Vic: Brothel manager gets CBO over 14yo worker

AAP General News (Australia)
02-03-2009
Vic: Brothel manager gets CBO over 14yo worker

A Melbourne brothel manager who let a 14-year-old girl work as a prostitute has been
convicted and will be on the sex offender's register for life.

JANETTE WOODS of Brookfield has been given a community-based order with 125 hours of
unpaid community .. work for allowing the girl to work at the Brunswick brothel in 2007.

The Melbourne Magistrates' …

Consolidated Graphics Expands Cloud Computing Solutions with Top- tier Data Center

Wireless News
05-24-2011
Consolidated Graphics Expands Cloud Computing Solutions with Top- tier Data Center
Type: News

Consolidated Graphics, Inc. has announced it will open a new top- tier data center in Houston on June 1.

The center was designed in collaboration with HP, a partner of Consolidated Graphics, and incorporates high-density HP servers, storage, and networking systems needed to power the company's Hybrid Delivery cloud computing solutions. The Company reported that the facility is Level 4 compliant, meaning it is built to the highest security levels to secure data and ensure uninterrupted service in the event of power outages or violent acts of nature such as hurricane, tornado or flood.
"We're committed to being an industry leader in technology, and our new data center and advanced marketing solutions combine to make cloud computing truly tangible for our customers," said Paul Garner, executive VP and Chief Technology Officer of Consolidated Graphics. "There is a huge void in advanced technology being deployed within the printing industry, but Consolidated Graphics is changing that. We truly have evolved into being a technology-based services company supported by world-class print manufacturing."

The new center creates an infrastructure on the ground that has the ability to store and process data in multiples of ways, depending on the requirements of customers. Consolidated Graphics noted that the facility, designed as an on-premise cloud computing center, provides elasticity to add processing power and data capacity in the cloud virtually on demand, meeting the fluctuating needs of the marketplace. Powered by an HP Converged Infrastructure architecture comprised of HP ProLiant BL460c high-density servers, HP StorageWorks P9500 Disk Array, HP StorageWorks 9000 Virtual Library System, HP StorageWorks ESL 712e Ultrium Tape Library, and HP A12500-series core switches, the infrastructure environment is scalable to meet customer demand.

The center's cloud computing hardware infrastructure supports the next-generation of technology-based marketing solutions that Consolidated Graphics is developing for its customers. These marketing solutions, bundled under the WorkSmart Suite brand, are being developed using components of the Microsoft Windows Azure platform. The Company said that this cloud-based development platform enables software applications, such as those that comprise WorkSmart Suite, to run virtually through the internet.

"Our cloud-based data center is the foundation of a much larger technology-based offering that Consolidated Graphics provides to its customers," adds Garner. "This is just the start of things to come."

Consolidated Graphics is a general commercial printing company.

More Information:

www.cgx.com/

((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))

Copyright 2011 Close-Up Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
n/a

NSW:Box cutter used in Sydney street robbery

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-2011
NSW:Box cutter used in Sydney street robbery

SYDNEY, Aug 31 AAP - A man has been charged with threatening two men with a box cutter
knife in separate incidents in Sydney's west.

A shopkeeper was standing outside his store in Fairfield about 5.15pm (AEST) on Monday
when a robber came up behind him, police said.

The robber allegedly held a box cutter knife to the shopkeeper's throat and demanded money.

The victim handed over his wallet containing the day's takings from his store.

Twenty minutes later, a security guard at a pub had a box cutter knife pointed at him
by a man who then fled the scene, police said.

On Tuesday, police arrested a 23-year-old man at Fairfield and charged him with offences
including robbery and assault.

He was refused bail and is due to appear at Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday.

AAP ih/wjf/mm

KEYWORD: BOXCUTTER

� 2011 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

FREAKY NEWS ; Former journalist Harrison Thorp drew on many recollections for his new self-published novel.

