Monday, 16 October 2006

More breast cancer, but odds are better, The Australian, 16 October, 2006.

More breast cancer, but odds are better: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 16 Oct 2006: 3.
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A major report to be released by federal Health Minister Tony Abbott today, Breast Cancer in Australia, gives for the first time detail about the number of people surviving after a diagnosis.
The report, by the National Breast Cancer Centre and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, notes that 5318 women were diagnosed in 1983, a figure expected to jump to 13,261 this year. About 100 men are also likely to be diagnosed this year.
National Breast Cancer Centre director Helen Zorbas said Australia's increased breast cancer rates were reflected across the Western world.
WESTERN lifestyles and women having fewer babies are the main contributors to the doubling of breast cancer rates in the past 20years.
But improvements in treatment mean the survival rate for sufferers has also increased.
A major report to be released by federal Health Minister Tony Abbott today, Breast Cancer in Australia, gives for the first time detail about the number of people surviving after a diagnosis.
More than 113,800 women and 730 men diagnosed in the past 20 years are still alive.
The report, by the National Breast Cancer Centre and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, notes that 5318 women were diagnosed in 1983, a figure expected to jump to 13,261 this year. About 100 men are also likely to be diagnosed this year.
AIHW Cancer Monitoring Unit head John Harding said the risk of a diagnosis by age 85 had increased to one in eight women, up from one in 12 in 1983.
However, improved treatment techniques meant the chance of dying of the disease before age 75 had decreased from one in 43 to about one in 56.
Luisa Giuffre, from Doubleview in Perth's northwest, is one of the lucky ones.
She was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 30, when her youngest child, Daniel, was four. Seven years on, she still recalls the shock.
"It was overwhelming: it was the shock of my life, the last thing I expected," Ms Giuffre said. "I honestly thought I would die.
"I couldn't understand why I was being denied the chance to see my boys grow up. I was only 30. I was in the prime of my life."
She said she had come to realise "that it is the little things in life that make you happy, not the material things".
"People think once the surgery is over you get on with your life but as a young woman there are so many issues: with the treatment, with body image. It changes intimacy issues and can put you into early menopause.
"It is important for the public to understand that while people do get on with their lives there are a lot of issues with the journey."
National Breast Cancer Centre director Helen Zorbas said Australia's increased breast cancer rates were reflected across the Western world.
"The more nourished we are and the better off we are, the higher our incidence of breast cancer," she said. "This is contrary to what we see with most other cancers.
"With breast cancer, it is likely that lifestyle factors are playing a part: including obesity, a more sedentary lifestyle, having fewer babies later in life, and breastfeeding less than in less-developed countries."
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Thursday, 28 September 2006

Methamphetamine The Australian 28 September 2006

28 SEPTEMBER
ex John Stapleton
THE use of methamphetamine, including the potent form of Ice, has become the major drug problem facing Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, according to two new reports released yesterday at the first major Australasian conference focussing on amphetamines.
The Australian National Council on Drugs analysis of illicit drugs in the Asia-Pacific region reports that almost all the countries surveyed now rank methamphetamine and ecstasy as the major drugs of concern. China has shown a 15-fold increase in the number of registered drug users since 1990. The report records a flood of methamphetamine use since the mid 1990s, particularly in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and increasingly in China.
Abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) is now estimated to affect some 25 million people worldwide, with more than 60 per cent of abusers in East Asia and Southeast Asia.
A separate United Nations confrirmed the findings, recording that between 19999/2000 and 2004/2005 there had been a 56 per cent rise in the number of hospital admissions in Australia for abuse of stimulants. The growth in abuse of amphetamines was due to its ready accessability on the streets of Asia and a large vulnerable population. ``It is being marketed on the streets in Asia almost like candy,'' said Jeremy Douglas, Regional Project Coordination with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. ``It is very accessible. We are recording a very big increase in abuse in Asia. The impacts on the health system, the police and the judiciary are overwhelming.''
He said much of the supply in SE Asia was not destined for local markets, as evidenced by the enormous of size of recent seizures, including a half tonne seizure in Malaysia, and the trends were having a serious impact on Australia.
He said Australia, as one of the engine rooms of the region, with a relatively affluent population, was a major drawcard for exporters a flood of amphetamines would cause major social problems in Australia, including severe impacts on the health system and a distortion of the economy because of the size of the illegitimate trade.
Mr Alan Eade from the Metropolitan Ambulance Service in Melbourne told the conference yesterday that methamphetamine use had overtaken herooin in all jurisdictions in Australia. He said ambulance services had been set up for and educated on the management of heroin overdoses, and the emergence of amphetamine and ecstassy since the late 1990s had forced a review of the education of para-medics across Victoria.
Professor Ernie Drucker from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, an advocate for harm minimisation, told the conference a focus on law and order to combat the increased use of amphetamines was the wrong way to go. He said there was only a limited amount of money to go around in dealing with drugs and that money would be better spent on treatment facilities. ``Harm reduction is the alternative to tough on drugs policies,'' he said. ``Resources are better used providing treatment, education and prevention. We have to learn to live in a world where drugs are a reality. We can't make believe that we are going to have a world free of drugs. The Australian government approach of giving the most money to law enforcement is never going to work. You can't enforce your way out of drug problems.''
Organiser of the conference, John Ryan, from the Association for Prevention and Harm Reduction Programs in Australia, said they had tried to bring all sides of the debate together, from harm minimisation advocates to law enforcement officials. ``There is no single perspective that has all the answers,'' he said. ``We need to work together, the needle and syringe people, the police, health workers, we need to be celebrating and supporting each other, otherwise we are destined to respond inadequately.''
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Action urged on alcohol violence, The Australian, 28 September, 2006.

