AUSTRALIA'S first foreign bribery prosecution will accuse two Reserve Bank currency firms and six of their former senior managers of funnelling multimillion-dollar bribes to government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam to win banknote deals.
Police in Australia, Asia and Europe are preparing to lay further criminal charges and expose corrupt foreign politicians after yesterday laying bribery charges against Securency and Note Printing Australia - plastic banknote design and printing firms that are respectively half and fully owned and overseen by the RBA.
An international corruption taskforce led by the Australian Federal Police is still working to uncover up to a further $25 million in suspected bribes paid by the RBA firms across Asia and Africa from 1999 up until 18 months ago.
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The Reserve Bank scandal.
The AFP inquiry began after a report by The Age in May 2009 revealing Securency's payments to shady middlemen.
Greens leader Bob Brown has called for the nation's corporate watchdog to examine the conduct of the former boards of both companies - which include former RBA bosses and several corporate heavyweights - while Austrade, the federal government's trade agency, is likely to come under scrutiny over its involvement.
Those charged yesterday with bribery offences that carry penalties of up to 10 years' jail include former Securency chief executive Myles Curtis and former Note Printing Australia chief executive John Leckenby.
Mohamad Daud Dol Moin.
The charges relate to up to $10 million in bribes allegedly paid between 1999 and 2005.
Former Malaysian central bank assistant governor Mohamad Daud Dol Moin is facing up to 20 years' jail after he was charged yesterday for taking kickbacks from the RBA firms' middleman, arms dealer Abdul Kayum, in Kuala Lumpur in late 2004 and early 2005.
Federal Police Commander Chris McDevitt described the charges as historic and warned that more arrests would be made. He stressed that the case should send ''a very clear message to corporate Australia'' about avoiding bribery overseas.
THE taxman is expanding its scrutiny of retailers who sell their goods on eBay, in a bid to catch businesses who fail to report all their income.
As the booming online retail sector avoids much of the gloom affecting ''bricks and mortar'' stores, the Australian Tax Office and Centrelink have asked eBay for personal records of all sellers with turnover of more than $20,000 in 2010-11. The ATO also plans to increase sharply the number of audits of eBay users to detect businesses that may be dodging tax laws.
When it arrived in Australia in 1999, eBay was mainly an auction site for second-hand goods, but its sales are now dominated by new goods sold at a fixed price.
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The US-owned site is required to hand over details of annual sales and volumes to tax authorities, who will check the data against income declarations. The scrutiny is also designed to determine whether eBay sellers are engaging in a hobby or a fully-fledged business.
The Tax Counsel at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, Yasser El-Ansary, said the ATO's data-matching efforts also extended to records held by banks, companies that paid dividends and other government agencies.
''The ATO is focusing more and more on third-party information sources to verify whether or not taxpayers are disclosing all of their income on their tax returns,'' Mr El-Ansary said.
Mr El-Ansary said the compliance push could also uncover valuable information about the online industry, which is being investigated as part of a Productivity Commission inquiry.
The ATO began collecting data from eBay last July and has since reviewed 500 online sellers, but it aims to review a further 2,000 sellers in the 2011-12 financial year.
Online retail sites have largely bucked the slump in consumer spending this year.
The largest 2000 businesses on the Australian eBay site enjoyed a 38 per cent surge in revenue in 2010, with turnover ranging from $120,000 to $12.6 million.
The ATO's compliance program will cross-reference at least 500 million transactions from other parties such as eBay.
OPPOSITION leader Tony Abbott has taken a swipe at the majority of economists who believe a carbon price is the best way to cut emissions.
Mr Abbott conceded yesterday most economists think a carbon tax or an emissions trading scheme the best way to go, but ''maybe that's a comment on the quality of our economists rather than on the merits of the argument''.
He made his criticism at a conference co-sponsored by the Melbourne Institute, Melbourne University's economic research unit. A report prepared for the Australian Industry Group by Ernst & Young assessing government and opposition climate policies, released yesterday, says: ''The general consensus among experts is that carbon pricing is likely to be the most cost-effective way of achieving low cost abatement, particularly in the long-term''.
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Prominent economist Saul Eslake was quick to return fire, with the Grattan Institute director saying Mr Abbott only made his ''cheap shot'' because he couldn't find a single economist to support his direct action policy.
The government seized on Mr Abbott's comment, recalling that he was ''on the record as saying economics is 'boring' ''.
Meanwhile, The Saturday Age has learned that brown coal-fired power plants such as Hazelwood and Yallourn in the Latrobe Valley will be invited to tender to be closed under the government's carbon price deal to be announced next weekend. The multi-party committee has agreed that some revenue from the tax will be used to buy and shut down coal-fired plants.
It is understood a tender would be held to buy about 2000 megawatts of the nation's ''dirtiest'' coal power capacity - likely to equate to one large Victorian plant and a second smaller plant, possibly Playford in South Australia.
The successful plants would be closed over an extended period, likely to be a decade, and are expected to be replaced by new gas-fired power plants, which have about a third of the emissions of brown coal.
The owners of Hazelwood and Yallourn, International Power and TRUenergy, have said they are open to being paid to close, but it is understood the decision on which plant shuts would be determined through the tender. International Power's asking price is believed to be about $2.5 billion.
As the cross-party committee finalises details, motorists will be reassured that they will not be hit under the scheme.
With the carbon debate set to enter a crucial phase, business groups are considering a multi-million dollar advertising campaign against it. But key independent Tony Windsor, a member of the cross-party committee, said if they hoped to influence the parliamentary vote they would be wasting their time. He promised that if he is signs up to the deal next week, he will stick by it through to the parliamentary vote.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who on Thursday was labelled ''tricky'' by Mr Abbott when she tried to back off calling the carbon price a tax, yesterday returned to admitting it was a tax.
Mr Abbott said it was worth pondering why so many people believed that putting a ''price on carbon'' was the best way to reduce emissions, ''when no one says that we should continue to dump toxins in the Yarra on the basis of tradeable certificates''.
With PETER MARTIN, AAP
MYLES Curtis was seething as he drove into work, past the high, barbed fences, CCTV cameras and the signs warning potential trespassers not to enter the high-security site.
It was Saturday morning, May 23, 2009, and the The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald had splashed their front pages with a report revealing how Securency International - the company Curtis ran on behalf of the Reserve Bank of Australia - had funnelled multimillion-dollar payments to shady foreign middlemen to help win banknote supply contracts from central banks around the globe.