BOB KEYES Staff Writer
Portland Press Herald (Maine)
02-27-2011
FREAKY NEWS ; Former journalist Harrison Thorp drew on many recollections for his new self-published novel.
Byline: BOB KEYES Staff Writer
Edition: FINAL
Section: Audience
Type: News

Harrison Thorp knows the news business pretty well. He spent two decades at newspapers from Maine to Virginia, including The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, where he worked as a copy editor. He specialized in writing witty headlines and trying to add humor, or at least some levity, to the pages.

Along the way, he acquired lots of great stories.
Those stories form the backbone of his new self-published novel, "Freak the News: Journalistic High Jinks in a Small Maine Town."

The novel is about a guy named Chris, a seasoned journalist who returns to work the copy desk at a small Maine newspaper, and Shawn, a cub reporter. They team up on a story about a surgical death at a local hospital and an alcoholic physician, but newspaper executives kill the story. Further investigation reveals that the paper and the hospital have a business deal in place.

So, over the course of 250-odd pages, Thorp attempts to shake our faith not only in the hospital business, but also the news business.

Thorp, who lives in Lebanon on the New Hampshire border, says the book is not based on any single incident, but on a series of events that he witnessed over the course of his career. He combined those recollections and created characters based on people he knows and worked with to create the story.

Q: Explain the genesis of your story.

A: I worked at many newspapers and saw a lot of different newsroom cultures over the course of my career. When I got out of the business, I had a hilarious time looking back on the newsroom banter and funny things that happened. I had such a tapestry of stories that I really wanted to write something. It seemed to be a waste of a career to not do it. I considered very briefly - for a nanosecond - doing a memoir, but I think that's gratuitous, and I didn't see any market for it. So I invented through conspiratorial neurosis a fictitious plot that rang true. Pretty much everything in the book happened in some form or fashion.

Q: In your career, did your newspapers cover stories about surgical deaths?

A: I remember stories about surgical deaths and stories about infections, that sort of thing. That's what they were called in curbside vernacular - surgical death stories. They were mostly about infections, basic perfunctory cleanliness things sometimes. These were usually national stories, and we would discuss them in the budget meetings. You know, "This might be worth a follow. This might be worth localizing," that sort of thing.

Q: You seem pretty cynical about the news business. Why?

A: I think a lot of people don't really get their opinions or views of politics or culture from the news anymore. They get it from bloggers and the Internet and Facebook. I think newspapers recognize that, and that is why you see a decrease in enterprise and investigative work. But I will say this: One thing newspapers do have, they have a system in place where they can report the news that goes on in neighborhoods and towns better than anyone else, because they have the expertise to do it. But I don't see the big Pulitzer Prize-winning stories anymore.

When I was the Sunday editor at Foster's (Daily Democrat in New Hampshire), we had reporters working on a story for a month. They didn't do anything else during that time. But when that story came out, it would be important and timely. You just don't see that as much anymore. You see a lot of really good day-to-day stuff, but you don't see the big stories that you used to see.

Q: Where did you start your career?

A: I started by writing a (contributed) article for the Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer about my basketball team. I couldn't get any coverage, but they said, "Why don't you write the story?" So I did. I was teaching at the time, but I worked for them as a correspondent in 1983 and 1984, and then in 1985 I went to the Recorder in Greenfield, Mass. I moved to Virginia for a better teaching job, and began working as a correspondent for the daily in Charlottesville. Again, I was mesmerized by the news business.

At the end of the school year, I elected to take a drop in pay and work for a weekly. That's really where it started. From there, I went to Culpeper, Va., to work for a small daily.

I'm from New England - from Hingham, Mass. - and I had the chance to come back to New England when I got a job with the Portsmouth (N.H.) Herald, and did sports for a while. I got laid off there, and started working part-time for the Lowell Sun and part-time for The Portland Press Herald in the early 1990s. And then finally, I went to the Eagle Times in Claremont, N.H., and got a full-time job. It was an interesting time to be there. I was working the night that Lady Di got killed. It happened around 11:30 or midnight, and I remember tearing apart the paper. I stayed there until they started the Sunday at Foster's. They gave me a call.