Action urged on alcohol violence: [7 NSW First Edition]

Dan Box, John Stapleton. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 28 Sep 2006: 6.
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Tony Grabs, director of trauma services at Sydney's StVincent's Hospital, joined a chorus of calls for action on alcohol-related crime after an attack on an Irish backpacker outside a hotel at Bondi, in the city's east, last Friday.
Anthony Shakeshaft, a senior research fellow with the Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said limiting the amount of alcohol that could be served in one session would help stop naive youngsters turning into problem drinkers.
YOUNG professionals in Australia on working holidays "going out on a Friday night and getting themselves destroyed" are behind a growing trend in alcohol-related violence in Sydney.
Tony Grabs, director of trauma services at Sydney's StVincent's Hospital, joined a chorus of calls for action on alcohol-related crime after an attack on an Irish backpacker outside a hotel at Bondi, in the city's east, last Friday.
Police and the 23-year-old's family are expected to make a public appeal today for witnesses of the attack to come forward. Thevictim was in intensive care yesterday with severe head injuries.
State Opposition Leader Peter Debnam said the attack was the result of a "culture of violence" among young men, which had been allowed to develop by a criminal justice system that failed to punish the offenders adequately.
"Alcohol is a major problem in NSW, with a culture of violence among a lot of young men," Mr Debnam said.
Dr Grab said many of the visiting workers -- often young, single men in well-paid positions in accountancy and IT -- were recent arrivals in the city and treated their time here as if they were on holiday.
"They are people who in their normal life are not violent but the alcohol changes them," he said. "Of the trauma patients that come through our doors on a Friday or Saturday night, about 80per cent are under the influence of alcohol."
Anthony Shakeshaft, a senior research fellow with the Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, said limiting the amount of alcohol that could be served in one session would help stop naive youngsters turning into problem drinkers.
And the laws governing the serving of alcohol should be enforced, he said.
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Wednesday, 27 September 2006

Charges await for terror fugitive, The Australian, 27 September, 2006.

