Murder-suicide family deny custody battle

The family of a Gold Coast mother and preschooler killed in a triple homicide-suicide deny that a custody battle was at the centre of the tragedy.

Five-year-old Kyla Rogers was found dead alongside her father, 40-year old Paul Rogers, previously from Hamilton, on Monday night in a car near Casino in northern New South Wales in Australia.

Her mother, Tania Simpson, and Nelson man Anthony Way, believed to be her partner, had been found dead in a unit in Robina on the Gold Coast at about 8am the same day.

Anthony's older brother Andre left New Zealand for Australia on Wednesday to retrieve his brother's body.

Police believe Rogers stabbed Way and Simpson to death before abducting Kyla and taking her to northern NSW, where they died together from carbon monoxide poisoning in his car.

Simpson had reportedly called off her engagement to Rogers in the lead-up to the rampage.

Kyla's toddler brother was staying with his grandparents.

Australian police last week said a dispute over the custody of the children was at the centre of the tragedy.

But the Simpsons deny there was a bitter custody battle.

In a statement issued last night, the Simpson family spoke of a "loving mother who had her children's best interests at heart".

They say she was moving on with her life after separating from Rogers and was "happier than she'd ever been".

The family have released a statement thanking people for their support.

They say they cannot comprehend what happened and have asked for privacy while they grieve.

U.N. launches study:Japanese Utility Steps Down nuclear crisis

Japan's Tokyo Electric Power on Friday posted a record $15 billion loss and its under-fire president resigned to take responsibility for the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.

The beleaguered utility posted an annual net loss of 1.247 trillion yen ($15 billion), the biggest ever for a non-financial Japanese firm. The company did not give an earnings forecast for the current financial year.

With compensation liabilities estimated at tens of billions of US dollars, the utility warned the "significant deterioration" in its financial position "raises substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern".

Advertisement: Story continues below

Its heavily criticised president Masataka Shimizu resigned over the crisis at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, after earlier saying he would likely step down at an appropriate time.

"The public has lost confidence in nuclear power," Shimizu told a press conference. "It is the right way for the top manager to take the ultimate responsibility." Sakae Muto, head of TEPCO's nuclear division, also resigned.

Managing director Toshio Nishizawa will replace Shimizu effective after a June shareholders meeting. He said he accepted it was his "fate to lead our efforts in this difficult time," as he apologised for the emergency.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the United Nations would undertake "a U.N. system-wide study on the implications of the Fukushima accident" and present the findings at a high-level meeting on the implications of the crisis to be held during the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting in September.

The report "will address a variety of areas, including environment, health, food security, sustainable development and the nexus between nuclear safety and nuclear security," Ban said in a statement.

"It will also present system-wide views on how to improve disaster risk preparedness," he said. "In producing this study, it is my intention to highlight the need to strengthen the capacity of the relevant international organizations, particularly the IAEA, recognizing its central role."

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukio Amano, said on Thursday that the Japanese nuclear crisis remained very serious though there were some signs of progress.

The IAEA, the World Health Organization and the World Food Program are among the U.N. agencies that will be carrying out the study.

The earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan in March triggered the accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, raising questions about the future of nuclear energy and fueling public fears about the risks of atomic power plants.

But its losses so far do not include compensation claims. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to relocate from the area around the plant, and the livelihoods of nearby farmers and fishermen have been threatened.

Tokyo Electric said it would sell off at least $7.3 billion in assets — including real estate and a stake in one of Japan’s largest telecommunications companies — to help meet compensation payments. The company’s board promised to take no pay, and other executives will return 40 to 60 percent of their paychecks.

The company also said it would not pay dividends for this fiscal year. Still, it was impossible to forecast earnings for the year, the company said.

Moody’s Japan has warned that it could downgrade its debt rating for Tokyo Electric to junk bond status.

Speaking after Tokyo Electric’s announcement, Yukio Edano, the top government spokesman, called for the company to increase efforts to squeeze out funds for compensation payments.

“This is just the start. There must be more scrutiny and more effort,” Mr. Edano said.

During the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, it became clear that Mr. Shimizu would have to go as the nuclear complex was exposed as woefully unprotected against tsunami risks.

Tokyo Electric has also come under intense criticism for its handling of the accident. Revelations this month that three of the plant’s reactors may have suffered meltdowns in the early days of the crisis have added to the furor.

