Daily Archives: March 1, 2014

The Central Coast Mariners halted their losing streak with a desperately needed 2-1 victory over Sydney FC to consolidate their top-six spot and revive hopes of a title defence.

The Mariners had posted four losses on the trot – their longest losing run in the A-League since December 2009 – and compounded it with a mid-week Asian Champions League defeat away to FC Seoul.

But strikes from Kim Seung-Yong and Mitchell Duke ensured victory with the three points lifting them two above Sydney into fifth spot with six games remaining before the finals.

Richard Garcia got one back for Sydney, who were looking for a third straight win but instead continued their roller coaster season.

Both sides took a while to work themselves in to the game at Central Coast Stadium with no real chances created until midway through the opening half.

Sydney keeper Vedran Janjetovic had been untroubled until the 22nd minute when both Kim and Joshua Rose forced saves just seconds apart.

Sydney right-back Aaron Calvar brought Kim down minutes later to gift the Mariners a free-kick just outside the box.

And he was made to pay as the Korean dead-ball specialist stepped up and curled his shot past the wall and Janjetovic to put the hosts in front in the 26th minute with his first goal for the Mariners.

With Sydney desperate to find an equaliser before the break it was none other than skipper Alessandro Del Piero who created chances with the Italian World Cup-winner displaying his usual deft touch to weave past the defence and draw two saves from gloveman Liam Reddy.

The Sky Blues kept up their assault after the re-start and looked like levelling when Del Piero was given a free-kick just outside the box, drawing a brilliant save from Reddy.

It was second-half substitute Garcia who found the equaliser in the 62nd minute.

Centre-back Nikola Petkovic tested Reddy with a strike first with the keeper sending his clearance only as far as the waiting Garcia, who did well to score from a tight angle.

Young gun Duke had threatened several times and finally broke through in the 74th minute to put the Mariners 2-1 up with a sensational strike.

The win came at a cost for the Mariners with both defender Eddy Bosnar (groin) and midfielder Rose (head clash) both leaving the field injured.

Mariners: 2 (K Seung-Yong 26′, M Duke 75′)

Sydney FC: 1 (R Garcia 62′)

source:abc.net.au

A mysteriously costly field kitchen is a tiny part of the billions that the federal government spends on immigration detention, write Ben Butler, Rory Callinan and Georgia Wilkins.

No one seems to know why it’s so expensive to run a kitchen on Manus Island, a jungle-covered island off the north coast of Papua New Guinea where Australia operates a controversial, violence-plagued immigration detention centre.

But expensive it certainly is. Since October 2012, when the Department of Immigration reopened the centre, the government has paid Toll Holdings $3.5 million for kitchen facilities.

Exactly what the department got for the money also isn’t clear – Toll declined to comment and on Friday the department had yet to respond to questions.

But a photo posted to the department’s website shows that two months after Manus Island reopened, the kitchen was housed in a tent. A contractor who works for the detention centre said he heard that a small but good kitchen was in place last year, before the government announced it would upgrade the centre. When the centre was upgraded the old kitchen was removed, he said.

Whatever it paid for, the $3.5 million is only a tiny fraction of the billions the federal government spends on the immigration detention system, which now supports an ecosystem of contractors, sub-contractors, workers and suppliers.

Among them   four big service companies – G4S, Serco, Transfield and Toll – have between them reaped contracts worth more than $5.6 billion from the Department of Immigration.

”The policy of indefinite detention is a very expensive policy,” said Greg Barton, the Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of

Indonesia at Monash University.

”It’s expensive to put people in jail and to keep them there. From the point of view of those being detained, the conditions seem very harsh and the services very modest, but it still costs a lot of money.”

While Transfield and Toll are listed on the Australian exchange, G4S and Serco are British-based multinationals. This week, Transfield staged a coup at G4S’ expense by seizing from it the contract to run Manus Island. It was a much-needed victory for Transfield, which has been struggling to transform itself after taking heavy financial hits from its mining business.

For $1.22 billion, Transfield adds responsibility for Manus Island to its existing job running the government’s other offshore camp, in the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru.

The deal has the potential to transform Transfield. Investors certainly liked it, pushing company shares up 24.5 per cent when it was announced on Monday.

