Travellers need to reconsider travel plans to northern areas of Thailand following an outbreak of violence in the country’s capital, Bangkok.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) are advising all travellers to avoid Bangkok and surrounding provinces, prominent military or government buildings and to monitor local media regularly.

The current advice is that the island regions in the south are safe but to be cautious.

Flight Centre, one of Australia’s largest travel companies, is advising all those planning trips to Thailand to heed DFAT’s warnings to avoid Bangkok and surrounds and if travelling to southern islands to remain cautious.

Travel warnings and alerts have been made as Thai troops yesterday opened fire on protesters killing at least five people and wounding many more.

The Red Shirt protesters believe that the incumbent government is illegitimate and the election of 2008 was unfair.

Civil unrest was prompted by a court ruling in 2008 which ousted allies of the former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, meaning they could not stand for election.

Thaksin Shinawatra was premier of Thailand between 2001 and 2006 and was disposed by a military coup.

The political turmoil and global financial crisis resulted in a 16% decline in the number of inbound tourists to Thailand in the first half of 2009 with numbers recovering 10% in the second half of the year.

The Royal Thai Government in a statement on Tourism Authority of Thailand website has vowed to place the safety and security of international tourists above all else.

The statement also advises that free travel insurance for foreign tourists and a waiver of tourist visa fees has been extended to 31 March 2011.

DFAT advises all those planning travel to Thailand to consult their website at smartraveler.gov.au prior to departure.

Ends

Sources:
ABC News Online, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/15/2900252.htm

Flight Centre North Sydney, phone: 9454 3477

Smartraveller.gov.au, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, http://www.smartraveller.gov.au/zw-cgi/view/Advice/Thailand

TAT News, Tourism Authority of Thailand, http://www.tatnews.org/tat_news/4677.asp

The 19^th Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon was run today by a record 8,733 people.

On a perfect Sydney morning the 21.1 kilometre event took in two-laps of the city beginning at St. Mary’s Cathedral, through the rocks and around Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair.

Martin Dent won the men’s event and completed the course in 64 minutes 28 seconds with Cassie Fien winning the women’s event with a time of 71 minutes 59 seconds.

Winning the men’s event for the third time, Dent is a Commonwealth Games hopeful.

A record time of 61 minutes 11 seconds for the event was set in 1994 by Pat Carroll who also won the event in 1996.

Ends

Sources:

http://www.patcarroll.com.au/smh-half-marathon.htm

http://halfmarathon.smh.com.au/

‘No Towers Near Schools’ are a group of concerned community members from Bardon, a suburb of Brisbane, who have opposed the communications giant’s proposal to erect a mobile phone tower 170 metres from a school.

The State Government’s Commissioner for Body Corporate and Community Management dismissed the motions made by Telstra meaning they have no lease over the property where the tower was to be erected.

A similar community action group fought Telstra in 2008, however approval was granted following a seven month long debate.

Hornsby Shire Council approved the application by Telstra for the installation of a mobile phone tower and equipment shelter in Sydney’s northern suburb of Hornsby Heights.

Hornsby Shire Council representative Aditi Coomar said approval was granted based on legal advice which took into consideration health impacts, cancer risk, visual impact and economic costs as well as site suitability and the need for the facility.

Current scientific research on radio frequency emissions do not support the claim that they are harmful with a recent World Health Organization fact sheet stating the levels of exposure from wireless networks are so low that the temperature increases are insignificant and do not affect human health.

However, a senate report published in 2000 highlighted the need for independent research to keep up with the proliferation of technology to ensure that evidence is conclusive, tested on current technologies and not funded by the industry.

Local GP, Dr. Anny Marrett, said she has not observed any illnesses in the past year since the tower was erected that could be directly related to the mobile phone tower emissions.

While Bardon residents have won the currently battle against Telstra’s site selection, the need for a mobile phone tower in the area will mean that they will continue to look at options in the vicinity.

Ends

Sources:
Aditi Coomar, Assessment Officer, Planning Division, Hornsby Shire Council, 296 Pacific Highway, Hornsby, NSW, phone: 9847 6729.

