Australia: Admit your sins to God, priest tells gay judge

Glad to see as ever that somethings remain static. In New Zealand, a priest has advised one of the High Court judges, who happens to be gay, that he needs to repent his sins or face the wrath of God. Well, ya know he is a judge, so far I would imagine he is doing quiet well without the wrath of God but anyway, here's the story.

Australia: Admit your sins to God, priest tells gay judge

A senior minister of a Sydney Anglican parish has made an extraordinary attack on Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby, warning he would face the wrath of God if he remained unrepentant as a gay man.

The rector of St Stephen's Church in Bellevue Hill, the Reverend Richard Lane, denounced the judge for calling himself a Christian Anglican while living in an openly gay relationship and warned as a "messenger, watchman and steward of the Lord in the Anglican Church of Australia", he faced God's judgment.

To call himself a Christian Anglican was a "perversion of truth" and to continue to do so without changing his lifestyle would brand him, like Herod, a "coward, a liar, a deceiver" and a "lawless one".

"I appeal to you to cast yourself on the mercy of Jesus … That is admit your sin, confess your wrongdoing and turn in humble repentance to the Lord Jesus, who alone can forgive you," Mr Lane said.

Via Stuff.co.nz

Happy Australia Day!

For those of you of an Australian persuasion, Happy Australia Day!

Sight restored in time for Christmas

Around 400 people in Fiji's Ovalau have just received, thanks to a New Zealand charity, their best ever Christmas present - their sight has been restored after a decade.

"The people of Ovalau have no eye services on their island and have been waiting for a surgical eye team for a long time," says ophthalmologist John Szetu who headed up a team of Fred Hollows Foundation NZ trained eye professionals.

"To finally have a team visit the island is a significant milestone and the perfect Christmas gift."

He said they were able to help a large proportion of the people of Ovalau.

"However, there is still more to be done and I hope to return there next year."

A Solomon Islander, Dr Szetu, was supported by a team eye care nurses, which included individuals from Niue, Samoa and the Solomons, as well as Fiji.

The team carried out over 40 sight-saving operations, just in time for Christmas, as well as treating a large number of potentially blinding eye infections and providing low cost spectacles to the community.

Cataract blindness is the most prevalent cause of blindness in the Pacific, yet sight can be instantly restored in a straightforward operation that takes roughly 20 minutes and can cost as little as $25 in some countries.

Carmel Williams of The Fred Hollows Foundation NZ says that in order to reduce blindness in the Pacific, it is vital that more Pacific eye care professionals are trained to carry out sight restoring cataract surgery, and to service the region's need for basic eye care.

"The Pacific region, including Fiji, has a severe shortage of Pacific eye care workers," says Ms Williams.

"Over 80,000 people are needlessly blind in the Pacific Islands region, and in Fiji alone there is a backlog of more than 6,000 cases needing surgery. This number will continue to grow by roughly 800 new cases each year, unless we have more eye doctors and eye nurses available, in country, to provide urgently required eye care education and eye care services," she said.

Source: Stuff.co.nz,/a>

Former Aussie PM Howard loses constituency seat

The Labour Party candidate who ousted former Australian Prime Minister John Howard from his Sydney constituency after 33 years formally declared victory today.

Howard's conservative coalition lost its 11-year grip on power last Saturday with a dramatic nationwide swing towards the centre-left Labour Party led by Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd.

After the votes rolled in, Howard was forced to concede that he had lost not only the leadership of the country, but said it also looked "very unlikely" he would be returned to represent his home electorate of Bennelong.For a week, Howard trailed his rival Labour candidate Maxine McKew by a narrow margin, with neither side willing to claim victory or concede defeat.

But with the Australian Electoral Commission formally declaring the seat for Labour and a majority of postal and absentee votes counted today, McKew finally made the call.

"One week after the polls opened I can now say that … we are comfortably ahead," McKew told reporters at a school in the constituency. "I can formally say that Bennelong is now a Labour seat for the first time."

The result is a measure of the strength of the dissatisfaction with Howard, Australia's second-longest service leader, who had been the Member for Bennelong since 1974.

