Friday, 16 February 2007

Corby claims light up ratings, The Australian, 16 February, 2007.

Corby claims light up ratings: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 16 Feb 2007: 3.
Show highlighting
Today Tonight also featured a woman with her face obscured claiming to be a former Centrelink worker who remembered Schapelle because of her unusual name and the reasons why she was on a pension. The woman said: "I never had a doubt in my mind that Schapelle was guilty."
The woman alleged that a week before her arrest, Schapelle visited the Gold Coast Centrelink office to get her disability pension for, she alleged, "depression and drug-related psychological problems". "That's what the doctor said," she claimed.

ALLEGATIONS of drug use and lies moved into a fourth night of tabloid television last night as friends and enemies of the Corby sisters came forward with fresh accusations.
On Seven's Today Tonight, an anonymous high school friend, his face obscured, said he was not surprised Schapelle Corby had been caught smuggling marijuana into Bali, only by the amount she was caught with -- 4.1kg.
He said he used to go out partying with Schapelle. "We'd go drinkin', smoke a bit of pot, party, go gatecrash parties," he said. "She smokes marijuana. She deals in marijuana. Marijuana has been a part of her life for a long time."
Schapelle Corby is serving a 20-year jail term in Bali's Kerobokan jail after she was arrested carrying the drugs while entering Bali in October 2004.
Today Tonight also featured a woman with her face obscured claiming to be a former Centrelink worker who remembered Schapelle because of her unusual name and the reasons why she was on a pension. The woman said: "I never had a doubt in my mind that Schapelle was guilty."
The woman alleged that a week before her arrest, Schapelle visited the Gold Coast Centrelink office to get her disability pension for, she alleged, "depression and drug-related psychological problems". "That's what the doctor said," she claimed.
Over at Nine's A Current Affair, the mother of Jodie Power, Margaret Power, said she believed Schapelle was taking the fall for another member of the family who had been involved in smuggling drugs.
"I feel sorry for Schapelle," she said.
The Corby battle has proved a rating boon for both A Current Affair and Today Tonight.\





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Victims say it's too little, too late, The Australian, 16 February, 2007.




Victims say it's too little, too late: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian; Canberra, A.C.T. [Canberra, A.C.T] 16 Feb 2007: 4.
Terry Miller, 64, who has spent seven years supporting other asbestos victims, said there was a new generation of sufferers in their 40s dying from mesothelioma, the lethal and extremely painful asbestos-related lung cancer.
He has also watched a 48-year-old father of two, an electrician exposed to asbestos from the houses he worked on, die in agony; likewise a 52-year-old former school teacher, who died after she was exposed to asbestos during school renovations. "Had Hardies made it known when they knew, that this product could be dangerous, and they have known asbestos could kill you since the 1940s, then maybe these people would still be alive," he said. "Maybe their kids would still have a mum or a dad. It is heartbreaking. It tears you up."
ASIC is launching civil legal action against former and current James Hardie Industries directors and the company's chairman for allegedly misleading investors over its compensation payouts for asbestos victims

Full Text


ASBESTOS victims described yesterday's legal action against the directors and officers of James Hardie Industries as too little, too late.
Terry Miller, 64, who has spent seven years supporting other asbestos victims, said there was a new generation of sufferers in their 40s dying from mesothelioma, the lethal and extremely painful asbestos-related lung cancer.
He was diagnosed five years ago with asbestosis, scarring of the lung tissue as a result of contact with asbestos fibres.
Mr Miller, who faces a shortened life as a result of his 20 years with the company, said the emotional difficulty of his situation was compounded by his work for the Asbestos Victims Association of SA helping men and women in the final year of their lives.
His wife, Margaret, died nine years ago from a lung-related illness. With many women contracting diseases from the dust off their husband's clothes, he now believes her death may well have been related to his employment.
Doctors rarely give mesothelioma victims more than a year to live.
"I would like some of these Hardie directors to see the extreme pain, the rapid weight loss, the devastation it causes the families," he said.
Mr Miller worked at the James Hardie Pipe Factory at Elizabeth, on the outskirts of Adelaide, manufacturing "fibrolite" pipes -- a mixture of asbestos and cement widely used by government and industry alike.
He said that not once during the 20 years he worked for Hardie were the employees officially told of the health risks of asbestos.
But it is not for himself that he feels the most pain.
Already this year, he has watched a 47-year-old woman with three children die a week after her birthday. She was exposed to asbestos as a child when her parents did renovations on their farm.
He has also watched a 48-year-old father of two, an electrician exposed to asbestos from the houses he worked on, die in agony; likewise a 52-year-old former school teacher, who died after she was exposed to asbestos during school renovations. "Had Hardies made it known when they knew, that this product could be dangerous, and they have known asbestos could kill you since the 1940s, then maybe these people would still be alive," he said. "Maybe their kids would still have a mum or a dad. It is heartbreaking. It tears you up."
CIVIL CLAIMS
ASIC is launching civil legal action against former and current James Hardie Industries directors and the company's chairman for allegedly misleading investors over its compensation payouts for asbestos victims
Meredith Hellicar
* The Hardies chairman faces two breach-of-duty charges relating to a market announcement and an information memorandum
Michael Brown
* Director facing the same breach-of-duty charges as Hellicar
Michael Gillfillan
* ASIC believes the US resident and long-serving director breached his corporate duty twice
Peter Macdonald
* Resigned as CEO in 2004; now faces five breach-of-duty charges
Peter Shafron
* ASIC claims the company's former legal counsel breached his duty three times
Phillip Morley
* Former chief financial officer faces two breach-of-duty claims
Peter Willcox
* Former Hardie director who stood aside as CSIRO chairman yesterday to fight two breach-of-duty charges
Greg Terry, Dan O'Brien and Martin Koffel
* Former directors Terry and O'Brien face one charge each of breaching their corporate duty while Koffel faces two charges
Meredith Hellicar
* The Hardies chairman faces two breach-of-duty charges relating to a market announcement and an information memorandum
Michael Brown
* Director facing the same breach-of-duty charges as Hellicar
Michael Gillfillan
* ASIC believes the US resident and long-serving director breached his corporate duty twice
Peter Macdonald
* Resigned as CEO in 2004; now faces five breach-of-duty charges
Peter Shafron
* ASIC claims the company's former legal counsel breached his duty three times
Phillip Morley
* Former chief financial
Sources: ASIC, staff reporters
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Thursday, 15 February 2007

