Australian Leader Salutes Bush, Gets Flak

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:48:41 GMT

clipped by: reimers

Australia's prime minister came under fire at home Friday over a playful salute he gave President Bush at a NATO summit, which critics said seemed to suggest Australian subservience to Washington.

Australian television repeatedly broadcast videos of the gesture Thursday on the sidelines of the Bucharest summit and speculated about what it meant, while opposition lawmakers said it belittled Australia.

"We are not the 51st state of the United States of America and Mr. Rudd's salute carried a subservient connotation many Australians won't like," said Bob Brown, leader of the minor opposition Greens pary.

The salute revived memories of Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, accusing Australia under former Prime Minister John Howard of being too close to Bush and too willing to adopt hawkish U.S. foreign policy.

Rudd explained that he was just being friendly toward a world leader whom he had met for the first time as prime minister a week earlier in Washington

Man in Standoff Over Unpaid Taxes

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:51:23 GMT

clipped by: reimers
clipper's remarks: He owes $5,647 in delinquent taxes and interest on the land and has not paid the taxes for seven years, according to the county treasurer's office.

Clip Source: ap.google.com

A landowner with "strong anti-government attitudes" barricaded himself in his rural home Thursday and fired shots at SWAT officers trying to search his home and arrest him, authorities said. No one was injured.

The dispute started Monday when Richland County sheriff's deputies tried to serve Robert Bayliss, 60, with a lawsuit seeking to evict him for failure to pay property taxes back to 2001 on his home and 18 acres, Richland county counsel Benjamin Southwick said.

The county took ownership of the land in November because of the unpaid taxes, Southwick said.

Rifle shots were fired at officers who went to the property Monday, said Darin Gudgeon, the Richland County emergency management director. On Thursday, SWAT officers used an armored vehicle to try to serve the search and arrest warrants but encountered shots and ended up in a standoff, Gudgeon said.

No one has been hurt, he said.

Clipmarks | reimers's clips

Australian Leader Salutes Bush, Gets Flak

Man in Standoff Over Unpaid Taxes