Prostitute arrested over kinky sex death

Police at the Varsity Lakes duplex where the man's body was found. Pics Tim Marsden Source: News Corp Australia

Gregory John Hudson was a fly-in, fly-out mine worker from Perth. Source: Supplied

POLICE have arrested a prostitute allegedly linked to the kinky sex death of a tourist on the Gold Coast.

Perth carpenter Gregory John Hudson, 57, was found bound to a chair at a Varsity Lakes duplex last month, allegedly after a kinky rendezvous with a sex worker went horribly wrong.

Police had earlier said wounds consistent with being inflicted by a women's stiletto were found on the body.

Officers made back-to-back breakthroughs in the case this week with a man accused of being the prostitute's driver arrested on Thursday.

KINKY SEX: Charges laid over death

Southport man Benjamin Ghobrial, 24, was charged with Mr Hudson's manslaughter as well as burglary with intent and robbery while armed in company.

On Saturday afternoon detectives arrested a prostitute allegedly involved in the alleged botched robbery that left Mr Hudson dead.

The prostitute was transported to the Southport Watch House and will face court on Monday.

Her arrest follows revelations about the injuries of fly-in, fly-out worker Mr Hudson.

Police allege that while a post-mortem was inconclusive, semi-circular wounds "consistent with force applied by a stiletto" were found on his buttocks, thigh and lower back.

A blood-soaked sock found near the body was allegedly used to gag Mr Hudson, police say.

A lawyer for Gohbrial said she was awaiting the court brief before deciding whether to apply for his bail. Police have been ordered to produce the brief by January.

Gabriel was remanded in custody to reappear on February 11.

Originally published as Prostitute arrested over kinky sex death

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Gang-rape victims fight for justice

Gang rape victim Katrina Keshishian shares the harrowing story of her attack with the 7:30 Report. Courtesy ABC/7:30 Report

Gang-rape victim Katrina Keshishian waited six years for compensation only to find the law had changed for budget cuts and her payout had been reduced retrospectively. Picture: ABC/Supplied Source: ABC

A CAMPAIGN for justice is gathering steam after gang-rape victim Katrina Keshishian bravely shared her story earlier this week.

The Sydney woman spoke out about a horror night in 2008 when three men took turns to rape her on the banks of a river — and then dumped her at a service station.

The men were jailed, but the nightmare continues for Miss Keshishian, 26, who has been saddled with expensive bills for the psychological treatment she needed to recover.

Six years on from the worst night of her life, she is still waiting for the compensation she is entitled to.

And to add insult to injury, changes to the law enacted last year means her entitlement has been slashed retrospectively from a maximum of $50,000 to only $15,000.

Miss Keshishian went public with her struggles on ABC current affairs program 7.30 this week, calling for her claim to be reassessed, and there has been a groundswell of support for her cause.

At time of writing, more than 86,000 people have signed her change.org petition and supporters have flooded the Facebook page of NSW Premier Mike Baird to lend their weight to her campaign.

"I've had a really good response, so I'm happy — not just for myself but I've had other victims share their stories," Miss Keshishian told news.com.au.

RELATED: 'I can see them laughing at me': Gang rape victim Katrina Keshishian speaks out

Katrina Keshishian is fighting for herself as well as for other victims of crime. Picture: ABC/Supplied Source: ABC

NSW Justice Minister Brad Hazzard said the Victims Compensation Fund was changed because the funding model was unsustainable.

"It's almost unbelievable that there can be animals out there that do these sort of things to people but at the end of the day we have to make sure that we are providing a scheme, a system, that is sustainable, financially for the state," he told 7.30.

Miss Keshishian was unimpressed with Mr Hazzard's response.

"I thought it was disgusting, that they're just trying to save money, while at the same time they are giving $100 million to the racing industry," she said. A spokesperson for Mr Baird told news.com.au that this was not true.

"It's felt like I've been abandoned all over again by the government with their response to hearing my story," she said.

"For six years they left me cruelly waiting for help as my life fell apart and then they cut support — now they're making excuses about funding sustainability."