But it also carries hefty risks. A fortnight ago, an Iranian asylum seeker held at Manus Island was beaten to death and dozens more detainees were injured in violence PNG police allege was perpetrated by locally employed G4S guards.

Others have implicated PNG police in the rampage, which is under investigation by the Immigration Department.

The new contract is also four times the size of Transfield’s previous deal to run the Nauru centre, prompting questions from analysts this week as to whether the company has the financial capacity to do the job.

Transfield chief executive Graeme Hunt is adamant: ”We went into this having assessed the risk across all areas,” he  said.

”We have to deliver our service in line with what we have been asked to do and we believe we’re good at it and that will assist the situation. The other thing we need to do is manage the stakeholders, and we have a very good track record of effectively engaging with the local community.

”We have been asked questions about will we just basically front up and change the logo and nothing else will change. Absolutely not.”

A Business Day analysis of contract notes posted to the federal government’s AusTender website shows a clear hierarchy among the four players.

While Toll has the multimillion-dollar kitchen and a key role flying planes between detention centres and the mainland, the $68.7 million that the Australian-listed company has billed since 2008 puts it in the last spot.

Last July the company paid to fly Scott Morrison, who was at the time the opposition’s immigration spokesman, and two News Corporation journalists to Nauru to announce new policies.

Morrison is now Immigration Minister but the jaunt appears to have done Toll no favours: the company said it had not since won any additional immigration contracts.

Serco, which runs the department’s network of detention centres within Australia, is the clear market leader, winning more than $3.2 billion in contracts since December 2009.

But this week’s contract upheaval moves Transfield to second place, from a total of about $350 million in immigration work since 2010 to about $1.5 billion.

G4S, which has reaped $828 million since 2003, was pushed down to third spot.

It’s not just Transfield whose fortunes have been turned around by the torrent of government money pouring into Manus Island.

Despite allegations islanders took part in attacking the rioters, the local community has  generally supported  the detention centre, which has brought jobs and improved facilities.

The most obvious sign of change is the large football field-sized patch of swamp that has been cleared and levelled for the proposed permanent detention centre, being built in the island’s capital, Lorengau.

Contractors regularly overbook tourist accommodation in Lorengau and several hire car businesses have sprung up, some charging close to $450 a day for new Toyota LandCruisers or similar vehicles.

Older islanders, some of whom have land rights on properties where detention centre facilities have been built, have been awarded lucrative contracts to help with construction and maintenance.

And instead of young islanders having to leave the island to find employment, they are now working at the detention centre, many having found jobs with the Salvation Army and others with G4S or caterer Eurest.

Hunt said Transfield will continue to employ locals.

While he said Transfield won the new work because of its good work running Nauru, G4S regional managing director for the southern Pacific, Darren Boyd, said ”the decision to change providers on Manus Island was not based on performance”.

The loss of the contract is the latest in a series of blows for G4S, which has been under fire for bungling security at the 2012 London Olympics and, with fellow London-listed multinational Serco, failing to fulfil a contract to find housing for asylum seekers and allegedly overcharging for electronic tags.

In a report released in November, the British National Audit Office revealed G4S paid zero corporation tax in Britain in 2012. The same year the Australian Taxation Office paid G4S’ local arm a cash refund of about $2.2 million.

Boyd said G4S paid tax where it earned its income, ”in full accordance with the taxation laws of the countries concerned”.

He said a ”significant proportion” of the company’s network of subsidiaries in tax havens including the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles and Luxembourg were ”normal operating or holding companies”.

Transfield’s offshore detention contract appears much fatter than the deal struck by G4S.

Under the old Transfield and G4S contracts, the government was paying about $39 million a month to run the two centres.

The new contract increases that figure to about $61 million a month, or about $900 a day per prisoner – more than it costs to rent a harbour view suite at the luxury Shangri-La Hotel in Sydney.

source: smh.com.au

Photos have emerged of the wing tips from the collision between two Qantas jets at Los Angeles International Airport.

Steve Purvinas, the federal secretary of the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association posted the photos on Twitter on Saturday, with the comment “minor scrape my arse” in relation to the damage to one of the wings.