Tokyo demands apology for princess book, The Australian, 15 February, 2007.



Tokyo demands apology for princess book: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Peter Alford, John Stapleton. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 15 Feb 2007: 3.
Hills writes about the travails of Princess Masako -- a fast- rising diplomat when she married Crown Prince Naruhito -- pressures she suffered, particularly from the Imperial Household Agency, her breakdown in 2003 and speculation that her daughter Aiko was conceived by IVF methods.
"I find this offensive," Hills said. "They did not specify factual errors. There was nothing they produced to us that warranted an apology. I told the ambassador's representative Australians were very proud of their freedom of the press and we strongly resisted any attempt by any government, particularly a foreign government, to tell us what we can read. Princess Masako should get an apology from the Imperial Household Agency for bullying her into a state of severe depression."

Full Text


THE Japanese Government has complained to Canberra that an Australian book about Crown Princess Masako denigrates the Imperial family and the Japanese people.
A Japanese edition of the book, Princess Masako, the prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne by Sydney journalist and author Ben Hills, has been postponed after the Imperial Household Agency posted a complaint on their website.
"We are studying the facts and content of the book," said a spokesman for Japanese publishers Kodansha. He said the book's publication, scheduled for this month, could depend on the response to demands for apologies and corrections.
"If the book is published (in Japanese) as an exact translation of the original book, we are are not happy at all," Ministry of Foreign affairs chief spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba said yesterday.
Hills writes about the travails of Princess Masako -- a fast- rising diplomat when she married Crown Prince Naruhito -- pressures she suffered, particularly from the Imperial Household Agency, her breakdown in 2003 and speculation that her daughter Aiko was conceived by IVF methods.
The author was a Tokyo correspondent in 1993 when Masako married and recalls "being flabbergasted that a smart, articulate woman would bury herself in that medieval monastery, the palace".
Hills said a senior member of the Japanese embassy, Shinichi Hosono, travelled to Sydney on Monday to speak with him and his Australian publishers Random House. He said he was given a letter claiming he had insulted the Imperial family and the Japanese people and they were seeking unspecified damages, apologies and corrections.
"I find this offensive," Hills said. "They did not specify factual errors. There was nothing they produced to us that warranted an apology. I told the ambassador's representative Australians were very proud of their freedom of the press and we strongly resisted any attempt by any government, particularly a foreign government, to tell us what we can read. Princess Masako should get an apology from the Imperial Household Agency for bullying her into a state of severe depression."
Hills said the book had been on sale in Australia for four months and the only reason the Japanese Government was complaining now was because the book was about to be published in Japanese.
"The Japanese government is trying to prevent its own people from reading the truth about what is going on inside the palace."
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Flight attendant 'just doing her job', The Australian, 15 February, 2007.