She called on Mr Baird to step in to help victims.

"Premier Baird could fix this for not just me, but the thousands of rape victims and victims of violent crime, in a heartbeat if he wanted to," she said.

"I can't help but wonder if it would be different if it were Premier Baird or another politician's daughter in my situation. I don't think they'd be left in a living nightmare, unsupported for six years in debt trying to recover from a gang rape.

"I just don't understand how this government could think that this law is OK, that treating anyone so cruelly is OK.

"Seventy thousand people agree with me, Premier; this legislation is cruel and you need to fix it. How much longer will you leave people to suffer?"

Katrina Keshishian hopes to pressure politicians to reassess laws surrounding victims of crime. Source: Supplied

Miss Keshishian's story has sparked other victims to speak out.

News.com.au reader Melinda was sexually assaulted in the yard of her house in early 2011 by an unknown man, which had a "catastrophic effect" on her psychologically.

"The depression, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and anxiety have left me a mess with no relationship and little in the way of friends. Even the best of friends are challenged when this stuff happens," she said.

Her compensation entitlement has also been slashed from a maximum of $50,000 to $15,000.

Her bills for treatment are about $2700 a month, so her payout would barely cover five months.

"I'm paying $2700 a month in therapy and medicine just to survive, just keeping me going, not actually living," the Sydney woman told news.com.au.

"It would be nice for the legislation to be rolled back, especially for people like (Miss Keshishian) and me who filed in time.

"To (cut funding to) victims of crime is an incredibly low blow. I would like the people who changed the laws to read my statement and then tell me, 'You are only worth $15,000'.

"I can't afford to move and, when I get home from work every day it's that constant reminder.

"The compensation was meant to give me the leverage to get out.

"It's all well and good, I can understand that the government's broke, but we did absolutely nothing to deserve this, but we have to live with this, not only emotional, but financial toll."

Katrina Keshishian has grown strong enough over the past six years to speak out about her struggles. Picture: ABC/Supplied Source: ABC

Other victims have commented on Miss Keshishian's petition to lend their support.

Another victim of gang rape wrote that the "pitiful amount" she received didn't come close to meeting the cost of her ongoing therapy and medication.

"So proud of this woman for standing up. I wish I had have … Rape is often a life sentence in terms of recovery. I hope by signing I can help make a difference," she wrote.

Miss Keshishian ultimately wants the government to reassess her case under the old scheme.

"I would like to be actually assessed as I would've been back then. And I want it for everyone else, not just for myself. Everyone else has been through something, too. They deserve it," she said.

"In the last six months to two years, I've become strong enough to talk to the media. Before that, with the depression and anxiety attacks, I wasn't able to hold down a job for years, I hadn't been able to pay taxes. It stunted my growth as a person.

"I hope a lot more victims speak up because the more and more people who sign, (the government) are going to have to start taking notice. I'm asking them to stand up and tell their story so we can make a change."

Justice Minister Brad Hazzard says the previous victims' compensation scheme was unsustainable. Picture: John Appleyard Source: News Corp Australia

A spokeswoman for Mr Hazzard said the Victims Compensation Fund was changed in 2013 to focus more on providing support, rather than a lump-sum payment.

She pointed to a PricewaterhouseCoopers review of the fund from 2012 that found that the scheme was "financially unsustainable within current funding constraints".

"The scheme has an escalating number of victims pursuing compensation and counselling, while the funding available to meet those claims remains unchanged," the report states.

"Consequently, the determination of claims has slowed, with claims taking more than 25 months between lodgement and determination."

The report predicted that the accumulated liability for lodged but unresolved claims would have blown out to $430 million by July 2013.

The new scheme is focused on helping victims soon after the act of violence to deliver the best outcomes quickly.

You can sign Miss Keshishian's petition here.

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Six harrowing ways the world could end

Actor Tom Cruise and child actress Dakota Fanning on the run from aliens in 2005 film "War of the Worlds." Source: News Limited

IF YOU were to find out what the individuals who actually know things are concerned about, you'd realise how blissful your ignorance really is.

