Donning shiny new shoes for his first sailing race, RUSSELL CROWE looks set to breaka 19-year-old record aboard the yacht he and his film buddies are crewing.
Five boats, including CROWE'S 83-footer Travelex, are inside the record for the StrathfieldPittwater Coffs race - the largest on Australia's east coast.
With up to 10 male friends, CROWE was invited by skipper LUDDE INGVALL aboard the yacht,which sailed as Nicorette to win the …
CANBERRA, Aug 23 AAP - Australian Democrats deputy leader Aden Ridgeway will reconsiderhis decision to stand for leader after the interim appointment of Brian Greig in the topjob.
Senator Ridgeway said today that the decision went against the views of the party's members.
"Obviously I'm going to reconsider many things between now and Wednesday of next weekabout whether to contest the leadership and a number of other issues," Senator Ridgewaytold reporters.
He said he accepted the national executive's decision to choose Senator Greig but arguedthat their decision overruled the wishes of members.
"I want to say I think the national executive is out of sync but I will give SenatorGreig my full support," he said.
"What's most important at this time is that the party doesn't need to further rip itself apart."
Senator Ridgeway said he had not thought about leaving the party, regardless of theoutcome of the leadership ballot in several weeks.
"I'm not speculating on those issues because I haven't seen what the outcome is goingto be in relation to the leadership ballot," he said.
He also said the so-called gang of four senators responsible for a 10-point reformpackage presented to Senator Stott Despoja on the day she resigned were not consideringleaving the party.
But some people had fallen on their sword and he said he would not accept senatorscasting blame on other senators.
"It's an absolute nonsense and I will not accept it," he said, referring to talk ofthe plan causing Senator Stott Despoja's resignation.
Australians had had a gutful of the turbulence in the party, he said.
AAP lm/daw/cjh/de
KEYWORD: DEMOCRATS RIDGEWAY
BRISBANE, April 16 AAP - Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has met with a victim ofconvicted child sex abuser and former Labor MP Bill D'Arcy.
Mr Beattie was condemned by child protection groups and the opposition last week forrefusing to meet the victim, who first approached him a year ago.
The premier told state parliament today he and Attorney-General Rod Welford had metthe woman for an hour last night.
D'Arcy is serving a 10-year jail term for molesting children at a country Queenslandschool when he was a teacher in the 1960s.
Mr Beattie said the meeting with the woman was positive and constructive and a numberof ideas raised by the victim about the treatment of victims would be considered by thegovernment.
The premier said the government was committed to protecting children from abuse.
To this end, statewide criminal checks on volunteers who worked with children wouldbegin on May 1.
Those cleared will receive a "suitability card", which will last two years.
AAP pjo/sc/las
KEYWORD: ABUSE QLD
SYDNEY, Feb 1 AAP - Notorious paedophile Philip Harold Bell today lost his bid to appealhis convictions on child sex offences.
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal refused Bell leave to appeal against convictions on28 charges involving five children.
Bell claimed he was convicted on uncorroborated evidence from one of his victims, andthat events and assaults alleged by the victim were the product of premeditated perjury.
However Acting Justice Rex Smart today said it was open for the jury in Bell's 1998trial to accept the victim's evidence.
"It was well open to the jury to reach the verdicts which they did. Any other resultwould have been surprising," he said.
"The verdicts were reasonable and amply supported by the evidence."
The former millionaire businessman was jailed in 1999 for 14 years, with a non-paroleperiod of 10-and-a-half years, on the charges he was found guilty of, plus another 47offences he admitted to against 18 boys aged 12-15 between 1978 and 1991.
Bell will be eligible for parole in 2007.
Bell had claimed he was not a paedophile but a hebophile, which he described as involvingthe reciprocal love of a man for a youth.
AAP gl/jjs/tnf/bwl
KEYWORD: BELL
