Newswire

Opposition activists in Syria say that pro-government armed groups backed by security forces have killed scores of people in a village in Hama province.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/20126622356228843.html

Gerry Georgatos
Renters Alliance (RA) WA coordinator Lea Keenan said that every week now Blackwood residents, renters and some who are home owners, are joining the movement and "are motivated for a united pursuance for legislation to make life fair for everyone."

Rally – August 15 – WA State Parliament – Rallies Australia-wide – October 16 – every capital city and many towns.
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/05/29/renters-rights-rally-wa-august-15-nat...

A report of falling electricity consumption in Western Australia as homes cut electricity use should not be surprising - electricity consumption is falling all around the world, and has been falling for the past few years, in some countries since 2007, says the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia (SEA).

June 6 2012
Friends of the Earth (FoE) today released a new report investigating risks associated with pesticides in Melbourne's drinking water.

The report focuses on Sugarloaf Reservoir, Melbourne's only reservoir that is supplied from the Yarra River, downstream of one of Australia's most intensively farmed (and sprayed) regions. Sugarloaf supplies drinking water to over 1.5 million Melbournians living in the north and west of the city.

Last night the anti-equality movement launched a stinging campaign against Sunrise and its corporate sponsors. Why? Because on this Thursday's show, Sunrise and marie claire will be joining celebrities and a growing movement of people who support marriage equality.

Let’s stop the campaign by those who seek to propagate hate in its tracks by getting more than ten times as many viewers from around the country to thank Sunrise for standing up for marriage equality.

VICTORIA Police has made dozens of secret financial settlements to halt civil lawsuits in the past five years, ensuring allegations of police brutality and other wrongdoing are not heard in an open court.

Documents obtained by The Age under freedom of information laws show the government solicitor settled 39 lawsuits before trial on behalf of Victoria Police between March 2007 and March this year. Allegations against police included false imprisonment, negligence, assault, trespass, malicious prosecution and defamation.

The allegations were against police stationed across Victoria.

Reposted here with the kind permission of Green Left Weekly's Simon Butler

Saturday, June 2, 2012
By Jay Fletcher

The Liberal leader is an outspoken climate denier, a hardliner on locking out refugees, determined to crackdown on union and workers’ rights and wants to extend racist and draconian attacks on Aboriginal rights.

Yet polls have consistently shown Abbott and the Coalition far ahead of the Julia Gillard Labor government, whose pro-business policies and internal scandals have made it deeply unpopular.

It has been revealed in The Australian newspaper that the 2009 Defence White Paper “Force 2030” included a secret chapter that planned for Australia to fight alongside the U.S. to enforce a naval blockade of crucial sea lanes and how in return Australia might be faced with retaliatory attacks by China on our ports, mines and strategic targets like the U.S. Pine Gap military base. It also reveals that this potential conflict was the reason that the White Paper committed Australia to purchasing tens of billions of dollars worth of military equipment. This revelation is just the latest that documents how the deepening of our military alliance with the U.S. in a time of increasing militarism in the Asia Pacific poses great dangers to the working classes of not just Australia but indeed the whole region.
Related: Coverage in the Australian -- Analysis in the WSWS