Mr. Shimizu had been particularly criticized for largely disappearing from the public eye just as the crisis worsened. He checked himself into a hospital for a week after the disaster, and has rarely appeared at news conferences since.

Fake Myki survey downloads child porn

Police in Australia are warning Twitter and Facebook users not to click on a survey about a smartcard ticketing system because it's really a virus that will download child porn onto a person's computer.

The fake survey asks people about the Myki system -- a ticketing system used in Victoria for transit. It has been shared on Facebook and Twitter, as well as via e-mail.

The opening page of the link says it has been endorsed by Victoria Premier John Brumby and asks questions like, "Are you confident that the MYKI system will perform flawlessly?"

The link, in a bit.ly format, automatically downloads 45 sexually explicit images of children.

Investigators are concerned people may inadvertedly download the graphic content by clicking on the link.

Police would like to speak to anyone who has accessed the survey, but are not looking to charge people who accidentally received the pornographic images this way.

Investigators have been trying to remove the offending link.

Gillard Trumps Abbott plus carbon tax case

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pushed the case for a carbon tax while avoiding the contentious issues of same-sex marriage and asylum seekers at the Victorian Labor Party conference.

Victoria's Labor Party is facing off with Ms Gillard by putting forward motions supporting gay marriage and same-sex adoption, and condemning her deal with Malaysia over asylum seekers at its annual conference on Saturday.

Ms Gillard, who does not support gay marriage, made no mention of those issues in her keynote speech.

Instead she continued to sell the federal government's May budget and press the case for putting a price on carbon.

In her first address as prime minister to a Labor party conference in her home state, Ms Gillard said Labor was determined to win the fight to price carbon.

"We are fighting to price carbon to tackle climate change and to build a clean energy economy which is prepared and strong," she said.

She criticised Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's stance on the climate change debate.

Ms Gillard then reprised the words of US President Barack Obama who recently mocked Mr Trump for his demands to produce a birth certificate to prove he was not born overseas.

“So let me reply to his increasingly hysterical fear campaign with President Obama's words to his nation when answering the hysteria about his birth certificate,’’ Ms Gillard said.

“We do not have time for this kind of silliness.

“We don’t have time for the politicians and shock jocks who deny the scientific conclusions of NASA and the CSIRO. We don’t have time for made-up figures and shameless fear-mongering.

“We are a nation determined to do our bit to tackle climate change and urgently needing to make a start to build the clean energy economy of the future.”

Ms Gillard’s comments follow a Galaxy Poll published in Queensland’s Courier Mail yesterday that found Labor's primary vote has crashed to 28 per cent.

Mr Abbott has also pulled in front of Ms Gillard as preferred prime minister by a strong 16 percentage point margin according to the state-based poll.

Ms Gillard's comments came after Mr Abbott this week continued his national campaign highlighting what he says will be the significant cost of the Gillard government's carbon tax.

Ms Gillard said the planet was warming dangerously and the tax's effects would not be as severe as being portrayed by the opposition.

She told delegates that she would not be buckling under the political pressure.

"Our national ethos is to have a go," she said.

"And together we will tackle climate change, price carbon, provide assistance to families and protect jobs.

New Easy ad campaign name for Godaddy is all about Domains & Hostings just ez2.me:Next time for Go Daddy.com: Easy to you just www.ez2.me

See All Go Daddy Products

Tell your friends about Easy To Me, Go Daddy,s Approved affiliate

Look more Products from Go daddy just log on

all about Domains & Hostings just ez2.me

IMF race start 123

Amid mounting pressures, beleaguered International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director, Dominique Strauss-Khan, resigned on Thursday, but insists he was innocent of the sexual assault accusations hurled against him.

“It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today to present to the Executive Board my resignation from my post of Managing Director of the IMF.

“I want to say that I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me,” he said in a statement.

Strauss-Kahn, one of the world’s most powerful man and considered as a sure winner in the next French presidential elections, is jailed in New York and awaiting a grandy jurity decision whether there is sufficient evidence to indict him of the allegations that he sexually assaulted a 32-year-old chambermaid in Soffitel Hotel in New York last Saturday.

The International Monetary Fund’s managing director has traditionally been an European male, often a Frenchman. But with Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s resignation amid sexual assault charges, the job is available.

As the Strauss-Kahn controversy rages here, the political fallout appears unclear. So far, the sexual assault allegations dogging him have not hurt the image of his opposition Socialist party. Indeed, an IPSOS survey this week puts another, less charismatic Socialist politician, Francois Hollande, ahead in the polls, scoring 29 percent of possible votes - 10 points ahead of conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.

