ZEDLINES 09/02/2009

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says many university students will miss out on the Rudd government’s stimulus payments.
Under the current package, students must have been enrolled by February third to receive the payments.
Ms Hanson-Young says that because most universities have a much later enrolment due date, students will miss out on nine hundred and fifty dollars that could go towards textbooks and other supplies.

According to a recent study, the Australian lifestyle is having adverse effects on our vision in later life.
Professor Jan Provis from the Australian National University, says due to smoking, lack of exercise and unhealthy diets, Age-related Macular Degeneration is becoming an increasing problem amongst Australians.
The macula provides humans with acurate vision, but with the growth in AMD the ageing population faces major health and caring costs.

Crocodiles are going to be monitored under a new management system by the Environmental Protection Agency, following anonymous allegations that linked the old system with two fatal crocodile attacks.
According to Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation Minister, Andrew McNamara, the new crocodile risk management system will prioritise public safety.
The plan includes the launch of CrocWatch, a database system to inform the public of crocodile sightings.

With unrest continuing in Sri Lanka, over 250,000 Tamil civilians have been displaced in what activists are calling an act of genocide.
Hospitals and churches housing displaced Tamils currently face firing from the Sri Lanka Army.
In response to this massacre, the Greens Left and Socialist Alliance organisations are holding a forum at the Brisbane Activist Centre on Thursday 12th February and will include a talk from pro-Tamil activist, Dr Brian Senewiratne.

Father Peter Kennedy of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church has been given until the 21st of February to resign, after such breaches of his order as blessing homosexual couples and extending his mass to allow buddhist participation.
The nature of his excommunication has affronted a large portion of the Brisbane churchgoing population, and highlighted an element of our culture that has worried the general public.

One leading editor of the Courier Mail went as far as to describe Father Peter's 700-strong supporting parishoners that tuned up to his mass yesterday as including "the usual socialist left rabble rent a crowd".

Residents in Newcastle are soon to be subject to what the Greens refer to as the same line of planning incompetence that allowed the building of Sydney's desalination plant, with the new $406 million Tillegra dam.

The dam, having a pronounced economic, environmental and social impact, was originally justified under the now diminished drought concerns, and a push for population growth in the region.

The anti-damming sentiment may prove too late, with government accrediting the plan with a "3A - Critical Infrastructure" status, restricting public input and appeal.


Internet piracy in Australia could soon be taking a hit under a new court case between several film studios and internet service provider iiNet, whom the studios have sued for allegedly authorising the illegal download of copyrighted films.
If successful, the case, in which Channel 7 has joined with the studios, could potentially see what internet industry commentators have asserted as unworkable burdens on the net.
Organisation Electronic Frontiers Australia has joined in criticism, stating that methods used to identify infringement are necessarily imprecise, and that it is likely people will be wrongly sought out.

Reported by Elena Gomez, Jerome Walker and Siobhan Hegarty