Q: Why did you end up in Lebanon?

A: When I came back to New England to work in Portsmouth, I went to a real estate office. They had a big map of the area. They asked me what I was making and when I told them, they said, "You can afford a house here," and they pointed on the map to Lebanon, Maine.

Q: What do you want people to take away from this read?

A: When I used to write a column - any kind of sports column or a news column or an editorial - I liked to make people laugh, and then I liked to sneak in a message. When you are done reading and laughing, hopefully they still get the message, which is buyer beware.

Q: Any positives about the newspaper business these days?

A: I think it's positive that they are still here. I was talking to one of the executives at Foster's about a week ago. I said, "How's it going?"

He said, "We're finding new ways, finding new streams. We're hanging in there."

Q: Who are these people in the book?

A: All the names have been changed. The best cache that I have, I have worked at a lot of papers, but I am not working at one now. I can tell the truth.

Everything in that book in some way, shape or form did happen. They are writ from real life.

Q: How is the book doing?

A: It's doing fairly OK. I am also trying to sell this as a journalism textbook.

I've had several journalism professors buy the book, because it's a good book for Journalism 101. I am looking at everything from pursuing that idea to screenplays to the whole bit. I honestly think it could be easily turned into a screenplay, so I am shopping it. We'll see.

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

Follow him on Twitter at:

twitter.com/pphbkeyes

Illustrations/Photos:
Caption: Harrison Thorp

Copyright 2009 Blethen Maine Newspapers

NSW:Govt denies doctors pushed to work more

AAP General News (Australia)
12-05-2010
NSW:Govt denies doctors pushed to work more

New South Wales Premier KRISTINA KENEALLY has denied doctors are being pushed to work
extra shifts to cut elective surgery waiting lists .. ahead of the March state election.

She's denied a Sunday Telegraph report in which the AMA says public hospitals are pressuring
surgeons to work weekends and additional shifts to reduce waiting times.

Ms KENEALLY says New South Wales exceeded its surgery targets between July and December
last year .. and she's been advised by NSW Health that there's no such directive in place.

She says her government signed up in 2007 to the Commonwealth's elective surgery waiting
list reduction plan.

Opposition health spokeswoman JILLIAN SKINNER says the government's trying to distort
hospital waiting figures in the run up to the state election.

AAP RTV ih/ajw/

KEYWORD: HOSPITALS NSW (SYDNEY)

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Productivity must be raised for long-term well-being:report

AAP General News (Australia)
04-28-2010
Fed: Productivity must be raised for long-term well-being:report

CANBERRA, April 28 AAP - The federal government must take an active roll in raising
productivity for the nation's long-term wellbeing, a new government committee report has
found.

The House of Representatives Economics Committee's report on productivity growth, released
on Wednesday, makes a number of recommendations and calls for a national productivity
forum in the next parliament.

Committee Chair Craig Thomson said robust productivity growth would be a key determinant
of Australia's long-term economic prosperity.

"With the challenges posed by a larger and ageing population, climate change and the
current constrained fiscal environment, productivity growth is essential to generate the
living standards and community wellbeing expected by Australians," he said, releasing
the report.

The report noted that Australia experienced a productivity growth surge in the mid-1990s,
averaging 2.3 per cent "multi-factor" productivity growth per annum.

Since then, productivity growth has declined, with multi-factor productivity declining
0.4 per cent from 2003/04 to the present day.

"The high per capita incomes Australians currently enjoy can be attributed to favourable
commodity prices and thus strong terms of trade," the report said.

"However, to secure long-term economic growth, Australia will need to focus on productivity
growth, through improvements in the technical efficiency of firms and their utilisation
of technological advances."

A national forum would bring together governments, business, unions and non-government
organisations.

It recommends that the government introduce a national aggregate productivity growth
target for the medium term to 2030.