"Holland has started his campaign a few months ago quietly, saying he was a normal man and a good politician. And this image of stability and normality in [this] context is probably going to play in his favor," said Gosset.

The Strauss-Kahn scandal has also benefited another politician - Marine Le Pen, the 42-year-old leader of the far-right National Front and a rising star in French politics.

Le Pen told French radio Thursday that Strauss-Kahn's indictment definitely puts him out of the presidential race. She has described him as politically discredited.

Along with support, Strauss-Kahn also earned derision among ordinary French, who criticized his wealthy, "caviar-left" lifestyle. Analyst Philippe Moreau Defarges believes the sexual assault charges now facing him only serve to deepen public disillusionment toward the political establishment.

So far, President Sarkozy has remained uncharacteristically silent about the scandal. In 2007, he championed Strauss-Kahn's candidacy to head the IMF - in part, observers say, to get a rival out of the way.

Strauss-Kahn's downfall has not improved Sarkozy's ratings. He remains one of France's most unpopular presidents ever.

Still, journalist Gossett says its too early to write off a second Sarkozy term.

"He's going to fight right to the end and he's very efficient. So even if the polls are low today, it doesn't mean a thing."

Next week, Sarkozy hosts the G8 summit in the French city of Deauville - giving him the opportunity to burnish his international statesman's stature.

And there are a slew of reports that his glamorous wife, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, is pregnant. The presidency has no comment, but recent pictures of Sarkozy are revealing. That may cast the French president in another flattering light - as a happily married, family man.

NY judge orders ex-IMF chief be released from jail

New York prosecutors told New York Supreme Court Judge Michael Obus that an initial location for Strauss-Kahn to be detained had fallen through. Strauss-Kahn is facing charges he tried to rape a hotel maid.

Obus earlier on Friday received a $1 million cash bail and $5 million insurance bond from Strauss-Kahn's lawyers.

Obus had agreed Thursday to release Strauss-Kahn to house arrest with round-the-clock armed guard if he posted $1 million cash bail plus a $5 million bond.

The plan hit a snag after objections from within the apartment building where Strauss-Kahn was initially to stay. Prosecutors say he would be housed temporarily at another location.

The 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn has been behind bars since Saturday after he was accused of trying to rape a hotel maid. He has denied breaking any laws.

The $5 million bond, or $1 million cash bail, was secured by his wife's money, bail bondsman Ira Judelson said.

Lawyers arguing whether Strauss-Kahn should get out of jail while he awaits trial on attempted rape charges have used two famous examples from different sides of the spectrum to make their case Roman Polanski and Bernard Madoff.

Prosecutors brought up Polanski, the French filmmaker whom U.S. authorities pursued for decades after he jumped bail in a 1977 child sex case.

Defense lawyers have mentioned Bernard Madoff, the financier who was freed on high bail and strict house arrest, the same conditions that a judge approved Thursday for Strauss-Kahn.

The judge agreed to free him on bail — provided he's confined to a New York apartment, under armed guard and electronic monitoring.

The Department of Correction said in a statement Friday that it will manage Strauss-Kahn's release following the posting of bail and all required paperwork. A corrections spokeswoman said no details about timing or location of the transfer would be provided, but confirmation would be given of his release from custody.

The 62-year-old French economist and diplomat briefly wore an expression of relief after Obus announced his bail decision in a packed courtroom Thursday. Later, Strauss-Kahn blew a kiss toward his wife.

Strauss-Kahn didn't speak during the court proceeding. But as he headed back to jail for what he hoped would be a final night, lawyer William W. Taylor called the bail decision "a great relief for the family" and said Strauss-Kahn's mindset was "much better now than before we started."

The ex-IMF head is accused of attacking a 32-year-old housekeeper Saturday in his $3,000-a-night hotel suite. The West African immigrant told police he chased her down a hallway in the suite, forced her to perform oral sex and tried to remove her stockings.

One versus Ninety Thousand

Nearly 90,000 people reported being raped in the United States in 2008. There is an arrest rate of 25%.

The United States Justice Department defines rape as

"Rape - Forced sexual intercourse including both psychological coercion as well as physical force. Forced sexual intercourse means vaginal, anal or oral penetration by the offender (s). This category also includes incidents where the penetration is from a foreign object such as a bottle. Includes attempted rapes, male as well as female victims, and both heterosexual and homosexual rape. Attempted rape includes verbal threats of rape."