Charges await for terror fugitive: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 27 Sep 2006: 4.
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At the time he left Australia, [Jamal] faced a number of charges including firearms-related offences. Two of these related to the shooting at Lakemba police station and another two charges, including one of malicious wounding, related to a separate shooting in Greenacre. Jamal was also charged with discharging a firearm in inner-city Redfern.
Speaking from Beirut jail recently, Jamal said he admired Osama bin Laden and that Australia was an illegitimate state that should be ruled by Muslims. He warned that Australia would "suffer the consequences" if he were extradited.
CONVICTED terrorist Saleh Jamal will be charged with terror and gun offences when he arrives in Sydney today after being deported from Lebanon.
The Australian-born Muslim, who said from Roumieh prison in Lebanon that Australia would "face the consequences" for his deportation, was transferred to a holding cell at the Lebanese Justice Ministry in Beirut at dawn yesterday, before being put on a flight to Australia.
Jamal, in his early 30s, allegedly used a false passport to skip bail in 2004 while awaiting trial for a drive-by attack on Lakemba police station in Sydney's west in 1998.
His parents, who moved to Australia from Jordan in 1964 before Jamal was born, were reportedly forced to sell their home to cover the $150,000 bail.
Jamal was arrested shortly afterwards in Beirut, where he was convicted by a military court of planning attacks against the state.
Originally sentenced to five years, Jamal's term was cut to two years by a Lebanese court earlier this year.
He is expected to arrive in Sydney via Dubai on an Emirates flight early today, and will be taken straight to a police station to be charged.
NSW police refused yesterday release details on his return on security grounds.
Australian authorities have been ready to collect Jamal from Beirut since July, but the destruction of the airport by Israeli forces in the conflict with Hezbollah delayed his extradition.
Jamal was accused by Lebanese authorities of having links to a 2004 bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus. He was also wanted in relation to thebombing of a McDonald's restaurant in Beirut in April 2003, but charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
At the time he left Australia, Jamal faced a number of charges including firearms-related offences. Two of these related to the shooting at Lakemba police station and another two charges, including one of malicious wounding, related to a separate shooting in Greenacre. Jamal was also charged with discharging a firearm in inner-city Redfern.
Speaking from Beirut jail recently, Jamal said he admired Osama bin Laden and that Australia was an illegitimate state that should be ruled by Muslims. He warned that Australia would "suffer the consequences" if he were extradited.
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Monday, 25 September 2006

Homes lost as fire season comes early, The Australian, 25 September, 2006. Page One.

Homes lost as fire season comes early: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Elizabeth Gosch, John Stapleton, Additional reporting: D.D. McNicoll. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 25 Sep 2006: 1.
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The worst fires yesterday were around the small towns of Picton and Thirlmere, southwest of Sydney, where four houses were destroyed. In Cattai and Maroota South, near the Hawkesbury River on Sydney's northwestern outskirts, another three houses were lost.
In the Nangarin Vineyard Estate, near Picton, southwest of Sydney, an elderly couple lost their house on The Grange Road. Neighbour Pete Collins said the couple had built the house themselves about three years ago.
Most of the fire near Picton was behind containment lines last night as the strong wind moderated and conditions eased. But Rural Fire Service spokeswoman Rebel Talbot warned that southerly winds would have the initial effect of "two weather systems colliding", creating "extremely erratic fire behaviour".
SOARING spring temperatures and gale-force winds contributed to the early arrival of the bushfire season in NSW yesterday, with seven homes lost around Sydney and the savage weather conditions killing a motorcyclist.
Winds of up to 100km/h and temperatures in the mid 30s fanned as many as 50 fires along the coast, realising the tinderbox fears firefighters have been harbouring all winter.
Wind gusts created havoc over the state. A 52-year-old man was killed by a falling branch while riding his motorcycle in the Kangaroo Valley, in the southern highlands, while the State Emergency Service received more than 1000 calls for assistance over blocked roads, fallen power lines and damage to houses.
About 90,000 homes in Sydney's greater west, southern highlands, Blue Mountains and the south coast were without power after winds brought down lines. Integral Energy spokeswoman Kate McCuw said about 120,000 homes were blacked out and crews were working through the night to restore power.
The bushfire season opened in Victoria with the outbreak last Sunday of fire in the northwestern Mallee region, burning out more than 23,000ha of the Murray-Sunset National Park near Murrayville, before being brought under control on Friday.
The worst fires yesterday were around the small towns of Picton and Thirlmere, southwest of Sydney, where four houses were destroyed. In Cattai and Maroota South, near the Hawkesbury River on Sydney's northwestern outskirts, another three houses were lost.
Residents of Burrill Lake, near Ulladulla on the south coast, were also evacuated but no properties were lost there.
Three houses in Midson Road, next to Scheyville National Park, burnt down in the Cattai blaze. Neighbours said they had been begging for the area to have proper controlled burn-offs for the past decade, but have been ignored.
Michael Peer, son-in-law of one of the home owners, said the loss of the house was devastating.
"She lost her husband less than a year ago, the house was recently refurbished, now this. She has pretty well lost everything. But at least she is safe," Mr Peer said. "I can't thank the firefighters enough ... these guys do a fantastic job."
An immediate neighbour of the burned-out house, George Kasprzycki, was given two minutes to vacate his home. "It came up in a big rush," he said. "The
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wind was strong all day. It was a frightening experience."
In the Nangarin Vineyard Estate, near Picton, southwest of Sydney, an elderly couple lost their house on The Grange Road. Neighbour Pete Collins said the couple had built the house themselves about three years ago.
"The fire just came roaring up the hill," Mr Collins said, "Everyone ran out with buckets and hoses to fight it but their house caught alight.
"We only just saved ours. We fought for three hours until the RFS boys put the fire out."
Most of the fire near Picton was behind containment lines last night as the strong wind moderated and conditions eased. But Rural Fire Service spokeswoman Rebel Talbot warned that southerly winds would have the initial effect of "two weather systems colliding", creating "extremely erratic fire behaviour".
Crews would be pulled back from fire fronts until the effect of the southerly could be monitored, Ms Talbot said.
Backburning operations were planned overnight if conditions permitted.
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Mad dash for flights as footy worlds collide, The Australian, 25 September, 2006. Additional reporting.