Soon after, the normally unflappable Curtis was in a rage as he paced the floor of the fortress-like headquarters in Melbourne's north that Securency shares with another RBA firm, Note Printing Australia.
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''He was off his nut,'' recalled a staff member. ''He was going on about 'how the f--- do they know how our business operates … they have got it all wrong'.''
The newspaper reports had caused alarm elsewhere as well. Within hours of the papers hitting the stands, Curtis's bosses at the RBA, the venerable pillar of Australia's financial system, called in the Australian Federal Police to investigate the allegations.
Curtis assured the chairman of Securency and Note Printing Australia, RBA assistant governor Bob Rankin, that the police would find nothing. Police investigation or not, it would be business as usual for the company Curtis had led since it was formed in 1996 as a joint venture between the RBA and Belgium pharmaceutical giant UCB (whose stake was later bought by Britain's Innovia Films).
Curtis and his team would continue promoting Australia's unique polymer banknote material around the world. NPA would keep trying to win the rights to print other countries' banknote designs on Securency's special plastic.
Rankin and his superiors at the RBA, including governor Glenn Stevens, must have hoped the charming and persuasive Curtis was right. The consequences were dire if he was not.
The Reserve Bank owns half of Securency and all of NPA, and controls both boards. Rankin's predecessor as chairman on both companies was former deputy RBA governor and Australian Prudential Regulation Authority chief Graeme Thompson.
If one or both the companies were found to be engaged in overseas bribery, Australia would be facing one of its worst corruption scandals and the Reserve Bank's reputation would be severely tarnished.
The RBA men were not the only ones hoping the AFP would quickly clear Securency. Many in Canberra were nervous. Securency and NPA had received special treatment from respective Coalition and Labor governments, as well as strong support from the nation's diplomatic and trade corps.
The Securency story had the potential to become another AWB scandal.
Back at head office, Curtis told concerned staff that there was nothing to worry about. What's more, he said to one staff member, the Fairfax press would soon have to pay for its temerity.
Yet observant staff at Securency also noticed that Curtis was, at least from a distance, acting strangely.
Curtis and his right-hand man, company secretary John Ellery, began taking long walks around the barbed perimeter fence at the company's headquarters. There were rumours that the federal police might be bugging the premises.
Staff also noticed that sensitive files regarding Securency's overseas deals had been moved to a secure room. A short time later, some of the files had disappeared. Staff at NPA now began talking about disturbing things they had seen in the past involving the company's overseas agents in Malaysia, Indonesia and Nepal.
Those worried about the federal police inquiry - which at that stage was a precursory examination with minimal resources and staff - may have been heartened by the fact that, in 2009, the AFP had never prosecuted anyone using laws passed 10 years before that outlawed paying kickbacks to overseas officials in order to gain a business advantage.
The main promo for Ten's forthcoming reality series The Renovators is slick and appealing, but is it also a piece of subliminal advertising that could be in breach of the broadcasting rules?
With its Stomp-like soundtrack and its bold yellow-and-black colour scheme, the promo is hard to miss. A little harder to spot, though, is the moment 28 seconds into the 60-second spot when the interplay of yellow and black on a light switch produces what appears to be a fair approximation of the Commonwealth Bank logo.
A mere coincidence, says Ten. ''There's no logo in it, it wasn't filmed with a logo on set, there's absolutely no logo in there,'' said a network spokeswoman yesterday.
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The colour scheme had nothing to do with the bank, she added. ''Yellow and black are the colours that were used when we launched the program last year, and black, yellow and blue are the network's colours - we use black and yellow together and we use blue and white together.''
Ten insists that when the program was launched last October, no sponsorship deals were in place. However, this week it released a list of eight sponsors involved in the program, including Commonwealth Bank. The others were Bunnings, LG, Taubmans, Freedom, Ford, KFC and Yellow Pages.
Network Ten's national sales manager, Kylie Rogers, said in a statement this week that advertiser interest in The Renovators was ''in a class of its own''. She added that the number of clients looking to showcase their brands through the show was ''simply unprecedented''.
Ten said principal sponsors would be able to ''leverage their association with the show through a combination of in-show segments featuring products and services, themed television commercials, tailor-made play-in and play-out segments between commercial breaks, commercial billboards and branded content on the show's official website''.
Any attempt to leverage that association through subliminal advertising would, however, be in breach of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. Under paragraph 1.9.7 of the code, ''a licencee may not broadcast a program, program promotion, station identification or community service announcement which is likely … to … use or involve any technique that attempts to convey information to the viewer by transmitting messages below or near the threshold of normal awareness''.
In 2008, Ten was found guilty of breaching the broadcasting code of practice after subliminal messages were included in the 2007 ARIA awards broadcast.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority said yesterday it would investigate allegations of subliminal advertising only if a viewer complained to the station and failed to reach a satisfactory resolution.
Chris Noth has no plans to sign up for another Sex And The City sequel because he believes the hit franchise has exploded into a "circus of attention".
The actor, who plays Mr Big - the husband of Sarah Jessica Parker's leading lady Carrie Bradshaw - admits he won't be upset if he's left out of a third instalment of the spin-off movies.
Noth says the popular films, which have scored big bucks at the global box office, no longer resemble the "really good" TV series which spawned them.
"I don't see Sex and the City 3 happening. I'm not disappointed if they don't. I miss the early days before it became sort of a circus of attention, when it hadn't become this iconic thing," he tells America's Parade magazine.
"It was really good writing and entertainment, and then it became something else that I still don't really get."
Kim Cattrall, who's played Samantha Jones on the franchise for the past 13 years, echoes Noth's reluctance to make a third film installment.
"I feel like I've let go," she tells MovieWeb.com.
"Thirteen years of your life? That is a long time to be associated with one show and one character".
But it seems the star of the show, Sarah Jessica Parker, is keen to continue stepping in to Carrie Bradshaw's Manolo Blahniks.
"I would go back," the 45-year-old actress told the L.A. Times from the set of her new movie, I Don't Know How She Does It.
"I think there's one more story to tell. I know there is."
Source: The Vine
The prize also includes 10,000 euros of Swarovski crystals for use in the winner's next collection, and is generally used to fund a showing at Paris Fashion Week.
