Friday's news
19 Jul 2013
Ita Buttrose committs to shaming the government into aged care reform, India's poisoned schoolchildren buried in playground, Australian WWII airman buried in Italy and Australia on top after day one at Lord's.
Ita Buttrose steps up calls for aged care reform
Alzheimer’s Australia National President and 2013 Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose has vowed to shame the government into improving the state of aged care in Australia.
"If we have to shame governments into action, then that is what we will do,” Buttrose said.
Read more and have your say about the state of Australian aged care on our Facebook page.
If you are interested in the science of ageing and health, watch as three international pioneers in medicine and science – Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, Professor David Sinclair and Professor Henry Brodarty AO – discuss ageing in a UNSW Dean’s Lecture Series session called ‘Happy and Healthy Ageing: Paradox or Possiblity?’.
India’s poisoned children buried in playground
The 23 children who died after eating school lunches contaminated with insecticide have been buried in the school’s play area.
"The school killed our children and so we decided to bury all of them here," ABC News reports Shanti Devi, whose daughter was among those being laid to rest outside the school in Gandaman village, saying. "The government is responsible for converting a playground into a burial ground."
Approximately 30 children remain in hospital, and the school’s headmistress Meena Kumari remains on the run as police explore the possibility that the poisoning was deliberate.
Australian airman buried in Italy
The remains of an Australian airman killed just 10 days before the end of WWII have been interred with full military honours in Italy’s north.
Warrant Officer John Penboss Hunt was just 21 when he and his three British crewmates, all only 20, left on a mission for the Royal Air Force and never returned.
In 2011, a group of amateur archaeologists, following a tip-off from a local who told of a plane crashing and burning towards the end of the war, unearthed the crashed Boston bomber and the crew’s remains.
The men were laid to rest in the one coffin under four adjoining headstones, while a relative of Warrant Officer Hunt played the Last Post.
Australia on top at Lord’s
Steven Smith led a late charge for Australia at Lord’s on day one of the second Ashes test, taking three valuable wickets for only 18 runs – Bell, Bairstow and Prior – and triggering an English collapse. Ryan Harris also took three wickets for Australia.
England won the toss and elected to bat, and at close of play was 7/289.
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