Dr. Anny Marrett, Summers Avenue Medical Practice, 2 Summers Avenue, Hornsby, NSW, phone: 9482 3500

Electromagnetic Fields and Public Health, WHO, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs304/en/index.html

McLean, Lyn (ed.) 2000, Senate Inquiry into EMR, Electromagnetic Radiation Alliance of Australia.

No Towers Near Schools, http://www.notowersnearschools.com/index.html

The matters raised in the complaint to the School of Humanities included reports of vague unit contents, lack of communication and assessment problems.

Jock Macleod, Associate Professor and Head of the School of Humanities at Griffith University, responded to the complaints promising audits and changes to several units.

The complaints were collated early this year via the community forum on the Open University website following many students voicing their disapproval of some units offered by Griffith through Open University.

A formal letter of complaint was sent to Griffith University in April of this year by an Open University student on behalf of the class-action group.

Many students believed that they were paying in excess of $700 per unit and receiving a sub-standard learning experience.

An in-depth response to the matters raised in the complaint letter was posted to the community forum in early May.

According to the emailed response by Jock Macleod, Griffith University took the complaint seriously and carried out an audit of the units mentioned.

Mr. Macleod said all communications units are to be revised with unit content, materials and assessment details updated and any emails or queries via discussion board to be addressed promptly.

“In my meetings with the relevant teaching staff, I have made it absolutely clear that student queries, whether on the discussion board or via email, are to be responded to promptly, courteously and seriously,” he said.

Members of the class-action group, while pleased with the response from Mr. Macleod, will wait to see if any changes are implemented.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better response really.  Proof, of course, will be in the pudding,” said Sascha, a representative of the class-action group.

Ends

Sources:

Open University Discussion Forum, https://www.open.edu.au/wps/myportal/oua/home/myarea/forums

Brad Hazzard, the opposition planning spokesman, says that the special planning powers will mean that local communities will be cut out of the consultative process of projects such as housing developments, supermarkets and shopping centres.

The review, which will be carried out by two panel members, could mean that the construction of high-rise apartments and commercial developments be expedited under the new laws.

Developers have welcomed the review as the current approval process is lengthy.

Geoff Lake, president of the Australian Local Government Association, said that councils would fight to retain planning powers.

Ends

Sources:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/premiers-bid-to-grab-planning-powers-20100331-rewn.html

The ship is believed to be holding a further 900 tonnes of oil.

Two tugboats are in place to stabilise the ship with salvage experts considering pumping the remaining oil from the ship.

Gilly Llewellyn, Australian director of the World Wide Fund of Nature, says that the situation is a potential environmental disaster.

Maritime Safety Queensland general manager, Patrick Quirk, however is confident it will be able to stabilise the ship and avoid major disaster.

Ends

Sources:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/05/2864501.htm

The Hollywood sign

The iconic Hollywood sign, a world famous landmark which has been in place since 1923, is under threat from developers who want to replace it with luxury houses.

A conservation group needs to raise a further $US3 million to reach the sales price of $US12.5 million.

The consortium who have the rights to build the luxury mansions have agreed to the $US12.5 million price tag, almost $US10 million lower than their original asking price, if the conservation group can pay by April 14.

Spokesman for the group, Mr. Tim Ahern of the Trust for Public Land, said the group are optimistic about raising the rest of the money to save one of Los Angeles’ most beloved attractions.

“We are close to our goal to save the sign and know that we can reach it” Mr. Ahern said.

“It would be a shame to lose such a landmark which has been in place since the 1920s”, he said.

Ends

Sources:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/25/2856404.htm

The Sydney Harbour Bridge

Major landmarks around the world including the Sydney Harbour bridge, the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears Tower and the Las Vegas strip went dark at 8.30pm for an hour on Saturday to raise awareness of climate change.

Lights were turned off around the world in the hope of boosting support for the environmental movement following a failure to produce a binding agreement to limit global warming at the UN talks in Copenhagen last December.

While the popularity of Earth Hour is growing around the globe, it would appear that the subtleties of the Earth Hour message – that it’s not about saving electricity, it’s about the symbolism – have been missed by the public.