This year, the winner is Belgian designer Anthony Vaccarello, who founded his eponymous label two years ago, after working under Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi.
The designer's aesthetic is dark, clean and complex, and he has already won fans in Lou Doillon and Abbey Lee Kershaw.
Past winners of the ANDAM award - who unlike recipients of the equally generous CDFA Award, can be from anywhere in the world - include Gareth Pugh, who used his winnings to create a ground breaking fashion film, Viktor and Rolf, and Martin Margiela.
In an interview with The New York Times Vaccarello, who is already based in Paris, stated that he would not let the award change the slow, sustainable model of business growth he envisions for his brand. He will be using the award to fund his Paris showing, and set up a studio, although it might also be wise for the talented 31 year old to spend a bit of his winnings on building a better website.
The other nominees for the ANDAM this year were Adam Kimmel, Commuun,Jeremy Laing, Matthew Harding, and Yiqing Yin, who was awarded a second 60,000 euro prize.
If you're feeling queasy after sitting through Cars 2, there's a light at the end of the tunnel: on the cards for mid-2012 is Pixar's all-original fairytale, Brave.
The rundown from the studio and Disney seems promising:
Since ancient times, stories of epic battles and mystical legends have been passed through the generations across the rugged and mysterious Highlands of Scotland. In Brave, a new tale joins the lore when the courageous Merida (voice of Kelly Macdonald) confronts tradition, destiny and the fiercest of beasts.
Merida is a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it's too late.
It's being directed by Mark Andrews (Ratatouille and The Incredibles) and Brenda Chapman (The Lion King, Prince Of Egypt).
Source: The Vine
With Wolf Parade behind him, Dan Boeckner now has more time for Handsome Furs, the synth-zapped duo with his writer wife Alexei Perry. Across three albums – 2007’s Plague Park, 2009’s Face Control, and the new Sound Kapital – the Canadian couple layers humid synth melodies and clapping beats while Boeckner lets loose with his distinctive howl. The pair play grinding rock grit against a detached electro cool in a way that’s easily on par with The Kills.
Sound Kapital is all about the band’s far-flung touring and the sights and experiences along the way. The sleeve features photos from Asia and beyond, while Boeckner at one point sings, “When I get back home, I won’t be the same no more.” And on ‘Cheap Music’ he envisions “a thousand lonely kids making noise in a basement” in the same breath as rattling off global destinations. Handsome Furs’ travels have inspired not just their songs but the web TV series Indie Asia for U.S. cable-news giant CNN, which documented their maverick touring.
Below, Boeckner talks about dislocation, synthesisers old and new, the trap of irony and nostalgia, and hopefully returning to Australia around year’s end.
--
I’m really interested in how touring and travelling works its way into the band’s lyrics, especially on the new record.
On this record it entirely informs the songs. Probably if you could break down the lyrical content and the impetus for writing them, 75% would be touring and 25% maybe like Alexei and I’s individual backgrounds and growing up. We really made a conscious decision on this record—and it sounds really simple and stupid—just to write what we know. And what we did for the last two years was tour and play in some pretty different places than people usually do. At least, North American bands usually don’t travel to the places we went to. I don’t know about Australia, because it’s a lot closer to Southeast Asia. But we wanted to write about that, as opposed to writing a gauzy, metaphor-laden fiction and setting it to music. It was a real creative kick for us to go on tour and document the stuff musically and lyrically. And then bring it back and put it together in the studio.
The sleeve photos also have that travelogue feel to them.
Absolutely. Especially a lot of the photos that are Chinese men with tattoos in a giant pool: those are from this waterpark in Beijing that’s in the centre of the city. You can see from the photos that they have these huge, pixelated, wallpaper/billboard things of tropical oasis photos. The whole thing is very artificial, but it’s enormous and it’s in the middle of one of world’s busiest, biggest, most oppressive cities. That just made a huge impression on me. That sums up a big part of my experience in Beijing. I think the juxtaposition is so totally insane that we needed to put it in the record (laughs). How did you start touring these more remote destinations? It really started with the first tour we ever did. The first show Handsome Furs ever played was in Oslo, Norway. That was through a booking agent in Europe I’d become friends with. I told him I had a new project and he said, “Look, I’ll book you a tour in Scandinavia. You won’t go to London or Paris or anything.” That set the tone for the band, basically. On successive tours we poked our way east into Europe and made it all the way to Russia and started going back to those [initial] places. These are viable touring markets, and they’re really interesting places to go. They’re really creatively inspiring. So we just kept doing it.
The parent company of GoDaddy.com, a top registrar of Internet domain names, has been sold to a group of private investment firms for $2.25 billion, a person familiar with the transaction told The Associated Press.
Go Daddy Group Inc.'s sale to KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures comes as the company expects to top $1.1 billion in revenue this year because expanding Internet use has fueled the creation of more websites and the "domains" needed to help find them. Go Daddy announced the sale late Friday. A person close to the transaction, who asked to remain anonymous because of not being authorized to speak publicly, told the AP the sale price.
A fact sheet accompanying the release indicated that Go Daddy's revenue has grown by more than 20 percent in each of the past several years.
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The Go Daddy Group Inc. was founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons, who continues to serve as its CEO. The company, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., manages more than 48 million domain names, and sells other Internet-related technologies.
German conglomerate Bayer CropScience agreed Friday to pay up to $750 million to settle several lawsuits with U.S. farmers who claimed a strain of the company's unapproved genetically modified rice contaminated the food supply and hurt their crop prices.
The litigation goes back to 2006, when Bayer disclosed that an experimental strain of genetically altered rice was found in U.S. food supplies. No human health problems have been associated with the contamination, but that wasn't known at the time.
"Back in 2006, this rice had not been approved for human consumption," said Don Downing, a St. Louis-based attorney who represents some of the farmers who sued.
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The fear that the rice was unsafe, along with the notion that genetically altered rice was somehow impure, quashed sales in major markets including the European Union, which has tight restrictions on genetically modified crops.
So, farmers from Arkansas, which produces about half of the nation's rice, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas, sued Bayer, saying the accident closed off critical export markets and caused the price of rice to drop.
The settlement reached Friday will extend to all U.S. farmers who planted long-grain rice between 2006 and 2010.
Downing, who has represented farmers in the case since 2006, said the agreement was likely the largest settlement in the history of genetically altered crops.
