of the faith that has been imbedded in you from a small age. This is a classic example of the downfalls of multiculturism, No assimilation. The australian assimilation of the past has meant new arrivals leave behind their prejudices and hates and we all get along. But the new do good pc loving ways means that new arrivals do not leave these things behind. One only has to listen to the ABC, SMH , Q and A etc to hear anti australian rhetoric continually. Throw in a strict religious upbringing and you have arecipe for disaster. Please do not compare the brave men of 1914, who in the infancy of this country, left to help defend the mother country, England. You may not be aware, but Australia is already sending our brave man and women to war to help the world defeat an evil Islamic army that is raping and killing. These four young men are traitorously going to join the enemy, and will try to kill OUR soldiers.Whatever sympathy you have, please direct it to our ADF, Police, Politicians, not to the religious fools and their evil , their drive by shootings, their "behead all those " slogans, their "uncovered meat" comments.
Yep, it's been going on since time immemorial. Significantly, our former miniscule chance of being hit by terrorism has gone up now that we've meekly followed uncle Sam and allies into this Unnecessary fight
MM is great, with the News in roundup!