Killer robots, unstoppable disease, deadly discharge from the sun, a distant life form switching us off like a TV set. These are genuine anxieties of the people far brainier than the rest of us. And all could lead to an end of civilisation as we know it.

Jellyfish

All over the world, jellyfish are blooming. Factors such as overfishing, low oxygen in the water and the warming of the seas have conspired to create a world in which be-tentacled sting-sacks are taking over.

In 2012, researchers at the University of British Columbia found jellyfish populations had increased by up to 62 per cent in places as remote as Hawaii and Antarctica. Power stations in Japan and US warships docked off Queensland have been damaged by great clots of them. They've caused electrical blackouts in the Philippines.

Billions of jellyfish washed up on beaches from San Diego to British Columbia in August 2014. Source: Supplied

And there's currently a 77,700km2 mush of stingy death floating off the southern coast of Africa, estimated to weigh more than 13 million tonnes. Yes, the jellification of the seas is underway.

According to Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin, marine biologist and author of Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean, they're displacing the penguin populations of Antarctica and have the potential to, "crash the world's fisheries, and starve the whales to extinction."

Jellyfish are able to flourish because they're survivors from an earlier, more hazardous time in the earth's history and are therefore incredibly versatile. They can avoid death by 'de-growing' — shrinking in size.

One variety, turritopsis dohrnii, is immortal. It releases cells which reanimate while the rest of it is decomposing. The smallest are one millimetre, the largest weigh half a ton. One, known as mnemiopsis, develops the ability to effectively impregnate itself (aged 13 days old) and, at its peak, produces 10,000 eggs a day. Cut a mnemiopsis in half and, three days later, it'll have regenerated itself.

According to Gershwin, "We're creating a world like the late Precambrian … where jellyfish ruled the seas and organisms with shells didn't exist. We are creating a world where humans may soon be unable to survive, or want to."

We might not need gravestones in years to come. Source: News Limited

The end of death

Scientists such as Dr Aubrey de Grey and molecular biologist Dr Bill Andrews have predicted we'll cure death within the decade. Already researchers at Harvard have actually reversed the ageing process in mice. Magnificent, you think.

But wait …"We haven't thought through the knock-on effects of messing around with these processes," says Professor Kate Jeffery, a neuroscientist at University College London. "I never see this discussed anywhere. Humans have all this machinery in place that means we die. We haven't evolved a protection against it. No species has."

That suggests, says Jeffery, our lives end for sound reasons. "It's not good for individuals to live too long because they'll compete with their offspring," she says. "If previous generations haven't shuffled off, things will get difficult for the rising generation. We see it already — we've extended lifespans and now people can't get jobs, can't get houses. There doesn't seem to be room because parents are still inhabiting all those niches." They're also sitting on inheritances. "If they live too long, they'll have consumed all their valuable resources themselves."

There would be wider consequences too. Think about the prison population; the healthcare costs of keeping millions, and then billions, of extra people alive for centuries or more. Consider the strain on energy and food resources. And who would have access to this immortality elixir? The wealthy nations?

Only the wealthiest strata of people in the wealthiest nations? Imagine the one per cent never dying. "We'd have this duel system where some live very long lives and others short miserable ones," says Jeffery. And if you were one of the so-called lucky, would you even want to live beyond, say, 150? "When you're eight years old, everything's surprising," she says. "But it's less and less so as you get older. I can imagine that if you got to 500, life could get very boring."

'I see green people'. Picture: Video game Alien Isolation. Source: Supplied

Alien attack

Writing in the recently published book What Should We Be Worried About?, senior astronomer Dr Seth Shostak admits this, "sounds like shabby science fiction, but even if the probability of disaster is low, the stakes are high."