"I don't think there's any settlement involving genetically modified seed that approaches the size of this," he said.
Rice growers have between 90 and 150 days to submit their claims, depending on which types of compensation they're seeking. But, farmers who represent 85 percent of the average acres planted from 2006 to 2009 don't sign up, Bayer can walk away.
"Although Bayer CropScience believes it acted responsibly in the handling of its biotech rice, the company considers it important to resolve the litigation so that it can move forward focused on its fundamental mission of providing innovative solutions to modern agriculture," Bayer spokesman Greg Coffey said in a written statement.
If a farmer planted 500 acres of rice for every year from 2006 to 2010, he'd collect $155,000 at $310 per acre. Plus, farmers can collect more money if the contaminated rice forced them to plant another crop like wheat or soybeans that didn't pay as well.
The settlement applies to long-grain rice, the kind used in pilaf or typically mixed with beans. It doesn't affect farmers who planted medium-grain rice, which is often used in sushi, or short-grain rice, which is often used to make cereal.
Genetically modified or altered rice is, as Downing put it, "not the way God made it."
Some of the farmers who sued have no problem eating genetically modified rice, but whether its rice or any other crop, genetically modified food doesn't sit well with some consumers, especially overseas.
"We may think it's all right to eat genetically modified rice ... but the customer's always right," Downing said.
___
Agribusiness Writer Christopher Leonard contributed to this report from St. Louis.
___
Jeannie Nuss can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jeannienuss
Source: The Age
By Emil Protalinski, TechSpot.com
Published: July 1, 2011, 5:41 PM EST
With IE9, Firefox 5, and Chrome 12 all out, the second browser war is only getting fiercer. Let's take a look at the market share numbers for last month.
Between May and June, Internet Explorer dropped 0.59 percentage points, a bit less than the previous month. Firefox, meanwhile, dipped 0.04 percentage points, less than it gained last month. Chrome increased 0.59 percentage points, making it last month's biggest winner. Safari was up 0.20 percentage points. Opera lost 0.14 percentage points.
At 53.68 percent, Internet Explorer has once again hit a new low. IE9, the latest and greatest from Microsoft, last month captured 5.63 percent of the market (up by 1.44 percent percentage points). IE8 lost 1.21 percentage points, but it's still the world's most popular browser. IE7 fell 0.46 percentage points and IE6 fell just 0.18 percentage points. We're hoping that IE6 will fall below the 10 percent mark next month.
At 21.67 percent, Firefox is still below the peak it reached last year (24.72 percent). It appears that Firefox 4 and Firefox 5 are still not helping Mozilla regain overall market share. This is despite the fact that Firefox 4 last month captured a whopping 10.46 percent of the market (up by 0.38 percentage points) and Firefox 5 grabbed 2.05 percent (the latest version came out towards the end of June). Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 3.5 together lost 2.34 percentage points.
At 13.11 percent, Chrome has hit a new high. The browser's built-in updating system is working wonders for Google. Chrome 12 managed to capture 7.32 percent (up by 7.32 percentage points). Chrome 11 meanwhile fell 3.93 percentage points and Chrome 10 fell 0.58 percentage points.
The data is courtesy of Net Applications, which looks at 160 million visitors per month. As you can see above, the situation at TechSpot is slightly different: Firefox is first, IE is second, Chrome is third, Safari is fourth, and Opera is fifth. The only browsers to gain share at TechSpot between May and June were Chrome and Safari.
Rival airlines are coming to the rescue of stranded Tiger Airways passengers, though travellers will still have to fork out for new flights.
Jetstar and Virgin Australia have put on extra flights while Qantas is also considering boosting its capacity as tens of thousands of Australians head away for the school holidays.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has grounded all Tiger's domestic flights for a week, affecting about 35,000 passengers.
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Other airlines were trying to accommodate Tiger passengers on existing flights while also putting on extra services.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said Jetstar would put on additional services and Qantas would add extra capacity if there was sufficient demand.
Qantas' low-cost offshoot Jetstar added extra flights on Saturday between Melbourne and the Gold Coast, Sydney and the Gold Coast, and Sydney and the Sunshine Coast.
Virgin Australia said it will put on additional flights during the coming week.
All three airlines are offering special fares to passengers with cancelled Tiger flights.
Tiger says customers with bookings from now until 6am on Saturday July 9 will be offered a credit for deferred travel with it or a full refund.
Source: The Age
Queensland winger Jharal Yow Yeh knows Wednesday night's State of Origin decider will be the biggest game of his life and he's determined to prove he's worthy of a Maroons jersey for years to come.
NSW are threatening to end the Maroons' magical run and like Queensland have closed shop for the weekend to get into Origin mode a little earlier than usual ahead of the Suncorp Stadium clash.
"I'm a little nervous but also very excited," said the 21-year-old flyer who made his Test debut earlier this year against the Kiwis.
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"It'll be the biggest game of my career so far.
"I don't want to give this jumper up. I want to show Mal I'm meant to be there for a long time."
After the jubilation of a dream try-scoring debut for Queensland at Suncorp Stadium in game one, Yow Yeh's Origin dream experienced a few nightmare moments in Sydney when NSW levelled the series.
A momentary communication breakdown with fullback Billy Slater was enough to open the door for NSW utility Luke Lewis to score a crucial try.
"We've talked about that this week and with the noise from the crowd you can't always hear each other so we're just going to shut the play down if it happens again, not worry about trying to make a big play," he said.
Yow Yeh said talk out of the Blues camp they could go even more mobile with Glenn Stewart would put more onus on him and Darius Boyd to take some dummy half hit ups when their big forwards need a breather.
"The big boys can get a bit tired in Origin and there's been a couple of holes in the middle so when our forwards are down and out the backs have to roll up their sleeves and help them out.
"We've got a good back three who are quick off the mark," he said.
Yow Yeh, who played the first two Origin games outside Melbourne rookie Dane Nielsen, said having Brisbane team mate Justin Hodges back on the right side gave him confidence.
"Nothing against Danger (Nielsen) he's a great footy player and I like playing with him but the role the boys play week in and week out at the Broncos makes it a bit easier for me because we know each other so well," said Yow Yeh.
Suncorp Stadium has been a lucky ground for the young Bronco flyer but he knows the massive Maroon-eyed crowd can only do so much from the stands.
