Wednesday 31 December 2003

Exhausted classics run again, The Australian, 31 December, 2003

Exhausted classics run again: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Michelle Giglio, John StapletonThe Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 31 Dec 2003: 23.
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Professor [Tony Hassall] said many university lecturers here and overseas who taught Australian fiction faced the ongoing problem of not being able to get older texts.
When he heard about Classic Australian Works, he put [Jessica Anderson] straight back on the course list for his Australian literature students.
Synopsis: The Americans have engineered a coup in Khamla, north of Thailand. Prince Soumidath has been deposed. Civil war rages. Against this bedlam are parallel stories narrated by Gilly Herbert, the Australian wife of English academic David. Gilly's experiences and the story of Peter Casement, Gilly's lover, merge in a vivid evocation of the horrors of war.

Friday 26 December 2003

Airline relaxed on flight scare, The Australian, 26 December, 2003

Airline relaxed on flight scare: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, JohnThe Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 26 Dec 2003: 3.
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TENSIONS between air traffic controllers and the federal Government have deepened following allegations a Virgin Blue flight with 120 passengers on board came within 70m of colliding with a light aircraft near Launceston.
It is claimed that at about 1.30pm on Wednesday the Boeing 737 on descent to Launceston was forced to climb more than 300m to avoid a four-seater single-engine Tobago flying from Hobart after a proximity alert sounded in the cockpit.
Virgin Blue, Airservices Australia and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are investigating the incident, but an airline spokeswoman, Amanda Bolger, said flight DJ 964 from Sydney landed "as per normal".

Saturday 20 December 2003

Cut-price Santa comes early for shoppers, Weekend Australian, 20 December, 2003. Additional reporting. Page One.

Cut-price Santa comes early for shoppers: [2 All-round First Edition 1]

Jimenez, KatherineWeekend Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 20 Dec 2003: 1.
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Fellow shopper Carol Maxine rarely used to do her Christmas shopping in department stores. This year, the 30-year-old from Parramatta has bought the bulk of it at upmarket department store David Jones and Grace Bros, part of the mid-market Myer Grace chain owned by Coles Myer, Australia's biggest retailer.
Ms Maxine readily admits she has been lured into the big department stores by the early Christmas sales and the bigger and better range of "clothing shoes, homeware and electrical". Since the Boxing Day stocktake sales began in the 1960s, a generation ofAustralians has grown accustomed to reserving a wad of their consumer spending for the week or more of retail bargains that were available after Christmas.
Led by Myer Grace, the department stores are determined to shed their dinosaur image and grab a bigger share. A survey this month by veteran retail analyst Barry Urquhart found women were using Myer, Grace Bros and David Jones department stores as thepreferred destination to do their shopping.

Wednesday 17 December 2003

The man who knows where the bodies are, The Australian, 17 December, 2003.

The man who knows where the bodies are: [T WA First Edition]

Steven Scott, Alison Rawle, John StapletonThe Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 17 Dec 2003: 4.
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The most infamous of these involved Charles Abbott, a non- executive director of HIH and long-time colleague of the insurer's final chief executive, Randolph Wein. Abbott's last cheque was cleared the evening before HIH folded, when Howard sent a junior accounts clerk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge by train, after the banks had closed, to have it processed.
The HIH royal commission heard that Howard approved more than $16 million in payments for Cooper and his businesses in the six months leading up to theinsurer's $5.3billion collapse. Howard denied at the commission that a new top-of-the-range $118,000 fern-green BMW convertible, of which he took delivery after Cooper introduced him to contacts in the motor trade, was in fact a bribe for channelling millions of HIH dollars to Cooper. Howard said he had decided to buy the car because he was having a "mid-life crisis".
Former HIH director and FAI chief executive Rodney Adler faces five criminal charges for buying 3 million HIH shares using HIH money. He challenged thecharges this week. The judge reserved his decision until next year. Adler has already been fined $900,000, banned from boardrooms for 20 years and ordered to pay $9 million in compensation for breaching his duties as a director.