Flight attendant `just doing her job': [2 All-round First Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 15 Feb 2007: 3.
Show highlighting
Graham Robertson said his daughter [Lisa Robertson], 38, was a "good kid" who had done nothing wrong. The Qantas colleagues who claimed to have seen Ms Robertson leaving the same toilet as [Ralph Fiennes] were "probably ugly as a hat full of arseholes and were just jealous", Mr Robertson told Sydney's TheDaily Telegraph, which today published thefirst pictures of the flight attendant.
Fiennes, star of The English Patient, Schindler's List and The Constant Gardener, struck up a conversation with Ms Robertson during a flight from Darwin to Mumbai on January 30.
THE Qantas hostess at the centre of a mile-high sex scandal involving British actor Ralph Fiennes was "not a bad-looking girl" who liked to look after people.
Graham Robertson said his daughter Lisa, 38, was a "good kid" who had done nothing wrong. The Qantas colleagues who claimed to have seen Ms Robertson leaving the same toilet as Fiennes were "probably ugly as a hat full of arseholes and were just jealous", Mr Robertson told Sydney's The Daily Telegraph, which today published thefirst pictures of the flight attendant.
Before joining Qantas, Ms Robertson was a policewoman for 14 years, and had posed as a drug addict to trap some of Sydney's biggest dealers.
Fiennes, star of The English Patient, Schindler's List and The Constant Gardener, struck up a conversation with Ms Robertson during a flight from Darwin to Mumbai on January 30.
According to Ms Robertson's statement to Qantas, Fiennes followed her into the toilet and became "amorous" towards her.
On Monday, The Australian reported her claims that she had explained to Fiennes that his actions were inappropriate and that "after a short period of timeI convinced him to leave".
Mr Robertson said his daughter was just doing her job.
"If someone wants a cup of coffee and biscuits, she looks after them. She's not a bad-looking girl. If you do the right thing, people take a liking to you," he said.
In her statement, Ms Robertson said it was common on long flights to build rapport with passengers. "I deny that my behaviour on this flight was such that my employment should be terminated," she wrote.
Ms Robertson is reported to have joined the NSW Police Force in 1988 and worked in the Major Crime Squad drug unit as an undercover agent.
She has been suspended pending an investigation.
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Tuesday, 13 February 2007

Family at war over Kovco death ruling, The Australian, 13 February, 2007.

Family at war over Kovco death ruling: [1 All-round Country Edition]

Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 13 Feb 2007: 5.
Show highlighting
Kovco's mother [Judy Kovco] believes there has been a cover-up over the death of her son in Baghdad in April, and says that, contrary to the finding of a military inquiry, he did not shoot himself while skylarking. She wants a full-scale coronial inquiry to clear her son's name.
Judy Kovco's military lawyer, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Holles, said the difficulties between [Shelley Kovco] and Judy Kovco, which could be seen as a typical relationship between a mother and daughter-in- law, added to the sadness of Kovco's death.
Judy Kovco believes the truth must be told, while Shelley Kovco believes no inquiry is "going to bring [Jake Kovco] back" and says: "It needs to be over."
THE family of Jake Kovco, the first Australian military casualty in Iraq, remain divided over how he died and whether there should be a coronial inquiry.
Kovco's mother Judy believes there has been a cover-up over the death of her son in Baghdad in April, and says that, contrary to thefinding of a military inquiry, he did not shoot himself while skylarking. She wants a full-scale coronial inquiry to clear her son's name.
In contrast, Kovco's wife Shelley believes there was no cover-up and that it is time to move on.
Relations between the two women have deteriorated to the point where it is impossible for them to talk about the man they both loved.
The revelations came in an episode of Australian Story screened on the ABC last night.
"Shelley has her beliefs, I have mine," Judy Kovco says. "We don't talk about them. I don't deny it makes me angry."
Judy Kovco maintains her son knew guns too well to shoot himself. "There was no way known he would have pointed a gun to his head while he was cleaning it. No way known."
She maintains the official explanation from the Australian Defence Force changed over time and that the army had overly influenced her daughter-in-law.
"It was just one lie after another ... I have no faith in the army right now," she says. "None whatsoever. It makes me angry that they've brainwashed her virtually."
But Shelley Kovco believes "there's no way" there was a cover- up. "We have our family, and we have the army as a family as well."
She expresses frustration at her mother-in law's behaviour.
"You know what she's like," she says. "It's very hard. We can't even talk about Jake ... I feel I can't even bring Jake's name up."
Judy Kovco's military lawyer, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Holles, said the difficulties between Shelley and Judy Kovco, which could be seen as a typical relationship between a mother and daughter-in- law, added to the sadness of Kovco's death.
"They both clearly and obviously loved Jake very, very much," he says. "But they're not loving him together, they're loving him in separate ways, and it's a tragedy on a tragedy."
Judy Kovco believes the truth must be told, while Shelley Kovco believes no inquiry is "going to bring Jake back" and says: "It needs to be over."
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Monday, 12 February 2007