But he is bracing himself for an emotion-filled encounter on Wednesday night as he plays a part in Darren Lockyer's final Origin.
"I know the whole of Queensland will be behind us and even though Locky says he doesn't want it done for him, deep down inside the boys want to do it for him," he said.
"I know I want to send him off the way he deserves to be sent off as a legend.
"I hope it's a special night because it's going to be something I will remember for the rest of my life."
Queensland had two closed training sessions on the Sunshine Coast with three TV camera crews forced to leaved Saturday's hit out on orders from coach Mal Meninga.
Source: The Age
Thailand's rival political camps have launched a last-minute appeal for votes on the eve of a hard-fought election seen as crucial to the future of the kingdom after years of often bloody unrest.
About 170,000 police are to be deployed to protect polling stations for the tense vote, which comes little more than a year after Bangkok was rocked by its worst civil violence in decades.
Polls show the main opposition Puea Thai Party, allied to fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, enjoying a lead over current leader Abhisit Vejjajiva's ruling Democrats ahead of Sunday's election.
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The two main parties were wrapping up their campaigns on Saturday with election convoys through central Bangkok. Many voters were leaving the city to return to their hometowns to cast ballots.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives in Dubai to escape a jail term for corruption, picked his youngest sister to run in his place for prime minister in a move that has reinvigorated the opposition.
Many think Thaksin will continue to call the shots if his party wins the vote, and its campaign slogan -- "Thaksin thinks, Puea Thai does" -- appears to leave little doubt.
Yingluck Shinawatra, tipped to become Thailand's first female prime minister, is a political novice widely seen as the political proxy of her older brother, who describes his sibling as his "clone".
"Please give a chance to this woman to serve the country," Yingluck told a huge crowd late Friday at a campaign rally at a Bangkok stadium. "Please give a chance to this woman to bring reconciliation back to this country."
Her brother is still adored by many rural and working class voters for his populist policies such as cheap healthcare while in power, but is reviled by the ruling elite who see him as corrupt and a threat to the revered monarchy.
"As long as Thaksin thinks, Puea Thai has to do it -- to find ways to give Thaksin back his seized 46 billion baht ($A1.4 billion)," Abhisit told his own campaign rally late on Friday.
"The country cannot move forward. Puea Thai does everything for one person," added Abhisit, who has urged voters "to get rid of the poison of Thaksin."
Last year Thailand's Supreme Court confiscated more than half of the former telecoms tycoon's wealth, after ruling he abused his power while in office.
Parties linked to Thaksin, the former owner of Manchester City football club, have won the most seats in the past four elections, but the courts reversed the results of the last two polls, angering his supporters.
The ex-premier remains a hugely divisive figure in Thailand, where he faces a raft of criminal charges including terrorism -- an accusation linked to mass opposition protests by his "Red Shirt" supporters last year.
More than 90 people, mostly civilians, died in a series of clashes between the mostly unarmed demonstrators and soldiers firing live rounds.
The opposition has proposed an amnesty for convicted politicians if it wins the election -- a move apparently aimed at bringing Thaksin home.
But many doubt the Bangkok-based elite in government, military and palace circles would allow him to return a free man.
The royals' staunch military backers loom large over all elections in a country that has seen 18 actual or attempted coups since the monarchy ceded absolute power in 1932 in favour of a parliamentary system.
Thailand's Western allies are pressing the nation to allow democracy to run its course. US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Friday called on Thailand to ensure the vote is "free and fair."
Source: The Age
Eleven members of an Afghan family were killed by a roadside bomb that struck their minibus in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.
The group - five men, four women and two children - were thought to be Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan through the volatile, remote province of Zabul.
The area borders Pakistan, where militants who strike in Afghanistan are known to have hideouts.
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"Eleven civilians were killed after an IED (improvised explosive device) hit their vehicle today at 7.50 am (1320 AEST)," deputy provincial governor Mohammad Jaan Rasulyar told AFP.
"They were en route to Ghazni province from Pakistan through Zabul's border area."
Roadside bombs planted by Taliban-led militants, who have been waging an insurgency against foreign forces for nearly 10 years, are a frequent cause of casualties among civilians, who are the biggest victims of the war in Afghanistan.
The United Nations said that 2,777 people were killed last year, the highest total since the war started in 2001.
The UN also said last month that the number of security incidents in Afghanistan this year since March was 51 per cent higher than in the same period last year. Most attacks involved IEDs or armed clashes, it added.
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, four people were killed on Friday by twin landmine blasts in Maruf district of volatile Kandahar province, one of the main focus points of the huge foreign forces' effort in Afghanistan.
"The first took place at around 9pm (0330 AEST) killing two civilians who were crossing into a garden," said provincial police chief General Abdul Razaq.
"After a crowd of people gathered to collect the bodies from the first blast, the second explosion took place, killing another two."
The latest civilian deaths are a reminder of the depth of the task facing the Afghan government as it takes increasing responsibility for security following the announcement of the first wave of foreign troop withdrawals.
There are around 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, some 99,000 of them from the United States.
Limited withdrawals are due to start this month and US President Barack Obama has said that 10,000 US troops will leave this year.
All foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014 but the international community stresses it wants a long-term relationship with Afghanistan to support the war-torn, poverty-hit country beyond that.
Source: The Age
A few dozen members of Cuba's small but growing Twitter community have met in real space for the first time. They got to put unfamiliar faces with familiar user names, and they commiserated about the woeful Internet access on an island that has the second-worst Web connectivity rate in the world.
Gathering at a downtown Havana pavilion Friday, Cuba's Twitterati wrote their online handles on name tags emblazoned with the Cuban flag and the hash tag used to organize the event, TwittHab. One by one they introduced themselves, told of their history with social media and compared numbers of followers.
"Many of us didn't know each other. This is about stepping out from behind the 'at' symbol," said "alondraM," who was only identifying herself by her username.
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Next to her, "cuba1er.plan," a.k.a. Alejandro Cruz, said Cubans like him are increasingly using social media to share interests and information.
Their ranks are still relatively sparse because Cuba lags far behind the rest of the world in connectivity, besting only the Indian Ocean island chain of Mayotte, according to a report by the consulting firm Akamai Technologies Inc.