The problem is that for over 60 years, we've been sending signals, including TV and radio broadcasts, into deep space. Surely, you might think, all those episodes of Broadwalk Empire must fizzle out long before they reach the moon? Actually, no. according to Shostak, if an alien race had an antenna as big as the 305m-tall Arecibo in Puerto Rico, it would be able to pick up Jimmy Fallon or David Attenborough from 4.2 light years away. While it's unlikely intelligent life exists this close, it's generally believed that if other civilisations do exist elsewhere, some will have significantly better technology than ours.

They might not look like Predator from the movie Alien Vs Predator, but then they might! Source: News Corp Australia

Don't believe us? Maybe you'll listen to Stephen Hawking. "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," he said in a 2010 Discovery Channel documentary. And they wouldn't even necessarily need to be inhabiting a distant planet. Hawking thinks the risk is that 'aliens' will pick up a broadcast of, say, Nigella's Christmas Special and that could coax them here.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," he said. "If aliens visit us, it would be like when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans … We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."

But what can we do about it? The prognosis from Shostak isn't good. "It's too late to be worried about alerting the aliens to our presence," he writes. "That information is en route at the speed of light, and alien societies only slightly more accomplished than ours will easily notice. By the 2200s, these alerts to our existence will have washed across a million star systems. There's no point in fretting about telling aliens we're here. The deed has been done, and the letter's in the mail."

In the future pills may cease to have any effect. Source: Getty Images

No more antibiotics

For decades we've relied on antibiotics to cure us of deadly sicknesses. They work by killing the microscopic organisms that cause ill health. But what happens when antibiotics work too well and kill them all off? The only pathogens left behind are the tough ones that are resistant to those antibiotics. No problem — we'll just use new antibiotics to kill those ones too.

This strategy has worked well for years. But we're running out of new antibiotics. Because pharmaceutical companies don't find them sufficiently profitable, the conveyor belt is slowing. As a result, drug-resistant strains of TB, syphilis, gonorrhoea and diphtheria are beginning to swarm. How much of a problem is this? The World Health Organisation says this threat is no longer a prediction for the future, it's happening right now and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country.

Meanwhile, the UK's chief medical officer has described an upcoming "apocalyptic scenario", in which people die of infection following routine operations, telling The Guardian, "There are few public health issues of potentially greater importance for society."

Teoder, the bomb disposal robot, helping police out at this year's G20. Source: News Corp Australia

Humanoid robot KOBIAN displays an emotion of sadness during a demonstration at Waseda University in Tokyo. Source: Supplied

Robot wars

If you're conjuring up visions of Transformers stamping on traffic and lasering each other's grinning electric faces, this might be a hard one to take seriously. "One of the mistakes people make about robots is they think of them as big metal men," says Noel Sharkey, former professor of Robotics at the University of Sheffield.

"In actual fact, they're things like combine harvesters and milking machines." And they're among us now. "Service robots have only been around this millennium and there's already eight million on the planet," says Sharkey.

Perhaps the greatest risk for the future is in how governments will adapt and develop these technologies for war. "I was talking about Predator drones and the Reaper drones five years ago, and everybody thought I was crazy. Those are robots. They're supervised by someone looking at a screen, selecting and pointing a laser designator at the target and releasing a missile. The next step is taking the human supervision out of that loop."

Might this happen? "There have been road maps in the US since 2003 for fully autonomous robots," he says. "Once one's been launched, it'll select its own targets and kill without further human intervention. So: robots deciding to kill."

An unmanned US Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan in 2010. Source: AP

Sharkey, who heads up The International Committee for Robot Arms Control, describes a research platform for a fully autonomous battlefield robot that's been developed by DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency), the Pentagon's research wing. "It's called The Crusher," he says, "and is a 7.5 tonne truck with no driver's seat. It has six wheels and is articulated to go over pits and troughs. It's an incredible thing."

Another, the X-47B, "looks like a small Stealth bomber, something Batman would have. It's subsonic, so really fast, and can take off from aircraft carriers. That's in an advance state of testing. The idea is to replace all the jet fighters in Pacific aircraft carriers by 2019. That will have weapons. And be autonomous."