Ends

Sources:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/earth-hour/world-iconic-sites-go-dark-on-earth-hour-20100328-r4wr.html

http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2010/03/25/2856254.htm

The ABC News and Yahoo!7 News online sites are very similar but their content differs in two ways: the hard news approach of the ABC News site, which is timely and about events or conflicts that have just happened, and the combined hard and soft news approach of the Yahoo!7 News site, which is about human interest and novelty which entertains or informs; and ABC News does not have commercial advertising where as Yahoo!7 News does (Rich 1997, p. 21).  This indicates target audience differences as well as the commercial and non-commercial background of each of the sites.

A report by the Australian Press Council (2008) shows that approximately 20 million people read online news sites with the audience made up of younger readers.  A Nielson Online News Release (2009) points out that there is a lack of loyalty to any one news sites.  David Higgins (2008, p. 17) indicates that, in order to attract readers, journalists have to change their content to more popular and topical news stories and adapt headings to suit search engine words and phrases.  Both websites have simple concise headlines to attract search engine hits, however, more popular and topical news stories are more evident on the Yahoo!7 News site.  This demonstrates the needs of their target audience and the greater need of the commercial Yahoo!7 News site to attract audiences whereas, the ABC News site does not have commercial restraints.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2008-09 report shows that 72% of Australians have internet access with 86% of that being broadband.  Both news websites use the capabilities of broadband to offer photos, graphics, advertising images as well as text.  Jakob Nielsen found in his 1997 study, regarding how users read on the web, that users scan websites in “an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe”.  A study by The Poynter Institute in 2000 shows that the eye goes to text first, not graphics as would be assumed, banner ads catch readers’ attention, and brief news stories are favoured.  The most recent study by the Poynter Institute, the EyeTrack07 Project (Quinn & Stark Adam 2007), found that people read 77% of text regardless of story length.  In contrast to Jakob Nielson’s findings in 1997 that most people scan online sites, EyeTrack07 found that there were two reading patterns: methodical readers reading from top to bottom; and scanners who view headlines and other display elements.  It can be seen that both ABC News and Yahoo!7 News sites have adopt many of these elements.  They have short concise headlines with bullet or numbered lists of main stories.  Stories are short in length and use the inverted pyramid with main points first.  The Yahoo!7 News site effectively has a once sentence description of the main news stories so those who scan do not have to go into the full text.  Both websites ensure that the most important information can be accessed by the reader without scrolling down the page.

References:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2009, Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2008-09, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/ACC2D18CC958BC7BCA2568A9001393AE?opendocument, accessed 17/03/10.

Australian Press Council 2008, State of the News Print Media in Australia Report, http://www.presscouncil.org.au/snpma/snpma2008/ch02_4_snpma2008.html, accessed 17/03/10.

Higgins, David 2008, ‘Scooped by the Net’, The Walkley Magazine, Feb/Mar 2008.

Nielson, Jakob 1997, Writing for the Web, http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/, accessed 17/03/10.

Nielson Online 2009, Australian Consumers Highly Unlikely to Pay for Online News: Nielson, http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr/paid-for_content-oct09.pdf, accessed 17/03/10.

Quinn, Sarah and Stark Adam, Pegie 2007, The Poynter Institute, Eyetracking the News, http://eyetrack.poynter.org/, accessed 17/03/10.

Rich, Carole 1997, Writing and Reporting News, Wadsworth, Belmont.

Stanford Poynter Project 2000, Consumer Research News Online, http://www.poynterextra.org/et/i.htm, accessed 17/03/10.

Roy Morgan readership reports show an increase in readers of The Australian from 437,000 in March 2007 to an estimated 446,000 in December 2009 with similar statistics for other dailies.

Journalist for the Hornsby and North Shore Advocate, Jessica Clement, said readership numbers of local newspapers are equal between paper and online.

The online news site is updated daily with news stories breaking online, Ms. Clement said, while the newspaper goes into more depth and detail.

Ends

Sources:

Jessica Clement, Journalist, Hornsby & Upper North Shore Advocate, 02 94765111

References:

Roy Morgan Research, Roy Morgan Readership Results for the Year Ending March 2007, http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2007/640/, accessed 17/3/10.

Roy Morgan Research, Roy Morgan Readership estimates for Australia
for the 12 months to December 2009, http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2010/1015/, accessed 17/3/10.