Stock market crash
A spokesperson for the Unemployed Workers Army said today, "Senior executives should find great openings on the fourteenth floors of office towers; they are called windows". The spokesperson went on to suggest that it was time to let the high fliers fly.
Brisbane
Thai military
Did anyone notice that on Wednesday, 23rd October, the Australian reported "more than 200 were killed" during Bangkok's May '92 uprising?
So finally, after six years quoting the official, ridiculously low figure of "52" dead, the Australian at last reports the truth! "More than 200"! 1000 might be closer the mark, given that soldiers fired into crowds of unarmed demonstrators, from about 10pm until about 6am on one night alone of the three during which a massive amount of blood was spilt.
The Australian has a history of getting Asian body-counts wrong: just look at their reporting of the November '91 Dili massacre.
And of course Thailand's highly respected Mahidol University has always said the May '92 real casualty list in Bangkok was considerably higher than stated. They settled for 169 after massive intimidation of staff researching the "missing".
So it's good to read Thailand's military just refused currently beleaguered PM Chavalit's request for a state of emergency, which in Thailand means coup number 18 since 1932.
This new generation of officers will no doubt gain immense popularity for such restraint. (Actually they didn't have much choice, considering the King, with his revered chain of command through the military via Privy Counsellor General Prem, is still totally against further coups.)
Maybe that's the younger officers' long-term game-plan: to eventually launch a popular coup. Still their restraint has given Thailand's grass-roots democracy movement wider space and more safety.
Sydney
[Abridged.]
Character assassinations
We've heard of Mr. Rent-A-Kill and Murder Incorporated, but for Character Assassination, e.g. of East German Sports Coach Mr Arbeit and anti-pederast campaigner Mrs Franca Arena (NSW), two Sydney Tele-Mirror "journalists" — Mal Gibson aka "Gibbo" and Piers Akerman — are in a class of their own.
Wenthworth Falls NSW
Nuclear cover-up
On 27 January 1997 the New York Times reported that a US Senate subcommittee had been investigating a mysterious explosion in the night sky of the West Australian desert which occurred on 28 May 1993.
The explosion was in the Laverton area and was seen by a number of witnesses. It generated a tremor which registered 3.6 on the Richter scale.
Recently Senator Dee Margetts (Greens, WA) asked the Attorney-General a number of pointed questions-on-notice about this explosion. She asked in part whether it was nuclear and whether members of the Aum Shinrykyo cult were present in WA at the time of the explosion.
The Attorney-General would not respond to Senator Margetts' specific questions. Similarly, the WA Minister for Lands previously would not answer a question about the whereabouts of Aum members around this time (WA Hansard, 2 May 1995 p 1721).
It is extraordinary, as Senator Dee Margetts noted, that the US Government can investigate a potential nuclear explosion in Australia but the Australian Government cannot. It is also extraordinary that our Government will not answer questions about this when asked.
The ABC's 7.30 Report of 28 October raised possible links between Aum Shinrykyo and the Japanese Mahikari cult which is establishing a major presence in Canberra with a grant of land from the ACT Government.
In the absence of information from the Australian or West Australian Governments, it seems as though the only way these matters will be clarified is if the Australian media investigate them.
Former chairperson of the Nuclear Disarmament Party
ACT