But what's the problem? Won't killer robots mean we can fight the bad guys without risking our own lives? "The issue is no computer system can distinguish between a combatant and a civilian," says Sharkey. "The best they can do at the moment is tell between human and car. When a human gets it wrong, they're accountable. You can't hold a robot accountable."

A "prominence eruption" recorded by NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory. A small, hovering mass of twisted strands of plasma shifted back and forth before erupting into space. Source: Supplied

Solar ejections

On February 4, this year, a vast eruption of plasma exploded from the sun. Astronomer Tony Phillips estimated the X4.9-class solar flare was travelling at 7 million km/h. Emerging from a sunspot known as AR1990, it blasted into deep space.

That it did so was simply a matter of luck. What would happen if a massive solar flare ejected in the direction of earth? A clue can be found in the great burst of August 31, 1859 which took 18 hours to reach us and, when it did — rained down a light so bright birds began to chirp at 1:00am and miners started cooking breakfast, convinced it was morning. There was huge damage, too — electric currents whipped through telegraph systems crippling communication networks across Europe and the US.

In this x-ray photo provided by NASA, the sun is shown early in the morning of Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010. The dark arc near the top right edge of the image is a filament of plasma blasting off the surface _ part of the coronal mass ejection. Source: AP

A similar storm today would set off a domino-fall of catastrophic collapse. Astronomer Dr Sten Odenwald has written of national electricity grids failing, low-orbiting satellites burning up, GPS systems being disrupted and aircraft communication services going haywire. Mobile phones would stop working and people might have to survive without power for months.

A 2008 US report by the National Academy of Sciences predicted "extensive social and economic disruption" in this eventuality, while Professor Randolph Nesse at Michigan University has written that, "power stations will shut down, air and train travel will stop, hospitals and schools will be paralysed and more commerce will cease. 'Social chaos' is a pallid phrase for the likely scenarios."

This is an edited extract from "The End", an article in this month's GQ Magazine.

This story appears in November 2014 edition of GQ Australia. Source: Supplied

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Schoolboy, 15, dies during gym workout

Braidon Mcleod, 15, died suddenly following a gym workout. Source: Supplied

A 15-year-old boy has died suddenly while working out at gym at Bowen in North Queensland.

Braidon Mcleod was participating in a personal training session after school when he died on Thursday afternoon.

He was taken to the Bowen Base Hospital and was pronounced dead by doctors about 5pm.

Bowen police Acting Sergeant Craig McConnell confirmed police are assisting the coroner in the investigation of a non-suspicious death of a 15-year-old.

A Police Media spokesperson said Workplace Health and Safety would investigate the death.

Bowen State High School confirmed the boy was a student there but chose not to comment.

Originally published as Schoolboy, 15, dies during gym workout

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The biggest business fails of all time

What can businesses learn from failing, if there's a stigma attached to failure? PwC vice chairman Tim Ryan joins Sara Murray on the News Hub. Photo: iStock/mediaphotos

WHAT'S the biggest mistake you've ever made at work? Forgot to send an email on time? Left your dishes in the sink? At least you didn't destroy the company.

The Darwin Awards, a tongue-in-cheek reference to natural selection, are handed out to people who have removed themselves from the gene pool through acts of stupidity.

A user on Reddit has posted a thread asking for the best Corporate Darwin Awards — decisions made by companies that effectively killed the business.

Here are some of the responses:

MadManuel: "So I used to work for Harland Clarke. They print Avon Catalogues, cheques, Scantron forms etc. Their business is dying because they leveraged everything on cheque printing. They do something like 98 per cent of cheques in the US. If you have a chequebook, I bet $10 it's a Harland Clarke cheque. So anyway … They spun up a company called Fiddipidi. A $100 million investment. Super-custom stationary printing. They organised call centres, set up hundred-line VOIP systems in anticipation of the millions of orders they were going to get. Dozens of graphic artists recruited. No one bothered to tell them that the advertising platform they'd already blown $40 million on 1) Didn't work, and 2) Targeted an audience that had very little interest in old school stationary, or even one-off custom cards. Advertising platform chosen: Facebook. Total orders taken: 13."