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) should adopt a specific national productivity
agenda, while the Productivity Commission should undertake modelling on the effect of
human capital investment on Australian productivity growth.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics should investigate alternative ways of measuring
multi-factor productivity in the services sector, while a cost-benefit analysis should
be mandatory for all policies aimed at increasing aggregate productivity growth.

Any national productivity agenda should include public sector service provision, it said.

AAP cb/sb/tr

KEYWORD: PRODUCTIVITY

� 2010 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Woman found dead in Canberra apartment block

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-2009
Fed: Woman found dead in Canberra apartment block

CANBERRA, Dec 15 AAP - Police are investigating whether the death of a woman in a northern
Canberra apartment building is suspicious.

ACT Policing received reports a woman had been found dead in the grounds of a residential
apartment complex in Turner just after 11am (AEDT) on Tuesday.

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of her death.

"It's early in the investigation and yet to be determined whether it is suspicious
or not," a police spokeswoman told AAP.

AAP bsb/de

KEYWORD: APARTMENT UPDATE

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Unemployment steady in July

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2009
Fed: Unemployment steady in July

Australia's unemployment was steady at 5.8 per cent in July,.

The result's better than economists' forecasts of a six per cent jobless rate.

The Rudd government still expects unemployment to peak at 8.5 per cent by 2011.

MORE RTV saj/rl/ka

KEYWORD: JOBS (CANBERRA)

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

NSW: Main stories in today's Sydney newspapers=3

AAP General News (Australia)
02-12-2009
NSW: Main stories in today's Sydney newspapers=3

THE AUSTRALIAN:

Page 1: Emergency services were not able to warn residents in bushfire-prone areas
via telephone of impending danger on the weekend because of privacy laws and interstate
bickering among politicians.

Page 2: CSIRO scientists have studied houses lost in every major Australian bushfire
since Ash Wednesday to devise guidelines on where and how to build a home to withstand
bushfires. Green movement blamed for severity of Victorian fires through their opposition
to prescribed burning.

Page 3: Greg Annand, assumed killed in fires, is alive. LaTrobe University professor
among people killed in fires.

World: Stalemate between politicians Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni leaves Israel in limbo.

Finance: Chinese exports have suffered their biggest fall in more than a decade. Australian
banks are being investigated over concerns some are misleading consumers with advertisements
for high-interest online savings accounts.

Sport: Swimming: Geoff Huegill confesses that fear was his first response to the idea
of contesting the 100m butterfly at this weekend's NSW championships.

AAP bc/jl

KEYWORD: MONITOR FRONTERS NSW 3 SYDNEY

2009 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

SA: 83-year-old woman killed on way to church

AAP General News (Australia)
08-24-2008
SA: 83-year-old woman killed on way to church

ADELAIDE, Aug 24 AAP - An 83-year-old Adelaide woman was killed by an alcohol-affected
driver on her way to church today, police say.

The woman was struck as she crossed suburban Portrush Road just metres from her Payneham
home this morning.

Police allege the driver had a blood alcohol reading nearly four times the legal limit.

He immediately lost his licence for a year and was refused police bail.

The 36-year-old Payneham man was arrested and charged with causing the woman's death
by negligent driving and drink driving.

He remains in police custody and will appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Superintendent Mark Fairney, officer in charge of the traffic support branch, said
the death took the state's road toll so far this year to 56, compared to 75 for the same
time last year.

"This is not only an absolute tragedy for the woman's family and close friends, I am
disgusted that another human being took it upon himself to get behind the wheel having
consumed a large amount of alcohol and then driven at high speed, killing this woman,"

he said in a statement.

"Again, I wonder how some people justify in their own minds that drink driving is OK.

It is not OK."