The decades-old U.S. economic embargo has left Cuba without a hardwired connection to the rest of the world, and the island relies on slow, costly satellite service. The Twitter users expressed hope things will soon speed up now that an undersea fiber-optic cable to Venezuela has arrived in Cuba. It could go online this month.
For now, plodding dial-up is about the only option _ and even those accounts have historically been hard to get and prohibitively expensive for most Cubans. The government says it must use its limited bandwidth carefully and gives priority to usage with what it deems a social purpose.
Cuba's National Statistics Office reported last year that just 2.9 percent of islanders said they had direct Internet access, most through their schools and workplaces, though that number doesn't reflect the black market sale of minutes on dial-up accounts.
The real figure is more likely between 5 percent and 10 percent, said Ted Henken, a professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Baruch College in New York who has traveled to Cuba frequently and is writing a book on social media and civil society on the island.
It all creates unique challenges for tweeters in Cuba. For one thing, their local audience is relatively small. Also, cost and availability limit how much time they can spend connected. And while Twitter is popular in other nations among smartphone-toting technophiles, limitations here mean most Twitter interaction happens on computers.
When users here want to send a tweet from the field, they send a cellphone text message to an overseas number that converts and posts it, said Mario Leonart, a 36-year-old from Villa Clara known online as "maritovoz."
It's expensive: $4 for the initial setup, plus $1 per tweet. Send 20 tweets and you've already equaled Cuba's average official monthly salary.
Fremantle celebrated skipper Matthew Pavlich's 250-game AFL milestone with a win, shaking off a dogged Gold Coast to prevail by 50 points at a wet Patersons Stadium on Saturday.
The Dockers trailed by three points at half-time but kicked 10 goals to two in the second half to cruise to the 17.10 (112) to 9.8 (62) victory.
Pavlich was influential early and finished with three goals from 25 possessions, but ruckman Jonathon Griffin (26 disposals, 30 hit-outs, two goals) was the Dockers' best in a magnificent performance in place of injured big man Aaron Sandilands.
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Stephen Hill, Hayden Ballantyne (three goals), Greg Broughton (32 disposals) and Tendai Mzungu (three goals) were also important contributors, especially in Fremantle's dominant third quarter, while Luke McPharlin and Alex Silvagni were solid in defence.
Gold Coast captain Gary Ablett was best afield in a losing cause with 34 possessions, 14 tackles and three goals, while defender Nathan Bock was at his no-nonsense best.
The Suns will be sweating on injuries to Sam Day, who locked up his knee while taking a sliding mark, and ruckman Zac Smith, who was left nursing a sore head following a heavy but fair bump from Alex Silvagni.
Fremantle will enter next week's bye with an 8-6 record, but their finals credentials will go on the line over the next five games when they face Sydney (away), West Coast, Hawthorn (home), St Kilda (away) ad Carlton (home).
"It (the milestone) is a nice moment but more important we're 8-6 heading into the bye," Pavlich said.
Gold Coast made the most of their chances in a scrappy opening term to take a five-point lead into the first change, but an arm injury to Bock early in the second quarter helped swing momentum Fremantle's way.
Pavlich booted three goals within the space of five minutes while Bock was off the field receiving treatment, helping the Dockers establish a handy 13-point advantage.
But Bock's return to the fray halted thedamage as Gold Coast booted three of the next four goals to take a three-point lead into half-time.
Ablett had 18 possessions, nine tackles and two goals to his name by half-time, but Griffin was just as prominent for the Dockers with 18 disposals, 16 hit-outs and two goals.
Gold Coast sub Brandon Matera came on just before halftime and took less than a minute to make his presence felt, snapping a goal to give the Suns the lead.
But with the game on the line in the third quarter, Fremantle goalsneak Ballantyne stepped up to the plate, booting two goals for the term and setting up a number of others to help take the game away from the visitors.
Mzungu's move forward also paid dividends with a couple of goals, while Hill's work in the midfield broke the game open as the Dockers headed to the final change with a 27-point lead.
The Dockers were never challenged in the final term, kicking four goals to one in front of a poor crowd of just 28,646.
Source: The Age
The Immigration Department has confirmed a detainee harmed himself earlier on Saturday at the Northern Immigration Detention Facility in Darwin.
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration said the man was given immediate medical treatment and then transferred to Darwin hospital.
"Health services and mental health support are available to all people in immigration detention no matter where they are," he said.
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The spokesman said details of the detainee's self harm, the reasons or his nationality could not be disclosed.
He denied reports that detainees were engaged in a mass hunger strike or that five had sewn their lips together.
"Both of those claims are untrue," he said. "Nobody has sewn their lips together.
"There were two detainees at that centre who had missed meals by choice."
Source: The Age
Leg-spinner Danish Kaneria on Saturday filed a court petition against the Pakistan Cricket Board for not allowing him to resume his international career despite being cleared in a spot-fixing case.
The 30-year-old has not been allowed to play for his country because an integrity committee of the PCB is not satisfied by the clearance from Essex, his county team in England.
Kaneria and fellow Essex bowler Mervyn Westfield were arrested last year on charges of spot-fixing during a Pro40 match against Durham. Kaneria was later released without being charged but Westfield faces criminal proceedings.
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Kaneria featured in Pakistan's Test series against England last year but has not been selected since on the grounds of not being cleared by the PCB committee.
Kaneria said he filed the case as a last resort.
"I have given every document to the PCB but they are not clearing me. I have committed no crime and that's why Essex police and my county have cleared me in that spot-fixing case," Kaneria said.
"My priority is to play for Pakistan but I don't know for what crime I am being punished by the PCB. Every time they announce a squad and every time they give contracts to players they say Kaneria is not cleared."
The wily leg-spinner has taken 261 wickets in 61 Tests, and 15 in 18 one-day internationals.
"Our point of view is that when the Essex police, Essex county and International Cricket Council have cleared Kaneria then why is PCB not clearing him, their demands have been unreasonable," said Kaneria's lawyer Farogh Naseem.
"It's up to the PCB to select him or not as player, but when there is nothing against Kaneria in that spot-fixing case, why he is not being cleared?"
Source: The Age
Ex-Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic is back before a UN war crimes court on Monday, where he will again be asked to plead to charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
The man known as the "Butcher of Bosnia" was first hauled before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague on June 3, where he chose not to plead to what he called 11 "obnoxious" charges.
The court's regulations then gave Mladic a month before a second appearance where Dutch Judge Alphons Orie will again put the question to him.