kmikey: "There's a restaurant in Austin that is practically famous for its chicken wings. At one point a few years back the wings were taken off the menu because they were 'too popular' and 'slowing down the kitchen'. That lasted about a month before someone realised it was a better idea to put some time and effort into improving the kitchen rather than kill off their best-selling item."

teatops: "We love rice here in the Philippines. There's a popular and relatively cheap Japanese restaurant that served unlimited rice for every meal, and it was well known for it. Some brilliant guy decides to take it out, word gets around, and people stop going there. A few months later they decide to put the promo back but the customers just stopped coming."

hwoodo94: "This year, POWDR, a group that ran Park City Mountain Resort, the number three family ski resort in the country, got absorbed by Vail, its competition, and removed from ownership of its resort. Why? Because after 20 years of having the greatest lease in history (about $150,000 a year for a resort that grosses millions and millions) the end of the lease time rolled around … and they forgot to renew it. Literally, that's it. They didn't take down a note, and they turned their paperwork in three days late, got sued, and lost everything. Do your paperwork."

May the merchandising rights be with you. Source: AFP

Thompson_S_Sweetback: "Enron for paying their executives 'idea bonuses' before the ideas turned a profit. They paid one guy millions for inventing an online movie downloading service about 10 years before that was feasible. Ironically, the documentary is available on Netflix."

joeldare: "Iomega requiring a <1 per cent failure rate. After the Zip drive boom and considering the legal problems that the 'click of death' brought to the company, Iomega had a new policy of not releasing a product until the failure rate was below 1 per cent. The Clik drive was ready to ship but the failure rate was slightly higher than 1 per cent. The company spent the next two years trying to reduce that failure rate. During that span, SD and Compact Flash became the storage media for cameras and other small devices. I don't know if Clik could have survived against SD and Compact Flash in the long run, but it would have helped to sell a few million units before they came along."

the_englishman: "Strand cigarettes launched one of the most disastrous advertisements in the history of cigarettes. Admittedly their sales were low, but this nailed the coffin lid securely shut. This television advertisement depicted a dark, wet, deserted London street scene in which a rain-coated character lit a cigarette and puffed away as a voice-over declared, 'You're never alone with a Strand — the cigarette of the moment.' Cigarettes are generally seen as cool, are massively addictive and available, so selling them shouldn't be too hard. Not for Strand! After the advert they became known as the lonely old man cigarette and were soon withdrawn from the market. Oddly enough, sitting on your own in the rain with a cigarette for company is not everyone's life goal."

Don't kill your customers. Source: Getty Images

Kamaria: "Peanut Corporation of America. Found salmonella in their products. The owner covered it up and told them to 'just ship it'. Infected hundreds and killed nine people, the company went bankrupt almost immediately after it was traced back to them, and the owner was charged and prosecuted."

JasperStraits: "When MySpace decided to let advertisers rebrand their entire front page, so when you came to login, you'd see like a whole new McDonald's theme, with burgers in the background, a completely new look for a couple days. It cheapened the brand IMO. I worked there at the time, and a lot of us voiced concerns over this. One of the execs responded, 'Find us a way to replace the million dollars per day those campaigns generate, and we'll remove them.' To me, that was the beginning of the end."

not_charles_grodin: "Eddie Lampert, the CEO of Sears, is one of the best contenders for the Corporate Darwin Award. He's an Ayn Rand-loving, free-market ideologist who attempted to take this out of the lobbyist/Congress-rigged world of hedge funds and into retail. He laid off, cut, and trimmed back everything he could and forced departments, managers, and employees to fight against each other for resources and pay believing that the company would benefit from a 'survival of the fittest' atmosphere. Since that time, Sears has lost half its value in five years and has closed more than half of its stores, not to mention damaged one of the oldest and most trusted brands in the history of the United States."

horseyhorseyhorsey: "Several years ago, Digg and Reddit were approximately equally popular. One day — completely out of the blue — Digg turned itself 'Facebook blue' and filled the front page with giant square sponsored links. It estimated to be worth $US200 million in its heyday, and was sold in 2012 for $500,000."