Mad dash for flights as footy worlds collide: [6 NSW Country Edition]

Chip Le Grand, Paige Taylor, Additional reporting: Jo Prichard, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 25 Sep 2006: 5.
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Qantas has also put on an extra 10 flights between Sydney and Melbourne to cater for Swans fans flying south for a tilt at back- to-back AFL premierships. Brisbane and Melbourne Storm supporters are expected to funnel into Sydney, but not in sufficient numbers to require extra flights, a Qantas spokesman said.
By last Saturday night, the prospect of Melbourne playing Brisbane in an NRL grand final in Sydney and Sydney playing a Perth team in an AFL grand final in Melbourne had been realised as a historic quirk.
FOR one weekend, the nation's entire sporting landscape has been turned inside out and upside down.
There will be Australian football at the MCG on Saturday and rugby league at Sydney's Telstra Stadium on Sunday. This much makes sense.
The rest has become a mad dash for planes, trains and hotel rooms, as the nation trades places for a not-so-traditional footy fix.
By last Saturday night, the prospect of Melbourne playing Brisbane in an NRL grand final in Sydney and Sydney playing a Perth team in an AFL grand final in Melbourne had been realised as a historic quirk.
By midday yesterday, it had developed into a logistical nightmare, with competition for airline tickets as furious as anything seen on the field in recent weeks.
The tyranny of distance will be most keenly felt between Perth and Melbourne. Within hours of last Saturday's preliminary final win, West Coast Eagles supporters jammed the web to snap up high- priced fares the moment they appeared.
Qantas has set aside an extra 24 planes -- or 4200 seats -- to service the cross-continental route within three days of the grand final. Virgin Blue dusted off three planes to make flights on Thursday night and Friday.
By yesterday morning, every additional Virgin Blue seat had been sold. Company spokeswoman Amanda Bolger said the airline simply had no more planes to fly. It now plans to set up more connecting flights through Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. While the last might appear to be an absurd route to get to Melbourne, West Coast supporters made it to last year's grand final by flying through Singapore and New Zealand.
One Eagles supporter determined to fly high is 52-year-old Perth bookkeeper Alex Polglaze. Mr Polglaze travelled by bus for last year's AFL grand final and was so confident his team would make another appearance this year he chartered two 70-seat jets at about $85,000 a pop.
He has since recovered his costs by selling about 120 seats to family, friends and fellow club members for $1450 per return ticket. "If things had gone wrong, I'd be losing my house," Mr Polglaze said.
Qantas has also put on an extra 10 flights between Sydney and Melbourne to cater for Swans fans flying south for a tilt at back- to-back AFL premierships. Brisbane and Melbourne Storm supporters are expected to funnel into Sydney, but not in sufficient numbers to require extra flights, a Qantas spokesman said.
All this extra air travel doesn't come cheap. The least expensive flights available last night from Perth to Melbourne on Thursday or Friday were going for $800 one way.
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