A Qantas A380 superjumbo collided with a Boeing 747-400, causing damage to the wing tips of both planes and forcing the cancellation of flights.

The incident occurred at 9pm local time on Thursday (4pm AEST on Friday) while the aircraft were being towed out of a hangar. Sources said they believed the planes had suffered “millions of dollars” worth of damage.

No passengers were on board either aircraft but as result of the collision, the national carrier has cancelled QF94 from Los Angeles to Melbourne and QF16 to Brisbane.

The incident caps off a woeful week for Qantas, which on Thursday confirmed it will axe 5000 jobs, cancel plane orders and retire gas-guzzlers in an attempt to strip $2 billion in costs out of the business.

A Qantas spokeswoman said the airline would accommodate passengers in hotels overnight and put them on the next available flights out of Los Angeles.

“Qantas apologises for the inconvenience to our passengers,” she said.

Air safety authorities in Australia have been notified of the accident and a full investigation is under way.

The wing span of a Qantas A380, which can carry 484 passengers, is almost 80 metres.

The A380 (QF94) was due to depart Los Angeles at 11.30pm local time and arrive in Melbourne at 10.20am (AEST) on Saturday. The 747-400 (QF16) was due to depart at 11.50pm local time and arrive in Brisbane at 8.00am (AEST) on Saturday.

Scrapes and close shaves between planes at airports often occur when planes are pulled back from terminals or out of hangars.

In August, a Virgin Australia plane carrying 175 passengers to Maroochydore collided with an empty Jetstar plane at Melbourne Airport.

The incident occurred when the Virgin jet was being pushed back on the tarmac in preparation for takeoff.

No one was injured in that incident but the damage bill was put at $3 million.

source: brisbanetimes.com.au

Τον τρόμο και τον πανικό σκόρπισε ένας άνδρας που ενώ οι γιατροί τον είχαν ανακηρύξει νεκρό, εκείνος ξύπνησε λίγο πριν την κηδεία του.

Ο Walter Williams μεταφέρθηκε μεέσα σε μια σακούλα που βάζουν τα πτώματα σε ένα γραφείο κηδειών για να τον ετοιμάσουν για την τελετή.

Ξαφνικά ξύπνησε και άρχισε να κλωτσά τη σακούλα για να βγει έξω. Ο ιατροδικαστής δήλωσε ότι κατά πάσα πιθανότητά η καρδιά του σταμάτησε για λίγο και μετά άρχισε και πάλι να λειτουργεί.

«Στεκόμουν και τον έβλεπα να τον βάζουν σε μια σακούλα. Ήταν 10:30 το πρωί και στις 14:30 μου τηλεφώνησε ο ξάδελφός μου και μου είπε ότι ο πατέρας του είναι ακόμα εδώ», δήλωσε ο ανιψιός του.

Ο άνδρας μεταφέρθηκε αμέσως στο νοσοκομείο, όπου νοσηλεύεται σε σταθερή κατάσταση. Μάλιστα στους συγγενείς του είπε ότι χαίρεται που είναι ακόμα ζωντανός, ενώ εκείνοι δηλώνουν ευτυχισμένοι που είναι ακόμα μαζί τους.

Πηγή: madata.gr

Αν το βλέπατε στον δρόμο θα το περνούσατε για ένα συνηθισμένο 4χρονο αγόρι, όμως ο Elijah έχει… μεταφυσικές ικανότητες!

Όπως εξηγούν οι γονείς του είναι στην πραγματική ζωή ότι ο Cole Sear’s στην… «Έκτη Αίσθηση»!!!

Ο Elijah μίλησε κανονικότατα σε ηλικία μόλις 10 μηνών και μάλιστα έκανε προβλέψεις για ανθρώπους που ήξερε.

Μάλιστα, γιατρός έχει επιβεβαιώσει πώς πράγματι έχει τέτοιου είδους ικανότητες, ενώ οι γονείς του υποστηρίζουν πώς είχε προβλέψει την… αποβολή της μαμάς του!

«Μαμά, το μωράκι που έχεις στην κοιλιά σου θα πάει να βρει τον Θεό», της είχε πει λίγο πριν αποβάλει.

