http://smh.com.au/news/national/ News feeds provided by Newslookup.com en Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:28 EST http://smh.com.au/news/national/silver-lining-in-dark-clouds/2008/12/01/1227979933041.html THE economic crisis is producing a new round of winners and losers as the Reserve Bank slashes interest rates for home owners, consumer prices continue to fall, and pensioners and families line up for cash bonuses. http://smh.com.au/news/national/home-truths-for-mr-stevens/2008/12/01/1227979933044.html SPRING is usually the busiest time of the year for Ray Estell, owner of the pool shop in Sylvania Waters, home suburb of the governor of the Reserve Bank, Glenn Stevens. http://smh.com.au/news/national/abandon-ship-passengers-avoid-sydneys-failing-ferries/2008/12/01/1227979933047.html IT COST more than $1.6 million, but the plan to fix Sydney's woeful ferry service has resulted in almost zilch. http://smh.com.au/news/national/im-a-murderer-lplater/2008/12/01/1227979907649.html PORTIA PARKHILL'S last memory of her friend Emma Hansen is watching a red car loom up behind her and another friend as they walked down the street. http://smh.com.au/news/national/year-in-detention-excessive/2008/12/01/1227979933051.html DISSENTERS have broken away from a parliamentary group investigating Australia's immigration detention policy, arguing for more dramatic change including legal rights for detainees and a one-month cap on detention. http://smh.com.au/news/national/dental-rorts-leave-gap-in-budget/2008/12/01/1227979933057.html DENTISTS and their patients are abusing Medicare Dental to get unnecessary, excess or aesthetic work done on their teeth while the neediest patients miss out, health groups say. http://smh.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/parenting/kids-health/kick-the-kids-outside--health-expert/2008/12/01/1227979932591.html Children spend so little time in outdoor activities it is little wonder so many are getting fat at a younger age, a visiting expert said yesterday. http://smh.com.au/news/national/smoking-cure-gets-health-warning/2008/12/01/1227979933060.html AUSTRALIA's drug regulator has issued a new warning about the popular quit-smoking pill Champix, which it linked to depression, aggression and suicidal thoughts and behaviour in some users. http://smh.com.au/news/national/new-body-will-protect-telecom-consumers/2008/12/01/1227979933081.html A NEW body designed to support consumers' rights against telecommunications providers will be set up by the Federal Government. http://smh.com.au/news/environment/river-killed-by-pollution-feeds-city-water-supply/2008/12/01/1227979933075.html A SECTION of the Coxs River in the Blue Mountains that supplies drinking water to Sydney is so polluted by industrial run-off that it is effectively dead, independent water quality tests show. http://smh.com.au/news/environment/green-groups-condemn-climate-plan-delay/2008/12/01/1227979933078.html A CENTRAL plank of the NSW Government's climate change plan has been delayed. Targets for statewide energy efficiency improvements have been put back to next July. http://smh.com.au/news/national/bill-to-give-all-power-to-v8-race/2008/12/01/1227979933084.html SOME laws protecting the environment will not apply to organisers of the V8 supercars race proposed for Homebush next December, under a bill to be debated in State Parliament today. http://smh.com.au/news/national/sharp-on-the-draw-to-prick-pollie-egos/2008/12/01/1227979933069.html A CARTOONISTS' dream encountered a politicians' nightmare yesterday as Peter Garrett named the Australian Financial Review artist David Rowe the best political cartoonist of the year. http://smh.com.au/news/national/out-of-the-blue-the-cars-that-were-meant-to-vanish/2008/12/01/1227979933087.html THE $170 million port facility expansion at Port Kembla was trumpeted by the State Government as the end of car import operations in Sydney. http://smh.com.au/news/national/minister-does-a-uturn-on-rescue-by-ambulances/2008/12/01/1227979933093.html JOHN DELLA BOSCA'S closest backer, the Health Services Union, has convinced him to reverse a decision made just two months ago so that responsibility for rescue services will be handed back to the NSW Ambulance Service. http://smh.com.au/news/national/free-etags-not-so-free-for-disabled/2008/12/01/1227979933090.html DISABLED motorists will be forced to pay between $40 and $60 for their "free" e-tag from next month when the Harbour Bridge goes cashless. And drivers who do not use their e-tag regularly will have to pay a fee, the NSW Opposition has warned. http://smh.com.au/news/national/strict-controls-sought-on-bailed-pedophile/2008/12/01/1227979933099.html THE movements of serial pedophile Kenneth Davidson Tillman should be monitored for the next five years to ensure public safety, a court has heard. http://smh.com.au/news/lifeandstyle/parenting/pregnancy--birth/small-stresses-in-pregnancy-affects-child/2008/12/01/1227979932594.html Even relatively minor, everyday stress during pregnancy may affect the brain of the growing foetus and cause problem behaviour by the time the child reaches pre-school age, according to Australian research that suggests the psychological effects of financial troubles and personal conflict may start even before birth. http://smh.com.au/news/national/checks-on-pools-old-and-new-urged/2008/12/01/1227979933102.html BACKYARD swimming pools that do not meet safety standards because they were built before the 1992 Swimming Pool Act should be compulsorily upgraded when the property is sold, the Royal Life Saving Society says. http://smh.com.au/news/national/court-damns-fake-pope/2008/12/01/1227979938770.html Riding in a glass enclosed box atop a silver Mazda, the Pope created quite a stir when he arrived at North Sydney Oval during a World Youth Day event earlier this year. http://smh.com.au/news/national/funding-row-puts-private-schools-at-risk/2008/12/01/1227979933096.html THOUSANDS of independent schools could be deprived of government funding next year because of a political impasse over Federal Government plans to force them to teach a national curriculum and disclose their sources of private income. http://smh.com.au/news/national/correction/2008/12/01/1227979933054.html Yesterday's report "Honouring the '39ers" should have quoted the headmaster of Shore, Dr Tim Wright, as saying that a recent casualty in Afghanistan was an old boy of a brother GPS school of Shore. 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