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"If he refuses, the judge will enter a plea of not guilty on his behalf," ICTY spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic told AFP on Friday.
Also at Mladic's second appearance, Judge Orie will have the chance to question Mladic on the conditions under which he is being held at a nearby UN detention centre and the preparations made by his defence team, Jelacic said.
"He has submitted a list of preferences which is under review," she added, with him represented by a court-appointed lawyer at his first appearance.
Mladic, 69, faced down ICTY judges following his arrest on May 26 in northeastern Serbia after 16 years on the run. Five days later one of Europe's most wanted men was transferred to The Hague by plane.
Once a strapping general in combat fatigues, a visibly older Mladic dressed in civilian clothes, told the court he was "gravely ill" and needed time to study the "monstrous words" in the indictment before entering a plea.
But his own words were no less defiant.
"I am General Ratko Mladic," he told the three-judge bench. "I defended my country and my people," he said after giving judges a left-handed salute.
Accused of committing atrocities during Bosnia's 92-95 war that killed 100,000 people, Mladic faces charges of masterminding the Srebrenica massacre -- Europe's worst mass killing since World War II -- and the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 died.
His lawyers previously said he was treated for cancer two years ago while evading arrest and they also claimed he had suffered three strokes and two heart attacks, but ICTY officials said there was currently no indication that his health would impact the trial.
It could, however, take months to get under way and is likely to last for several years.
Mladic's one-time mentor Slobodan Milosevic died in The Hague four years into his own genocide trial in 2006 after a heart attack.
His former political chief, Radovan Karadzic has been conducting his own defence in his war crimes trial that started in October 2009.
Both Mladic and Karadzic face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Source: The Age
The head of Bangladesh's leading mobile phone company says the burgeoning industry's growth could be jeopardized if the government moves ahead with a proposed license renewal charge.
The country is due to renew its 15-year second-generation licenses for the country's four mobile operators later this year.
Tore Johnsen said in an interview Thursday the company will have to pay more than the other three companies for the same frequencies used to provide services. He says his company would get punished for being the biggest in terms of market share and revenues.
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Johnsen calls the proposal "unfair" and "illegal". The government says it is looking into the objections.
The sector is booming in Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people.
Setting the record straight ... Emma Watson quashes love life rumours.
Emma Watson fell for the bad boy on the set of the Harry Potter movies - she admits she had a huge crush on Tom Felton, the actor behind the villainous Draco Malfoy.
The British star wrapped up work on the decade-long franchise earlier this year, and during her time filming the movies, Watson was repeatedly linked to her lead co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint.
But the actress told Seventeen magazine it was actually Malfoy star Felton who caught her attention on set.
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Dark horse ... Emma Watson tells how she fell for Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton, far right.
"For the first two movies, I had a huge crush on Tom Felton. He was my first crush. He totally knows. We talked about it. We still laugh about it. We are really good friends now, and that's cool."
Surprise admission ... Jeremy Jackson says he and Michelle Williams were secret lovers.
Former child star Jeremy Jackson has named Blue Valentine actress Michelle Williams as his surprise first love in a new radio interview. The actor, who played Hobie Buchannon on the hit beach-based soapie Baywatch, met Williams when she was cast in a handful of episodes of the program - and they secretly dated for two years. He revealed all about the romance on shock jock Howard Stern's satellite radio show. "We messed around. She was, kind of like, my first crush, puppy dog love ... (She was) my secret rendezvous girlfriend," Jackson says.
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Hidden past ... Michelle Williams.
And he hints at the fact he lost his virginity to the actress. "I was learning the ropes, man. If you want to make an omelet, you've got to break some eggs, right?" Baywatch was once the world's most watched television show with over one billion weekly viewers. But since leaving the program - due to a severe drug addiction - Jackson has struggled to advance his career. He currently appears as himself on US reality television show Celebrity Rehab With Dr Drew. Williams, meanwhile, went on to date Heath Ledger, with whom she had a daughter Matilda. Heath Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose in 2008. Williams subsequently had a relationship with director Spike Jonze. WENN and smh.com.au
Move over, pole-dancing, kettlebells and Zumba. Drumstick-smashing is the latest rage to hit the Hollywood exercise circuit.
Offering a workout similar to Pilates or boot camp, but without the serenity of a yoga studio or the bark of a drill instructor, the high-volume group fitness class, called Pound, was devised by Cristina Peerenboom, 25, and Kirsten Potenza, 26, who promote it as a fun and energetic alternative to the usual sweat-inducing routines.
Using weighted drumsticks or wooden ones provided in the class, members smack the ground repeatedly to a fast-paced soundtrack of hip-hop and rock songs. Once participants are panting, Peerenboom compliments their vigour and makes occasional lewd jokes.
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To beat kilo creep ... try Pound for a vigorous workout to a fast-paced soundtrack.
The two fit, bubbly instructors say they came up with the idea last year at a party attended by rock royalty in the Hollywood Hills. Matt Sorum, former drummer for the rock group Guns N' Roses, had just wrapped up a set on the drums at the rowdy party when the women approached the kit. Both had played drums in the admittedly nerdy setting of school bands and both had been athletes most of their lives. That night, the two worlds collided.
"We were drumming without a drum stool to accompany the kit and we were squatting over it and realised that the movement of the arms was acting to throw the entire body off and in order to counteract that, we were having to squeeze ... our core muscles," Peerenboom said.
From there, Peerenboom's background as a dancer and choreographer helped piece together a sequence of drumming movements that take the body through a broad range of motion.
A typical progression could have drummers standing with legs spread, before moving their torsos in a wide arc, bending to pound the ground next to one foot, standing to smack the sticks together overhead to the beat and then bending to pummel the ground next to the other foot, pivoting back and forth.
Another move focuses on abs and back muscles, with pounders sitting on the ground with legs raised, leaning back to form their bodies in a V-shape. They drum the floor alongside their bodies in a move similar to a core Pilates exercise, which requires people to hold the position while swatting their hands up and down 100 times.
American College of Sports Medicine spokesman Mike Bracko praised the Pound fitness model, saying "anytime you add music, especially if it's up-tempo music, people just have a tendency to go with the beat of the music" and work harder than they might without it.
"Bilateral movements like drumming, with left hand up while right hand is down, in a boat or a lunge position would certainly challenge the core muscles," he added.