«Μην ανησυχείς μαμά, θα κάνεις δίδυμα και θα είναι αγόρια», είχε πει λίγο καιρό μετά.

«Στην αρχή νόμιζα ότι απλά ήθελε αδερφάκια και μάλιστα αγόρια όμως όταν έμεινα έγκυος ξανά και οι γιατροί μου είπαν ότι έχει δίδυμα αγόρια σοκαρίστηκα», λέει η μητέρα του στην Daily Mail.

Ο μικρός θεωρείται παιδί θαύμα και σύμφωνα με έναν ειδικό έχει την δυνατότητα να επικοινωνεί με… πνεύματα. «Έχει πολύ δυνατή την αίσθηση ότι έχει ζήσει στο παρελθόν», προσθέτει…

Πηγή: madata.gr

Gina Kalabishis’ award winning work, ‘Untitled’.

Artist Gina Kalabishis awarded for her ‘ghostly’ black and white drawing.

Melbourne award winning artist Gina Kalabishis has another award to put on her mantelpiece, having taken out the Rick Amor Drawing Prize for her work, Untitled.

Along with the prestige, Gina also takes home $12,000 in prize money and will have her work displayed alongside the other 72 shortlisted entrants till 23 March at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

Her work, a beautiful monochrome drawing of a flower arrangement emerging from blackness, captured the eyes of judge Alisa Bunbury, of the National Gallery of Victoria, for its “ghostly form”.

“It harks back to the genre of Dutch still life paintings and to Japanese ikebana, but by omitting colours, so integrally associated with flowers, it also evokes the idea of the memento mori, the visual reminder that death approaches, and is unavoidable,” she said.

The work of art actually came from Gina’s short artist residency at the Harry Brooks Anatomy and Pathology Museum at the University of Melbourne in February 2013 and was a part of a series of drawings that included bones.

The museum is actually closed to the public and doesn’t permit photography, so Gina was forced to sit and draw, something she says was actually very useful.

“Sometimes an image doesn’t give you that information you need or the essence,” she tells Neos Kosmos.

The inspiration for her work actually came from a much deeper place, after Gina returned home to draw.

“When I was drawing I was thinking of my mum and dad,” she says.

“My mum and dad passed away, my dad when I was 16 and my mum when I was 23.

“My dad died from a heart attack, and five years later my mum got breast cancer and then it travelled to her bones. That’s when I saw her in absolute agony and it was a really traumatic time. I saw death really early.”

Her piece reflects those thoughts with the mood but also its physical form, with Gina actually drawing her dad’s lung and her mother’s breast within the flower arrangement surrounded by bones as the stems.

“All the flowers have lost their colour, they’ve faded in a way,” she adds.

The prize is thanks to one of Australia’s leading artists, Rick Amor, who sponsors the award for small drawings at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.

The award is a way to give people one more reason to keep drawing on paper, Amor hopes.

You can see Gina Kalabishis’ award wining artwork along with the other shortlisted entrants at the Rick Amor Drawing Prize 2014 Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat, until March 23.

source: Neos Kosmos

Grapevines adorn backyards of Greek Australians far beyond the horio – we take a look at the role grapes play in our cuisine.

“It’s just like the horio,” say Greek Australian friends when visiting my backyard. It could have to do with the cement floor in lieu of greenery, the outhouse that is used ‘in case of emergency’, but what they are really referring to is the shade provided by the overhang of the grapevine. Memories of childhood visits to family friends or even if you had one in your backyard, there wasn’t one trip to Greece where you didn’t come across a house with a grapevine providing a much needed retreat from the gorgeous Mediterranean sun. But what is it about the grapevine that represents to us so much about our culture, and what part do grapes play in our Greek diet?

The infatuation with grapes in Greek cuisine is embedded in history and myth. In Greek mythology, Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, but with the wine made from the grapes comes ritual madness and ecstasy. No wonder he’s one of the more popular gods. He is often depicted adorned with grapes and grapevines and leaves, and indulging in either wine or just the fruit itself.