Corby The Australian 12 February 2007

FILED FOR WEB AND THEN PULLED FOR LEGAL REASONS 12 FEB 2007
John Stapleton
Stephen Fitzpatrick
THE CORBY family were by no means the innocents they pretended to be during the Indonesian trials of Schapelle Corby, according to explosive revelations by a former close family friend Jodi Power.
The woman has claimed that Schapelle's sister Mercedes had directly asked her whether she would be interested in transporting drugs to Bali and had admitted to her she had imported drugs to Indonesia on a number of occasions.
She also claimed that at one time Mercedes asked her to travel to the Corby family farm to help her water marijuana plants at a time when Mercedes'  father Michael Corby was ill. She also said she had seen vacuum filled packs of marijuana at the Corby family home which looked exactly like the vacuum pack Schapelle was caught with.
Ms Powers said she was saddened Schapelle is in jail but ``with everything that I now and the lies that have been told points towards she knew what she was doing, she was aware of the consequences.''
She dismissed claims made by various members of the Corby family that they had never smoked marijuana as lies.
The revelations are contained in a program by Channel Seven's Today Tonight titled ``Finally, the Truth About Schapelle'' with journalist Bryan Seymour.
Photographs provided to the program appear to show Mercedes Corby smoking marijuana.
The program describes Ms Power as a close family friend, one of the inner-sanctum who grew up in close contact with Schapelle and her sister Mercedes.
Television footage shows Ms Power sitting through the prolonged Indonesian trials lending support to the Corby family. But Ms Power had a falling out with Mercedes last year, leading, she says, to her spilling the beans on the family.
She says Mercedes and her were once best friends, ``but she's hurt too many people now... And lied about too many people. Lied full stop, so many lies.''
Ms Power was subjected to a lie detector test by Today Tonight. While she failed the test the first time it was conducted, she passed when, at her insistance, she sat it again. Former police officer Steve van Aparen, who conducted the tests, said he was convinced Ms Power was telling the truth about the Corby family.
Ms Power said that Mercedes had told her she had smuggled drugs into Bali. ``She said she compressed it or made it smaller, I don't remember her words exactly, and put it inside her,'' she claims.
She also said the Corby family had a contact in the Balinese customs service but the man was not working the day Schapelle was arrested.
When asked to reconcile the statements that Mercedes Corby made that neither she or her family had anything to do with drugs Ms Powers says: ``She's a liar, she's lied constantly throughout everything.''
She said she had seen Mercedes selling drugs at her house. ``I've seen people come in, pay the money and then leave again,'' she said.
An emotional Ms Power said Mercedes would hate her for spilling the beans but she felt ``cleansed, I feel like I've got if off my chest''.
Ms Power said she would use the money she was being paid by Today Tonight to pay back the people who had donated money to the Help Free Schapelle Incorporated Fund that she established after returning from Bali.
Kathryn Bonella, the 60 Minutes reporter who wrote Schappelle Corby's autobiography 'My Story', described the Today Tonight story as ``disgusting journalism''
``They did this lie detector test and it's not even clear which questions she's answering when you see it,'' she said. ``You can't tell which questions she's passed. It's been carefully manipulated.''
While Today Tonight claimed that they had been unable to contact Mercedes Corby, Ms Bonella said Mercedes had been trying for the past six weeks to get a right of reply to this program.
``It was only last Thursday -- two working days before the program went to air -- that the producers from Today Tonight tried to get in touch with her,'' she said. ``It's true that she had been out of contact for the past couple of  days because she's just returned to Bali after having her third child.
``She was pleading with them to give her a right of reply. She wanted a right of reply to this hatchet job, and now she's suing Jodi -- who's a mentally unstable woman -- and she's had a lawyer send a letter to the program threatening legal action unless they gave her the right of reply.''
A senior source in Bali's drugs investigation unit tonight urged Australian authorities to share what information they had on the claims.
``If we had request of that sort, I would think we would respond immediately,'' the police source said.
``If this is true, if there are new developments, we ask the Australian police to contact the Indonesian police -- in particular the Bali police -- in order to conduct a cooperative investigation,'' the source said.
The source expressed great interest in the allegations, saying that Indonesian police had never suspected the older Corby of involvement in drugs smuggling.
``She never had a record, so she was never suspected or investigated on this,'' the source said last night.
Bali police spokesman, Senior Commissioner Antonius Reniban, said his force could do nothing on the new claims unless they were forwarded to Indonesian authorities.
``We've already investigated all the evidence in this case,'' Senior Commissioner Reniban said. ``We've been through the whole process and she has been convicted. If there are new findings, they should be forwarded to the Supreme Court.''
Corby's lawyer Erwin Siregar last night described Power's claim as ``absolute rubbish'' and said ``if she's  prepared to make allegations of this sort, she needs to present the evidence''.
When told that Power's claims included photographic evidence of Mercedes Corby smoking marijuana, the usually garrulous Siregar was silent for a moment, then said: ``If it can be proved, it needs to be dealt with through legal process. If it can't be proved under the law, that makes it rubbish''.

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