The Major Crash Investigation Unit is appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the
crash or saw a white Ford Fairlane travelling south on Portrush road about 8am to contact
BankSA Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

AAP njl/jpm/mn

KEYWORD: TOLL SA NIGHTLEAD

2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

0100 2GB Sydney Headlines

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2008
0100 2GB Sydney Headlines

- 2020 summit begins in Canberra today

- Family and friends of Nick D'Arcy say they're devastated he's been cut from the Olympic team

- 4 people released from hospital following white powder scare on New South Wales north coast

- Mugabe makes first public appearance since disputed elections

- Pope arrives in New York

- Gangland killer Williams wins right to appeal sentence

SPORT

- NRL, Cricket, Super14, AFL

AAP RTV tm

KEYWORD: 0100 2GB

2008 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

VIC: Osland wins grant to continue her fight

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2007
VIC: Osland wins grant to continue her fight

By Jeff Turnbull

MELBOURNE, Dec 14 AAP - A domestic violence victim jailed for murdering her abusive
husband has won the right to appeal for access to documents outlining why she was denied
a pardon.

Heather Osland, who was sent to jail in 1996 for 14-and-a-half years for killing Frank
Osland, was today granted special leave to seek access to the documents in the Victorian
Supreme Court of Appeal.

Osland's counsel Ron Merkel QC argued there had been a denial of natural justice in
his client being prohibited to see the Victorian government's written decision for refusing
her plea for mercy.

Osland's murder trial had attracted attention because of her use of battered woman
syndrome to explain the murder of her husband after 13 years of physical, sexual and emotional
abuse.

Following her murder trial, the Victorian government introduced a bill allowing victims
of family violence who kill their partners to claim self-defence even if they were not
facing immediate attack.

Osland was released in July 2005 after serving a minimum nine-and-a-half years and
is serving out a three-year parole order.

Outside the court, surrounded by family and supporters, Osland said she was happy she
would now have the opportunity to resume her fight for a pardon.

"It gives me the opportunity to take it further and to find out why the government
did not grant my petition of mercy," Osland said.

Osland said if the government had granted her appeal for mercy in 2000 she would have
been released in time to see her first grandchild born.

"If they had granted my petition of mercy I would have been released in 2000 and I
would have been free to be released from prison without the conditions of parole and without
serving those extra four years," she said.

"I would have had those four years to be with my family and I would have seen the birth
of my grandchild."

AAP jxt/pmu/jl/bwl

KEYWORD: OSLAND

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

ACT: Opposition wants to stop criminals profiting from stories

AAP General News (Australia)
08-03-2007
ACT: Opposition wants to stop criminals profiting from stories

CANBERRA, Aug 3 AAP - The ACT opposition wants new laws to stop criminals profiting
from their stories, after the man who ran down Treasurer Peter Costello's chief-of-staff
reportedly demanded money from a newspaper.

Nealle Andrew Simpson, 28, of Monash in Canberra, was last month fined $2,000 after
pleading guilty to driving off from an accident without stopping.

Mr Costello's staffer Phil Gaetjens, 52, suffered a fractured skull and ribs in the
accident near Parliament House on June 29 and was in a coma for a week.

He is expected to make a full recovery.

When approached by News Limited to tell his side of the story earlier this week, Simpson
reportedly demanded payment.

ACT Opposition Leader Bill Stefaniak said the ACT needs legislation to stop criminals
profiting from their misdeeds, including by selling their stories.

He said a number of other Australian jurisdictions already had such laws and the ACT
should follow suit.

"Such laws acknowledge the harm suffered by victims and deal with unjust enrichment
and indirect gain from crime," Mr Stefaniak said in a statement.

"If the Stanhope government will not introduce such a law, the Liberals will introduce it."

AAP ag/jt/mn

KEYWORD: PROFIT

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: Indian couple poisoned with arsenic, lead, mercury

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2007
Fed: Indian couple poisoned with arsenic, lead, mercury

SYDNEY, Feb 1 AAP - The federal drug reaction watchdog has called for cautious use
of Indian medicines bought overseas after a couple was hospitalised with lead and arsenic
poisoning.

The Indian pair were given a traditional ayurvedic potion while visiting their home
country early last year, the Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (ADRAC) has reported.

After taking the unidentified medicine for five months, the man was admitted to an
Australian hospital with abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

He had high arsenic and mercury readings, and a lead level of 120 grams per deciliter
(g/dL), more than 12 times the acceptable blood concentration of 10g/dL.

