Growth in site claims

A BUS stop turned into a barney over land at Waratah earmarked for a cancer research centre as the major parties pressed the flesh in Newcastle, three days out from the state election.

Saturday March 19 - movies

Black Butterfly (2006) SBS Two, 11.15pm Volver (2006) SBS One, 10.05pm

OVERHEARD

Male 1: "Me? Oh, I didn't get married until I was 41 ... 41 ... can you believe it?"

Sunshine warehouses near road and rail links

THE industrial property at 528a Ballarat Road, Sunshine, is well situated for a variety of industrial purposes and its vacant land will appeal to developers.

TELEVISION

RSPCA ANIMAL RESCUE 7.30pm, Seven Few would question the credentials of this program which reminds us weekly of the bonds humans have with various animals. Being top of the food chain necessitates the cultivation of respect and an appreciation of our food, our pets and our general status within the big picture. But on a slow day, when not much is happening and no cats have decided to become trapped in barely accessible crevices, it might be tempting to "initiate" an event or perhaps to invite Inspector Rex to make a guest appearance. Tonight RSPCA inspectors are obliged to undertake traffic control duties when a consignment of cattle manages to escape from a truck during a journey down a freeway. Just another example of bovine intellect and herd mentality?

Unabashed windbags are making my ears hurt

I'M OLD enough to remember when telephones had a separate earpiece and when many of them hung on the wall. If you were a small child, as I was in the 1940s, you had to stand on a box to speak into the trumpet-like mouthpiece. Not many people had phones in those days. Urgent messages of any importance were sent by telegram, and if you received one the news was very good or very bad: you had won the lottery or your favourite aunt had died. The likelihood of anyone sending a telegram saying "I'm on the train" were zero.

Science is keeping us all in the dark

SCIENTISTS may have found dark matter at the bottom of a Minnesota iron ore mine. Readers may wonder why they had to go all that way. Surely there is plenty to be had closer to home. Teenagers€™ bedroom floors, the furthest recesses of the glovebox, and that little drawer under the toaster where all the crumbs go would all seem to offer rich deposits of dark matter if scientists would only care to look. It turns out though that this dark matter is different. Physicists have calculated most of the universe must be made of it, but no one has found any €“ until now. Dark matter may explain not only why stars stick together in galaxies but more abstruse questions, such as why time only moves in one direction. This can only be good news. But we want more. Scientists should ransack more of Minnesota for answers to other long-standing riddles of nature: What happened to Harold Holt? Is Elvis dead? And why is the bus always leaving just as the bus stop comes into view?

East & Inner city apartments

BELLEVUE HILL 12A/2 BIRRIGA ROAD $600,000+ REDFERN 1/140 REGENT STREET $359,000

Youths in attack on Indian

POLICE are investigating the unprovoked bashing of an Indian man in Epping who was punched in the head and had his turban removed as he slept at a bus stop early yesterday.

Ripped from headlines, but play still shocks

NORM AND AHMED/ SHAFANA AND AUNT SARRINAH Seymour Theatre, August 6 Until August 29

Shoved and shamed, they are the lucky ones

Jason Koutsoukis reports from Bethlehem on the daily ordeal of the Palestinian job queue.

Justice emerges for the most vulnerable victims

IT IS always difficult for victims of sexual assault to pursue justice. From fear of not being believed to dread of the witness box, the barriers are formidable. But when the victims have an intellectual disability, the chance of justice triumphing seems even more remote because they may not be considered capable witnesses.

'I understand why we're doing this but . . .'

PEOPLE feel sorry for Merryn Laverack and it's easy to see why. Each of her 16-year-old quintuplets needs 120 hours behind the wheel to qualify for P-plates - 600 hours of nervous hill starts and crunched clutches.

Disapproving Look On Bus Led To Bashing

A WOMAN who cast a disapproving look at a group of rowdy passengers on her bus was grabbed by the hair and dragged off, before being robbed, punched and kicked on a busy highway, police said.

Bumpy Ride For New Bus Network

NEWCASTLE's long-awaited new bus network will begin tomorrow, amid an ongoing dispute about who should pay for bus stop equipment and concerns that passengers may not know enough about the changes.

Bus Stop Prompts Protest

ONLY one Newcastle bus stop complies with federal laws for the disabled, Newcastle City Council heard last night.