An Australian news roundup

Australia doing well on employment: "The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.2 per cent in February on the back of a surge in new jobs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported total employment grew 25,900 during the month. The number of unemployed people fell 3700 to 554,100. Unemployment in January had been 5.3 per cent. The median market forecast was for a rise of 10,000 in employment and a jobless rate of 5.3 per cent in February. There are now 10.058 million Australians in employment. The participation rate stayed steady at 64.4 per cent. The number of people looking for full-time work, however, fell 2800 to 394,000 while there was a small fall in those looking for part-time work to 160,000. The male unemployment rate stayed at 5.2 per cent while the female unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage points to 5.2 per cent.






Muslim preachers told to speak English: "Islamic leaders should push Muslim clergy to preach in English, Australia's Attorney-General Philip Ruddock has said. Mr Ruddock has told a London audience that Australia's chief mufti, the Sydney-based cleric Sheik Taj el din al-Hilaly, who always uses a translator, actually spoke good English in private. "He does speak English, but he doesn't feel confident . . . always speaking English to a broader audience," Mr Ruddock said, adding that a language barrier was a problem with the community as a whole. Mr Ruddock, in London for high-level anti-terrorism talks, was told by British Islamic leaders that moves to make English the language of the mosque had come from within the British Muslim community. Moderate Muslims are fed up with fiery clerics railing in tongues that many inside the mosque and in the wider community do not understand"






Terrorists to be "De-programmed"? "Civil libertarians have said a proposal by the Federal Police chief to "de-program" terrorists is tantamount to torture, but Muslim groups say it may have merit. Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty has said Indonesia is using a former Jemaah Islamiah leader, Malaysian-born Nasir bin Abbas, to help in the deprogramming of convicted terrorists. The cleric attempts to turn extremists to a more moderate faith and provides information on terrorist operations to Indonesian authorities. The process is also understood to have been used in Singapore, the United Kingdom, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Mr Keelty said the idea, which he likened to drug rehabilitation, has been raised at a policy level in Australia during talks about anti-terrorist control orders".






New toilet seats for fat Australians: "Sturdier toilets may be on their way in Australia to cope with the country's increasingly obese population. Standards Australia, a nongovernment group that establishes safety and design standards, is considering recommending strengthening loos for larger users, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. Obesity levels have been rising for years in Australia. Standards Australia spokeswoman Kate Evans said the current industry standard for toilet seats is just 100 pounds and that the group is looking to increase it to 330 pounds. Experts will examine the seats "from the perspective that people are getting bigger," Evans said. Steve Cummings, a committee member for Standards Australia and head of research and development at toilet maker Caroma Dorf, told Sydney tabloid The Daily Telegraph that toilet seats need to be strengthened for larger Australians. "If you are going to sit on it, you want it to hold you," he said".






Tim Blair has a point about Australia's gun bans: "Speaking of illegal guns, there's been remarkably little follow-up to a Sydney Morning Herald report published in the wake of the Cronulla riots. "About 200 men had assembled outside Lakemba Mosque," it read, "some armed with Glock pistols." Back in 1996, Howard wore a bulletproof vest to address a crowd of law-abiding Victorian gun-owners. "I was told at the time to wear it," he said on Today. "I'm sorry I took that advice ... I regret now having done so." Good; but he'd possibly regret not wearing one if he was addressing the Lakemba Mosque & Pistol Association, which apparently hasn't taken to Howard's gun-control idea. Now, about these Glock pistols witnessed by reporters; is it too much to ask for some arrests around here?"

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