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SAS Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith is Australia’s 98th Victoria Cross holder after the bronze cross with crimson ribbon was pinned to his chest by Governor General Quentin Bryce in Perth today. During a formal investiture ceremony at the picturesque beachside headquarters of the SAS at Campbell Barracks, Swanbourne, Corporal Roberts-Smith became only the second Australian soldier to wear the Victoria Cross of Australia after Corporal Mark Donaldson who received the honour in 2009. Before 1991 it was an Imperial Honour that was won by 96 Australians from the Boer War to Vietnam. He is only the second Western Australian born holder...

Shows the Hollywood star how to handle a falcon during the meeting where Sheikh Hamdan was also present His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, received Hollywood star Tom Cruise who is in Dubai to shoot 'Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol'. The 48-year-old Hollywood actor, whose death-defying stunts atop the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, grabbed global headlines only a day ago, also met Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai during the occasion. Sheikh Mohammed showed Cruise how to handle a...

KARACHI: The Pakistan Hockey Federation and national captain Zeeshan Ashraf feel one reason for the team's poor Commonwealth Games performance was the crowd behaviour in Delhi which has become "abusive" after the Mumbai terror attacks. PHF secretary Asif Bajwa said the feedback he had got from the team was that the players were subjected to more abuse and insults then they were used to facing by Indian spectators before the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. "It is now more difficult for our players when they play in India and there is more pressure on them because of the treatment they...

NEW DELHI: The spirit of the Games doesn't seem to be prevailing. Seen to be an essential ingredient of the Games, volunteers have gone missing. An estimated 10,000 volunteers have dropped out after enrolling for the mega sports show. A part of the problem also seems to have been the terms offered to volunteers. Instead of payments, the experience of participating in the Games with a certificate at the end of the event are the main rewards. However, there is also a smart set of clothes - the kit costs Rs 12,000 - besides meals while at work. Sources said...

PORT OF SPAIN (AFP) – Commonwealth leaders representing two billion people on the planet on Saturday threw their combined weight behind upcoming climate talks, driving momentum towards a new carbon-cutting treaty. "We, as the Commonwealth, representing one third of the world's population, believe the time for action on climate change has come," Australian Prime Minister Rudd said as he unveiled an agreement struck at a summit in Trinidad. The Port of Spain Climate Change Consensus, backed by all 53 member states of the Commonwealth, supported the December 7-18 climate talks in Copenhagen and committed to seeking a legally binding treaty...

I observed the two minutes of silence on November 11. I bought a poppy and thought of my Dad, someone I always miss at this time of year. He wasn’t killed in action, but he served in the Second World War – he was a captain in a tank regiment – and lost many friends. .... The Army made him brave, and that bravery stood him in good stead when it came to facing loss, illness, mediocrity... ..... His memories, good and bad, kept him alive, alert, proud. He knew he had really lived, seen the world and made a...

Life imitates art. How our "stimulus package" was sold to the American People.

(English-language translation) As it turns 70 years old, the [pro-Commonwealth] Popular Democratic Party (PPD) faces its worst crisis brought on not only by the federal [corruption] charges against its principal leader, [Governor] Aníbal Acevedo Vilá, but also by the complicated economic situation the island has experienced under his administration. Three prominent PPD members interviewed by this daily could not agree on whether Acevedo will win [re-election in] the November elections. They did agree the PPD is at a crossroads, that the federal indictments are a dark page in the party’s history, and that the cost-of-living increases the island has been...

The afterglow didn’t last long, however. The proverbial ‘red flags’ soon began to appear. The volume of complaints from authors steadily grew; the production backlog became the elephant in the room, and uncertainty over company funds became fodder for water cooler chat. Then on August 31, 1997, an event occurred that signaled the beginning of the end.....

The interview itself, however, was quite bizarre. A pleasant if not docile woman, Ms. Hillman seemed not to know how to conduct an interview. She seemed unprepared and unsure of what to do from one moment to the next. In short order, I became the one keeping the conversation afloat, even offering suggestions as to what questions should be asked. Indeed, an interesting first impression. The next day I received a call back from Faye. It took me a moment to realize who she was on voicemail when she referred to herself as ‘Lorraine Phelan’ – Don’s wife. Odd, I...

...In the city of Edmonton, Alberta in the early 1990’s, there was one such man. His name was Donald Phelan, and what he built – and subsequently destroyed – left a long trail of broken promises and shattered dreams.....