The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (1999) estimated that 91% of U.S. rape victims are female and 9% are male, with 99% of the offenders being male.

Woolworths sacks staff as planking craze sweeps Australia

Dangerous stunt epidemic sweeping Australia that has already left one man dead. Now major retailers are cracking down on planking, sacking workers who get busted performing the dangerous manoeuvre on the job.

Woolworths, the nation's biggest employer, has axed eight employees across three states this week for planking - which involves laying flat and face-down on top of an object and being photographed - on top of meat grinders, display shelves, trolleys and stacks of milk crates then boasting about it online.

The sackings follow the suspension of six school students for planking in Queensland, with police and education officials warning the fad will not be tolerated.

Planking is a direct contradiction of our safety and health policy. Our employees have a responsibility to ensure their own safety and the safety of those around them."

Mr Wilson added workers were being warned of the dangers of planking at work.

But one of the nation's leading workplace law firms said planking alone should not be grounds for sacking and employees could potentially sue for unfair dismissal.

Slater and Gordon's national head of employment law Marcus Clayton said a warning might be more appropriate.

"If an employee is lying on the lunchroom table at the workplace and they get sacked for that, that's clearly unfair and could be the subject of an unfair dismissal claim," he said.

"If they're presenting a real danger to themselves or others that's an issue for an employer to deal with but whether it's a sackable offence is another question."

The sackings come after Queensland man Acton Beale, 20, died on Sunday when he fell from a balcony while planking.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott became to latest politician warn about the dangers of the craze.

"I don't want to be a killjoy, obviously," Mr Abbott said yesterday.

"But I think it's very important that people think twice before they do something that might be dangerous.

 US President Tweets,  US President    SPresident Tweets, US President Tweets,

US President Tweets, US President Tweets

US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets,

US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,

US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,

US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets US President Tweets  US President Tweets US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,

US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, Read More:  US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US president Tweets, US President Tweets   US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets,  US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets  US President Tweets, US President Tweets, US President Tweets,

Next time for Go Daddy: Easy to you just www.ez2.me Dadicated link for Go Daddy.com Just ez2.me

Obama Says U.S. Opens ’New Chapter’ in Middle East

On Syria, Obama said the government "has chosen the path of murder and the mass arrests of its citizens." He praised the Syrian people for their courage in standing up to repression in a bloody crackdown that has killed hundreds.

Obama said the region's revolutions speak to a "longing for freedom" that has built up for years and has led to the overturning of tyrants - with perhaps more to fall.

He embraced the call for change and compared it to signature moments of US history such as the American revolution and the civil rights movement.

The president spoke at the State Department in his first comprehensive remarks on the astonishing ripples of change in the Middle East. He hailed the killing of al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and declared that bin Laden's vision of destruction was fading even before US forces shot him dead.

Obama compared the upheaval in the Middle East and North Africa to the American revolution and said democracy movements have accomplished in a matter of months the kind of changes that terrorists were unable to achieve in decades.

“The events of the past six months show us that strategies of repression and strategies of diversion will not work anymore,” Obama said in an address at the State Department in Washington. “Two leaders have stepped aside. More may follow.”

The U.S. will support all efforts to meet the legitimate aspirations of the region’s citizens and promote democracy and economic development, he said.

Obama said that for decades the U.S. has pursued core interests in the region including countering terrorism, stemming the flow of nuclear weapons and standing up for Israel’s security along with pursuing Middle East peace.

White those goals remain important, he said, the U.S. “must acknowledge that a strategy based solely upon the narrow pursuits of these interests will not fill an empty stomach.”

Today’s speech comes almost two years after he called for a “new beginning” with the Arab world, at a time of great uncertainty in the region with sweeping and still evolving democratic movements taking shape.

Obama said the "shouts of human dignity are being heard across the region."

The president noted that some "true leaders" had stepped down and that "more may follow".

He quoted civilian protesters who have pushed for change in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen but noted that among those countries, only Egypt had seen the departure of a long-ruling autocratic leader.

Obama said that while there will be setbacks that accompany progress with political transitions, the movements present a valuable opportunity for the US to show which side it is on.

"We have a chance to show that America values the dignity of the street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of a dictator," he said, referring to the fruit vendor who killed himself in despair and sparked a chain of events that unleashed uprisings around the Arab world.