His wife had no symptoms but registered lead levels of 40g/dL.

The incident has prompted ADRAC to warn about the toxic content heavy metals found
in some ayurvedic medicines.

"The possibility of contamination and adulteration should be considered for any herb
or herbal medicine purchased overseas, imported into Australia for personal use or obtained
over the internet," the committee states in its latest bulletin.

The problem is less likely to occur with Indian and Chinese medicines registered as
complementary therapies in Australia as they must meet set standards.

AAP tam/evt/nf

KEYWORD: AYURVEDIC

2007 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Qld: Beattie warns farmers over water crisis

AAP General News (Australia)
08-23-2006
Qld: Beattie warns farmers over water crisis

TOOWOOMBA, Qld, Aug 23 AAP - Farmers in Queensland's fruit and vegetable bowl may be
paid to stop working their land if the water crisis in the Lockyer Valley continues.

Premier Peter Beattie today warned the action could be a drastic measure as Queensland's
south-east faces its worst drought on record.

Without substantial rain in the next six months, some farmers will see their allocations
cut to zero to ensure there is enough drinking water for towns and cities.

Plans are under way to pump recycled sewage from Brisbane's Luggage Point works to
the region, but the pipeline may take another two years to complete.

But Mr Beattie said the government had other options up its sleeve if the drought dragged on.

"If the Armageddon situation continued and it didn't rain in 2007, then we might have
to actually pay them not to farm for a year," Mr Beattie told reporters in Toowoomba.

"Now I think that is a last resort, but I want Queenslanders to know that we have a
whole lot of tough Armageddon-type solutions in our bottom draw if we reach a crisis position.

"I think people would want us to be prepared if it didn't rain.

"I don't think this is going to happen, but it is drinking water."

Mr Beattie said any farmers affected by such a move would not be financially disadvantaged.

"We would do it on a farm by farm basis," he said.

Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said Labor was to blame for the water crisis.

"This would never had happened under a coalition government. We would have built the
water pipelines, we would have built the dams," he told reporters in Cairns.

"But now because of Mr Beattie and this government's neglect we've not only got a water
crisis, but we are going to have a fruit and vegetable shortage and we are going to have
an electricity crisis as well."

AAP pjo/sc/evt/de

KEYWORD: POLL QLD FARMERS

) 2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

MSW: Rotting fruit and vegies make 16 sick and cause alert

AAP General News (Australia)
04-17-2006
MSW: Rotting fruit and vegies make 16 sick and cause alert

Carbon monoxide gas .. from rotting fruit and vegetables .. has put 16 Sydney people in hospital.

They were among 50 people evacuated from a Marrickville fruit and veg barn .. when
they were overcome by what authorities first believed was a gas leak.

The people were taken to hospital with headaches and nausea .. and firefighters spent
hours trying to locate the source of the leak .. calling finally in the Hazardous Materials
Unit.

Four hours later .. the source of the leak was still a mystery.

The fire brigade says it finally became clear and was tracked to rotting produce ..

which had begun to ferment .. producing carbon monoxide.

AAP RTV tr/was/goc/

KEYWORD: FRUIT (SYDNEY)

2006 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

Fed: ATO out to hurt business with service trusts: AMA

AAP General News (Australia)
08-15-2005
Fed: ATO out to hurt business with service trusts: AMA

CANBERRA, Aug 15 AAP - The Australian Tax Office (ATO) was trying to abolish a key
business practice and swamp professionals with red tape, the Australian Medical Association
(AMA) said today.

AMA president Mukesh Haikerwal said a proposed reform of service trusts was simply
an effort by the tax office to boost its bottom line at the expense of legitimate business
operators.

The ATO has issued a draft ruling on service trusts which are most often used by professionals
such as doctors and lawyers to run the business side of their operations.

The draft ruling is likely to catch trusts which the tax office claims have, in many
cases, been used to reduce taxable income.

The tax office also plans to investigate service trusts with incomes of more than $1 million.