Pakistan suspended from the Commonwealth because of anti-democratic crackdown By Alexander Panetta, THE CANADIAN PRESS KAMPALA, Uganda - Pakistan has been suspended from the Commonwealth in response to the anti-democratic crackdowns imposed under emergency rule. A group of foreign ministers from the 53-member Commonwealth has decided to remove Pakistan until it meets democratic standards. The group's secretary general, Donald McKinnon, made the announcement at a news conference. Pakistan, the world's most unstable nuclear power, pleaded for more time today and argued that it was making progress toward restoring democracy. But as she entered a Commonwealth meeting earlier today, Canadian Junior...

RWANDAN President Paul Kagame says his country will cement its bitter divorce from France and the French-speaking world, which he holds responsible for the 1994 slaughter of up to one million of his countrymen, by joining the Commonwealth. "There are many benefits for us in joining the Commonwealth - cultural, economic, political," Mr Kagame said. He has been invited to attend the November Commonwealth summit as an observer and said: "I hope they will then approve our membership. I am looking forward to it." Mr Kagame, a lanky former guerilla fighter with an austere manner, rarely shows emotion. But the...

(English-language translation) DORADO — The Puerto Rican Constitution protects the [freedoms] of speech and assembly. However, some of the thousands who celebrated it in Dorado did not seem to understand this precept as they threw bottles and eggs at a small group of pro-independence theater artists who were criticizing the use of public funds for this official observance and several members of the Statehood Youth who also protested in a building adjacent to the public square. The youth, who demanded "statehood now", as well as the six members of the "Papel Machete" theater troupe, had to be removed from the...

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 10:54 p.m. EDT Romney to Sign Mandatory Health Bill BOSTON -- Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill Tuesday that would make Massachusetts the first state to require that all its citizens have some form of health insurance. The plan — approved just 24 hours after the final details were released — would use a combination of financial incentives and penalties to dramatically expand access to health care over the next three years and extend coverage to the state's estimated 500,000 uninsured. If all goes as planned, poor people will be offered free or heavily subsidized coverage; those...

A White House task force wants voters in Puerto Rico to decide whether the island stays an American possession, joins the U.S. as the 51st state or becomes an independent nation. Which choice is best? 51st state. Independence. Remaining an American possession.

 AUSSIE MICROSOFT CALENDAR MESS The Commonwealth Games are coming to Melbourne in March this year http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/ and normally that would not matter to us except that it's going to cause a major upheaval for users of Microsoft Office, Exchange and Windows.  It'll mostly affect our Aussie friends but also anyone who deals with the Great Southern Land. The problem is also a sharp indictment of Microsoft's spotty support for changing time zones.  Changes in daylight savings arrangements do happen so paying customers of Windows and Office are entitled to expect more elegant technologies to deal with this real world situation.  ...

Battle of Kircholm Battle of Kircholm (September 27, 1605) was one of the major battles in the Polish-Swedish War of 1600-1611. The battle was decided in 20 minutes by the devastating charge of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cavalry, the Winged Hussars. The battle ended in the decisive victory of Polish forces, and is remembered in Poland as the greatest triumph of Polish cavalry ever. Eve of the Battle On September 27, 1605, the Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish forces met near the small town of Kircholm (now Salaspils in Latvia, some 25 km. south of Riga). The forces of Charles IX of Sweden were...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday acknowledged the "beneficial consequences" of British colonial rule like "free press, constitutional government, professional service, modern universities and research laboratories". Speaking at Oxford after receiving a honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law, Dr Singh said, "Today, with the balance and perspective offered by the passage of time and the benefit of hindsight, it is possible for an Indian prime minister to assert that India's experience with Britain had its beneficial consequences too." He added: "Our notions of the rule of law, of a constitutional government, of a free press, of a professional civil...

LVOV, May 13 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have decided to create a Joint Parliamentary Assembly. The speakers of the Ukrainian Supreme Rada, Lithuanian Seimas and Polish Sejm – Vladimir Litvin, Arturas Paulauskas and Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz – signed an appropriate joint statement in the west-Ukrainian city of Lutsk on Friday. Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania “are going to increase their contribution to the broadening of the regional cooperation,” the document says. The countries “understand the necessity of working jointly on the implementation of Ukraine’s plans for European and Euro-Atlantic integration.” A statute of the assembly will determine the composition, framework...