The class is slated to roll out to nine Equinox gyms across Southern California during the midyear warm season and to New York and other locations nationwide in the next year.
After holding classes at a few private studios in January, Pound classes started up at Crunch Fitness in West Hollywood in March. The gym's new offerings are frequently rolled out to members interested in keeping up with the latest trends in exercise.
Every few months, the chain updates or replaces yesteryear's fitness fads, from the spandex-wearing aerobics of Olivia Newton-John to kickboxing classes, with fresh offerings like Afro-Brazilian dance, striptease classes and Skatergie, a workout that mimics movements in ice skating. Dozens of people filled the Pound class to capacity recently.
Acid test ... lemon whitens teeth but damages the enamel.
Heard enough old wives' tales to fill a book? Kate Waterhouse separates beauty facts from fiction.
1. Rubbing lemon on your teeth will make them whiter. TRUE
This is true but it comes at a price. Cosmetic and implant dentist Dr David Dunn says the use of lemon on your teeth will make them look brighter and whiter but the citric acid in lemons wears away enamel. ''It will give you minimal benefit but it's highly destructive to the tooth enamel due to the high acid content,'' he says.
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2. Toothpaste makes pimples disappear. TRUE
A nasty zit can be calmed by a dab of toothpaste but dermatologist Dr JoAnn See says don't expect long-lasting results. ''It will dry your pimples out because toothpaste is an anti-inflammatory agent,'' she says. ''It can reduce the redness if left on overnight and the results are usually evident within 24 hours. But it's not designed to stay on your face as a cream; it's supposed to be washed off, even on your teeth.''
3. The best way to grow your hair is to have frequent haircuts. FALSE
Your hair will grow at the same rate with or without a haircut. Hairdresser to the stars Jaye Edwards says: ''Having a lot of haircuts doesn't make your hair grow longer but it will promote healthier hair.'' Regular haircuts help improve the texture of your hair and get rid of pesky split ends.
4. Plucking grey hairs gives you more of them. FALSE
Tweezing won't give you any more grey hairs but it might make the hair more noticeable. ''Grey hairs will grow back and they will be more noticeable because it will be shorter in length than the rest of your hair,'' Edwards says.
5. Chlorine turns hair green. TRUE
Blondes beware, because this applies to you. It is actually copper residue in swimming pools, not chlorine, that turns hair green. ''Swimming in chlorine does make your hair go green and lighter hair is more prone as it's easier to grab the green and that's why it's important to shampoo and condition your hair every time you swim,'' Edwards says.
6. Cucumber relieves puffy eyes. TRUE
Forget spending a fortune on expensive eye cream as this actually does work. Sydney make-up artist Anya Fransman says turning to the vegie patch can work wonders. ''Cold cucumber slices placed over the eyes can help to alleviate puffiness simply because the temperature helps to constrict blood vessels, aiding in slowing down fluid retention,'' she says.
7. Shaved leg hair grows back thicker and darker. TRUE
Your genes determine how many hairs your body has but Melanie Corlis, from Bronzalicious, says constant waxing will make the hair finer. ''We recommend waxing as it removes the hair from the root and regular waxing will cause the hair to become finer and not as dark.''
8. Waxing your eyebrows makes skin sag. FALSE
If you find sagging around your eyes, it's from the ageing process, not waxing. ''The waxing is only working on the superficial layer of the skin, not the muscle,'' Corlis says.
9. Wearing nail polish turns your nails yellow. TRUE
Nail polish contains pigment that can stain the nails, with darker tones the worst offenders. One way to avoid this is to apply a clear base coat before you apply colour to act as a barrier. ''If nail polish is left on for too long, it can stain,'' Corlis says. ''We recommend to always use a base coat to prevent this happening as it protects the nail.''
10. Washing your face with soap is bad for your skin. TRUE
Not only can soap strip away all the natural good oils and sebum that keep your skin healthy but it can disrupt the skin's pH balance. ''Instead, choose a soap-free, gentle facial cleanser suitable for your skin type, making sure you use it morning and night, massaging it into the skin for up to 30 seconds,'' Fransman says.
Essential ingredients ... what do you never the leave the house without?
Seventy-six per cent of American women surveyed carry makeup or skincare products in their purse, or what we call a handbag, according to GoodWeekend. This is surprising. Given the amount of makeup American women seem to wear I would have thought the figure would have been closer to 90 per cent. And I suspect it is the same here in Australia too. What woman doesn't carry at least a lipstick or handcream?
I used to carry practically a whole makeup bag within my handbag when I was at the office fulltime. My baggage was enormous. I think it was because of all those strikingly well-lit mirrors in the Ladies. Each stray flake of mascara, faded skerrick of lipstick or hair out of place was magnified and highlighted on every trip to the loo. Elsewhere, I wouldn't know or care how my face was travelling. Well, not too much... In my more recent role as joint-stay-at-home parent slash jobbing journalist slash writer I still carry around a bit of stuff when I leave the house. Hmmm. Let me take a look.
Today I am in the office in the big city and here in my red makeup purse (MAC) is the following:
Lipstick (Lancome)
Powder compact (MAC)
Stick concealer (Shiseido)
Mini sample sunscreen (Ego SunSense)
Cotton Tips (fluffified)
Toothpicks (individually wrapped)
That's not too extreme for a beauty writer, is it? I've been known to also carry mattifying papers, tiny perfume vials, cuticle oil and lip balm. I would never carry blusher, which was what one celebrity makeup artist told me was a ''purse must-have''. Of all the things that need refreshing throughout my day, cheek colour is not one of them.
Now it is your turn. Dig out your makeup purse. Open it and empty contents on to table. Do not edit. Please go to ''comments'' below, do as you're told to get through and then list all the makeup and skincare you're carrying in your handbag today to share with us. Here is your ''Oroton bag'' moment - a voyeuristic opportunity for the rest of us.
The Reserve Bank scandal. 
Mohamad Daud Dol Moin. 
Setting the record straight ... Emma Watson quashes love life rumours. 
Dark horse ... Emma Watson tells how she fell for Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton, far right. 
Hidden past ... Michelle Williams. 
To beat kilo creep ... try Pound for a vigorous workout to a fast-paced soundtrack. 
Acid test ... lemon whitens teeth but damages the enamel. 
Essential ingredients ... what do you never the leave the house without?