But Dr Haikerwal said the tax office was going too far.

"The ATO is on a mission to abolish service trusts by stealth," he said in a statement.

"It is an attempt by the ATO to tell taxpayers how to run their businesses.

"They are ignoring all previous court decisions on the application of service trusts,
and the draft ruling is a complete about-face from their previous approach to the issue."

Dr Haikerwal said the ATO had made the situation worse by seeking to make its ruling
retrospective.

The medical association, along with other professional groups, has started petitioning
government MPs and senators to force the ATO to drop its proposals.

Dr Haikerwal said the ATO had to rethink its plans.

"As far as we're concerned, these changes have been brought in without any knowledge
of the complexities involved in running a medical practice or the pressures on the assets
of doctors and their families because of factors like medical indemnity," he said.

"The AMA wants the ATO to engage in more detailed consultation with the medical profession
before taking this draft ruling any further."

AAP sw/sb/cdh/cjh/jlw

KEYWORD: TAX

2005 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.

clipclop.com Enterprises, Inc. Retains Services of Investor Representative.

Business Editors

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 23, 2001

clipclop.com Enterprises, Inc. (OTCBB:CLOPF) a technology company specializing in e-commerce, Web services for the equestrian industry, and software development; has retained the services of A.J. Bellantoni to handle the day to day Investor Representation.

Mr. Bellantoni will officially begin his employment on September 4, 2001.

Jonathan Severn, President and CEO of clipclop, commented on the hiring of Mr. Bellantoni, "We have laid all the fundamental groundwork for a successful company; we are profitable, have a strong management team and are growing at a very manageable pace. Hiring an internal I.R. person was the logical next step if we are to continue to increase shareholder value.(a) A.J. brings 30 years of industry experience, including several years providing I.R. services for boutique firms. I am very confident our shareholders will be pleased with what they hear."

About clipclop.com Enterprises, Inc.

clipclop.com Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded technology company specializing in Web services for the equestrian industry, e-commerce, and software solutions. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries and divisions -- USe-Store Worldwide, clipclopWorldwide.com, and Promark Worldwide -- the company offers a range of products and services for consumers and businesses. clipclop.com Enterprises, Inc. employs approximately 15 people in its offices in Vancouver, British Columbia and Ventura, California.

Legal Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements," including forward-looking statements as that term is defined in Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Statements in this press release, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this press release have been identified with an "(a)" and include statements regarding:

(a) clipclop anticipating and predicting that it will be able to stay profitable or increase shareholder value.

It is important to note that the Company's actual results and outcomes may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties such as, insufficient demand and market acceptance of USe-Store's website as place to sell products and/or services on the Internet, emergence of companies with competing or superior websites and services, unforeseen changes in the software and hardware technology used in connection with the Internet, unforeseen claims in connection with the Company's intellectual property rights in connection with its web hosting services, unforeseen laws and regulations governing the sale of products and/or services over the Internet, continued development and maintenance of the infrastructure required for the Internet, continued and expanded use of the Internet as a basis for e-commerce, communication and computing, and the overall success of the Company and its subsidiaries in general.

Although clipclop.com, Inc. believes that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should refer to the risk disclosures outlined in the Company's annual report of Form 20-F for the year ended September 30, 2000 and the Company's other periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Former maid abuse case.

Naomi Campbell has settled a lawsuit alleging she hit and verbally abused her former maid. In the case which was settled out of court, Gaby Gibson claimed the British supermodel struck her on several occasions and called her insulting names while she worked for her between November 2005 and January 2006. Romanian-born Gaby branded Naomi a "violent super-bigot" and alleged the model bullied her about her poor grasp of English. Gaby's lawsuit - which was filed at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York in November 2006 - also claimed the 38-year-old beauty had threatened to charge her with theft after she couldn't find a pair of designer jeans. Although the terms of the settlement are undisclosed, Naomi's lawyer David Breitbart said: "Everybody's happy with the way it ended and everybody's happy that it's over."

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