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Local News

Canberra set to become the first place in Australia to legislate the right to a healthy environment

Canberra could become the first place in Australia to give people a legal right to a healthy environment, with the ACT government today introducing new human rights legislation.

The Human Rights (Healthy Environment) Amendment Bill 2023 seeks to address the impacts of climate change and shore up the environment for future generations, according to the government.

It said a healthy environment included "clean air, a safe climate, access to safe water and to healthy and sustainably produced food …. [with] healthy biodiversity and ecosystems".

The government said the law would require ACT authorities to consider the environment when making decisions or carrying out functions.

But any breaches of the yet-to-be-passed law will not attract penalties for some time.

The government said this was to allow time to see what happened with similar international laws, and to give people a chance to fully understand the changes.

But it said Canberrans would soon be able to raise any breaches with the ACT Human Rights Commission.
That's us, out of touch with the rest of the nation again. :p
 
Also:

Man who set fire to doors of Old Parliament House admits his actions were 'not honourable'

The man found guilty of setting the doors of Old Parliament House on fire has conceded in the ACT Supreme Court his actions served no purpose.

Nicholas Reed, 32, who is also known as Wareywaa Kirlwil Yarrawirri, was found guilty of arson by a jury in September, and today faced a sentencing hearing.

On the day of the offence in December 2021, Reed carried several loads of hot coals to the door while other people obscured the flames from authorities.

The fire caused $5 million in damage to the historic doors, and the inside of the building.
 
Big ongoing news here still is that back in early fall someone was murdered on the local rail trail (where I habitually ride my bike) and has not been caught. It's winter now so I'm off the trail anyway, but sure hope something happens before spring.

Elsewhere, a sheriff upstate was recorded kicking a shackled prisoner. He got re-elected anyway, and was quite defiant about it. The court revoked his permit to do anything. They can't unelect him, but now he can't arrest anyone or serve a warrant or do much of anything sheriffy. Except, I guess, eat donuts and yell with his mouth full.
 
The Mainichi Shimbun reports:

KAGOSHIMA -- An explosion occurred at around 12 a.m. on Dec. 10 after a man sprayed insecticide in an apartment room in the city of Kumamoto, breaking a balcony window and causing him minor injuries.

According to Kumamoto Prefectural Police's Kumamoto Higashi Police Station, a 54-year-old man spotted a cockroach inside his apartment in Kumamoto's Chuo Ward and sprayed a large amount of insecticide to try and kill it. About one minute later an explosion occurred. During an investigation, burn marks were detected near a "kotatsu" heating table.

The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan has received several reports of explosions believed to have been caused by sprayed insecticides igniting after contact with electrical outlets or other sources.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20231211/p2a/00m/0na/006000c
 
I heard it was the other way around.

No realli! She was Karving her initials on the moose with the sharpened end of an interspace toothbrush given her by Svenge, her brother-in-law, an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian movies: "The Hot Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Molars of Horst Nordfink".

Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti.
 
Woman found dead at National zoo in Canberra after alleged stabbing

A 29-year-old man has been arrested and taken to hospital under police guard after the body of a woman was found in a storeroom at the zoo


A man is under police guard in hospital after the alleged fatal stabbing of a 29-year-old woman at the National zoo in Canberra. The body of the woman was found in a storeroom at a commercial kitchen at the venue. Police allege both worked at the zoo.

Emergency services were called to the National zoo and Aquarium in central Canberra about 12.50pm on Monday after receiving reports of a disturbance.

When ACT Policing officers arrived, they found a woman dead in a commercial kitchen.

A 29-year-old man has been arrested and taken to hospital under police guard as a person of interest.

The zoo has now been closed, though police do not believe there is an ongoing threat to the public.
 
EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE in Australia is trying to kill you!

Meanwhile, the front page of the local weekly (link somewhere above, probably) praised the Public Utility District for solving a power outage in a wealthy area in just one hour! Ours was out for about five hours around the same time and a few more a day or two later.
 
Oh, how fun, a local murder! Had about ten in a 5 mile radius from where I live in the last year or so.

Nonetheless, tonight at 11: Why your cat may secretly hate you while still playing nice.
 

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