Seeing a bowl of grapes on a kitchen table is commonplace during the summer time. And whether they are green or red, seedless or with seed, the consumption of grapes as a fruit in its natural form is both a form of nutrition as well as a comfort food that takes us back to the motherland. Grapes can be eaten raw, but are also an incredibly versatile fruit that can be reconstituted as jam, jelly, juice; dried as sultanas, currants and raisins; or created into dressing such as grape seed oil and a plethora of vinegars. And then obviously there’s wine – grapes are of course the essential ingredient in wine production. But table grapes and grapes for wine production are all different. The number of grape varietals range in the hundreds, with many specific to different regions and climates and many produced for specific sources. Grapes are groups of fruit that are grown in clusters that are found on a woody vine. The grape leaves themselves are also used in Greek cooking. Dolmades are a common meze in Greece and are rice mixed with either meat or nuts and sultanas as a vegetarian option, then wrapped with the vine leaf and left to cook in its own brine.

Known as the ‘queen of fruits’, grapes have a number of nutritional values that differ depending on which variety you are eating. Grapes have long been classified as having a low glycemic index (GI). Recent studies have shown that the low GI value of grapes is also a good indicator of this fruit’s blood sugar benefits. Better blood sugar balance means better insulin regulation. Several grape phytonutrients are now believed to play a role in longevity. One of these, resveratrol has been shown in studies to increase three genes related to longevity in life. Grapes also contain high levels of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that assists your body in ridding itself of free radicals within the body. Grapes help you by providing your body with vitamin B1. Vitamin B1 is a vitamin that will give your body energy.

Apart from eating the fruit raw, grapes are used in a number of cooking options in the Greek cuisine from savoury to sweet. Grapes are included in a simple summer salad and provide a tart sweetness to the dish. They can be baked in the oven with feta, sprinkled with dried Greek oregano and served with warm crusty bread. These are both great summer lunchtime options. Grapes are also used in stews or in roasts and go well with chicken, to provide a sticky sweetness to the roasted meat. Dried grapes such as sultanas, currants and raisins can be added to yemista, dolmades or cabbage rolls, as the dried grape goes hand-in-hand with rice.

As for sweets, grapes are prominent in Greek cuisine. The most popular being the spoon sweet as the sugars of the grape left to brine in the jar create a sticky, gorgeous, delicate dessert. A number of cakes are created using grapes, especially when left at the bottom of the cake tin to emulsify in a gooey sticky sweet mess. Just freshly picked grapes, with a gorgeous Greek yoghurt and organic honey can make the simplest of desserts or the healthiest of breakfasts, especially with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.

source: Neos Kosmos

Βγήκε το πρόγραμμα και οι αντίπαλοι της Εθνικής στο τουρνουά των ΗΠΑ ενώ τα εισιτήρια θα είναι στην διάθεση του κοινού από τις 17 Μαρτίου.

Δυο φιλικά παιχνίδια θα δώσει η Εθνικής μας ομάδα στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες στα  πλαίσια του τουρνουά “Road to Brazil”, το οποίο διεξάγεται από τις 29 Μαϊου έως τις 7 Ιουνίου.

Σαββατοκύριακο των ντέρμπι στην Ευρώπη με Ατλέτικο – Ρεάλ, Μίλαν – Γιουβέντους, Ρόμα – Ίντερ, Παρί ΣΖ – Μαρσέιγ, Μπάγερν – Σάλκε, Φέγενοορντ – Άγιαξ και Μπριζ – Σταντάρ. Τελικός League Cup με Σίτι κόντρα σε Σάντερλαντ, ενώ αναβλήθηκαν τα ματς στην Κύπρο!

Γεμάτο ντέρμπι είναι το Σαββατοκύριακο στην Ευρώπη, με αυτό της Μαδρίτης στο οποίο η Ατλέτικο υποδέχεται την Ρεάλ στο “Βιθέντε Καλντερόν” να ξεχωρίζει, ενώ υπάρχει και τελικός του League Cup στο “Γουέμπλεϊ” μεταξύ των Μάντσεστερ Σίτι και Σάντερλαντ.

Στην Ιταλία έχει τρία μεγάλα ματς, Ρόμα – Ίντερ το βράδυ του Σαββάτου, ενώ αυτό της Κυριακής παίζουν Μίλαν – Γιουβέντους και Φιορεντίνα – Λάτσιο.