Australians who want to get away from it all go to Tasmania, an island state of Australia that lists carrots among its major exports.
But world affairs caught up with Tasmania recently when a local found himself in court over a terrorism scare.
Phillip Lowe, a 60-year-old piano tuner, told a female security guard in a Hobart car park that he had a weapon of mass destruction in his trousers.
"This is a warning story for the whole of Australia, this is," Lowe told Australia's ABC Radio.
"Anybody can point the finger at anybody and cost them an awful lot of money and an awful lot of anguish -- and you're gone, mate, you're gone," he said.
Lowe doesn't deny the incident took place or that he behaved foolishly.
"I said I had a weapon of mass destruction and I rotated my hips, suggestively, I must admit," he said.
Police charged Lowe with making a false threat, but when the case was brought to court, Tasmania's Director of Public Prosecutions decided the matter was too trivial to proceed with.
Lowe's lawyer, Garth Ste-phens, claimed the authorities had overreacted.
"Even if he said what was claimed to have been said, it was probably unnecessary for the police to go as far as charging him, detaining him and searching his house and car," Stephens said.
That view is disputed by Australian Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock, who said Lowe was out of order in claiming the government had whipped up public hysteria over the threat of terrorism.
"Is he suggesting that Sept. 11 didn't occur in the United States? Is he suggesting that Australia hasn't been the subject of a very clear threat? Is he suggesting that Australians didn't tragically die in Bali?" Ruddock said.
Terrorism, even weapons of mass destruction, are a threat facing every corner of the globe.
And that includes sleepy Hobart in Tasmania, it seems.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS