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A series of raids and arrests in Western Sydney last night led to a stand-off between police and a crowd of locals throwing bottles. The Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad carried out three raids on the same street at Auburn. It is investigating who shot a 23-year-old, who turned up at Auburn Hospital on Sunday night with a gunshot wound to the chest. During one of the raids, a 25-year-old man punched an officer in the face and was arrested. Police inspector Mick Reynolds says the man's arrest triggered an angry response from about 150 residents. "There was a lot...

Some benchmarks have numbers and tables. Some have bar graphs. They're all very nice, but I just revisited a demo that I used to do at Apple, and the results on a Mac Pro will take your breath away. Buckle up, because you may not have seen this amazing visual demo ever before. Back in the 2000-2005 time, I was involved with lots of professional conferences with Apple. In some cases, Apple ran the both, like SuperComputing and FOSE. In the case of smaller shows, like the American Astronomical Society (AAS), I would manage the booth along with another sales...

  Chatting grannies are 'noisy nuisance'   'Anti-social' ... pensioner sits on a bench      By ANDY CRICK Published: Today     PENSIONERS have been told the benches they sit at to have a cup of tea and a chat will be removed — because their behaviour is anti-social. The group of seven, one of them aged 96, have been accused of “noise nuisance” and disturbing nearby residents. Bosses of flats they gather outside say they have had complaints for two years and may take their benches away. But the group, who meet daily for a gossip, are...

A new battlefront in the war to erase politically incorrect civil liberties is taking place across corporate America under the innocuous-sounding banner of "Wellness."  Wellness certainly sounds nice; what kind of person is against wellness?  That sounds as crazy as being anti-hope, or standing in the way of change.  Obviously we all want to be well, but now it appears you won't have much choice in the matter.  Be well or face consequences beyond the state of one's health. But always remember: We're doing this for your own good. The latest thing that's in our best interest is a renewed...

UNISEX wash basin areas could be built in schools to help tackle bullying. The move is part of recommendations covering schools in England being rebuilt or refurbished as part of the Government's £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme. BSF aims to rebuild or renew every one of England's 3,500 state secondary schools during the 15-year lifetime of the initiative. The new guidelines were issued by the Government agency responsible for delivering the programme, Partnerships for Schools. Toilets in Schools was published earlier this month and details new toilet block designs to be incorporated into all BSF schools. It...

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped up his government's campaign against anti-social behavior on Tuesday, promising stiffer fines for offenders and special classes to coach parents struggling with unruly children. Blair has made restoring respect to British society a key priority for his third and final term in office and is targeting issues such as binge drinking, drug abuse, school truancy and petty crime in blighted urban communities. The carefully coordinated launch of his Respect Action Plan was seen as a bid to quickly set the political agenda as Parliament returned from its Christmas recess. New opposition Conservative...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...