He becomes only the second sitting prime minister to be kicked out of parliament, after Stanley Bruce.

Source:breakingnews.ie

Asimo, the world's most advanced humanoid robot, can't drive his own car yet, but he is helping manufacturers make vehicles safer.

Asimo, the world's most advanced humanoid robot, can't drive his own car yet, but he is helping manufacturers make vehicles safer.

Twenty-one years of technology have allowed the all-seeing, all-hearing and sometimes-dancing Asimo to evolve from a disembodied set of legs that took up to 20 seconds to pace a single step into a robot that can slalom through road cones and run at 6 kmh.

The latest version of the strong Asimo robot is touring Australia and will be in Sydney until December 2.

Its engineering achievements have required scientists for the car maker Honda, the company behind Asimo, to master the skills that govern locomotion, such as how humans shift their weight as they walk. This technology has subsequently been adapted to help prevent vehicles from swerving, according to Hongsiri Suesattabongkot, a Honda engineer and former robotics student at the University of NSW.

The mechanical midget, which at 1.3 metres tall would barely be able to peer over a steering wheel, has also been responsible for a technology that warns drivers about impending collisions.

Source & Contd: Stuff.co.nz

Did ya see what she just did

So you are working at a show. You see people posing on the red carpet for pictures for the press for the big event. There are hundreds of other people running around backstage, front house, catering etc etc but you have one job and one job only to check and make sure that those on the red carpet have a wrist band because that is the only way that anybody is getting past you. Right? Well unless your Kylie Minogue, who is a law unto herself & rightly so. *bows down to her ladyship*



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Kylie embarrassed over awards show blunder

Kylie Minogue was left red-faced at the Q Awards after she was refused entry because staff didn't recognise her.

The superstar singer, who scooped The Q Idol award at the prestigious ceremony, happily posed for photographs with Kaiser Chiefs singer Ricky Wilson as she entered London's Grosvenor House Hotel before attempting to make her way inside.

However, organisers called Kylie back to the front desk telling her she couldn't enter without a wristband.

The bemused star began to make her way back to the desk, asking: "Sorry, do I need a wristband?"

However, Ricky quickly came to the star's aid telling the fussy staff: "She' s Kylie Minogue, she doesn't need a wristband!"

Source; www.stuff.co.nz

A tribute to my Big Sister.

When Sally got stabbed earlier in the year & I saw the clip I cried coz the b*sts didnt say whether or not she was going to be ok again. It would have been a perfect exit for her then. However, seeings as how that as happened, the begs the question what exit will sally get & more importantly will she be coming back in later years if the character is not killed off.

However I am sorry to see her go, Sally was like my big sister that I never had. I think most of us grew up with her from the age of 7 until now. Her life was ours and most of it was pleasurable. [:-)]


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Kate Ritchie won the 2007 Gold Logie. (Getty Images: Patrick Riviere)

After two decades playing Sally Fletcher on soap opera Home and Away, actress Kate Ritchie has announced she is quitting the show.

"I have been blessed with a job that I have loved for the past 20 years and I wouldn't take back one moment of my time on Home and Away, but I feel that it is time for change," she said in a statement.

"My decision to leave the show has not been made lightly and despite being sad to say goodbye I am excitedly looking forward to what will be the next chapter of my life."

Ritchie has been a permanent cast member of Home and Away since 1988. She was just 10 when the pilot went to air.

In 2006, Ritchie won the Silver Logie for Most Popular Actress.

This year she won the Gold Logie.

Ritchie has told Channel Seven's Sunrise program that she will continue working on Home and Away until the end of the year.

She is expected to film her final scenes in December.

Seven's director of programming and production, Tim Worner, says the network is excited for Ritchie.

"Seven is very proud of all that Kate has achieved in her time with us," he said.

"It's been an amazing ride and it's been a great joy to see her grow as a performer and a person over that time.

"We wish her as much success with the next part of her career - she's a great girl and she deserves it."

contd: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/26/2043416.htm

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A tribute to Sally from youtube with a fantastic song!