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McGowan: ‘Gay men more misogynistic’

Then PM Julia Gillard swipes at Tony Abbott with cries of 'sexist' and 'misogynist' during a heated display in Parliament.

Angry that in her view gay men are not standing up for woman ... Actress Rose McGowan. Source: Twitter

ACTRESS Rose McGowan, who says she is "heavily entrenched" in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, says gay men are more misogynistic than straight men.

"I have an indictment of the gay community right now, I'm actually really upset with them," the 41-year-old McGowan, who starred as Paige Matthews in the TV series Charmed, said on gay author Brett Easton Ellis' weekly podcast.

Wants gay men to stand up for repressed women ... Actress Rose McGowan at the Los Angeles premiere of White Bird In A Blizzard on October 21, 2014. Picture: Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP Source: AP

WORLD REACTS: Julia Gillard's 'misogynist' blast at Tony Abbott

JOHN HOWARD: Slams Julia Gillard 'playing the misogyny card'

HILLARY CLINTON: Julia Gillard's misogyny speech 'striking'

"You wanna talk about the fact that I have heard nobody in the gay community, no gay males, standing up for women on any level?" she questioned, The Independent reported.

"There is Sharia law active in Saudi Arabia, there's a woman who's about to be stoned — I have not heard (AIDS activist) Cleve Jones discuss her, and nor will he.

"I think it's what happens to you as a group when you are starting to get most of what you fought for? What do you do now? What I would hope they would do is extend a hand to women. Women, by-and-large, have very much helped the gay community get to where they are today.

"And I have seen not a single peep from these people, who supposedly represent lesbians as well ... when the equal pay act was shut down by Republicans in the Senate, not a single man mentioned that.

"I see now people who have basically fought for the right to stand on top of a float wearing an orange speedo and take molly (MDMA).

"[Gay misogyny] is a huge problem," added McGowan, who was engaged to rock musician Marilyn Manson and subsequently married artist Davey Detail last October.

COMMENT BELOW: Does Rose McGowan make a fair point?

"Gay misogyny is a huge problem" ... Actress Rose McGowan attends amfAR LA Inspiration Gala honouring Tom Ford at Milk Studios in Hollywood, California. Picture: Jason Merritt / Getty Images for amfAR Source: Getty Images

McGowan's comments were made as she and Easton Ellis spoke against the gay boycott of the Dorchester Hotel collection, owned by the Sultan of Brunei, calling the boycotters "delusional idiots".

The Dorchester Collection has been boycotted by high-profile gays since homosexuality in Brunei was made punishable by stoning to death in April.

More gay male feminists needed ... Actress Rose McGowan. Picture: Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images / AFP Source: AFP

McGowan later took to her Twitter page (followed by 538,000) to apologise for her statement about how gays basically fought for the right to stand on top of a float and take MDNA, Advocate reported.

"I was pissed off when I said that, obvs a gross over generalization (sic), for which I apologize (sic). But my point stands," she tweeted. "Could have articulated my frustration in a better fashion? Undoubtedly. For that I apologize (sic), but I stand by the overall point."

McGowan today wrote a column for Advocate on her views about the need for more gay male feminists.

GAY MARRIAGE MARCH SYDNEY

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Huge blow to Obama presidency

Former Senior White House Advisor Karl Rove on the likelihood of a Republican Senate majority. Plus, his predictions for House, gubernatorial and state legislative races. Photo: Getty Images

US residents head to the polls for the midterm elections. AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards Source: AFP

REPUBLICANS have seized control of the US Senate in a result that will cause major headaches for President Barack Obama.

Within hours of the first polls closing for the US midterms, Republicans won three of the six seats needed to take over the Senate majority: South Dakota, Arkansas and West Virginia.

It went on to pick up a total of seven Democratic-held seats including North Carolina, Montana, Iowa and Colorado. While Democrats failed to pick up a single Republican seat.

Both AP and CNN declared a Republican victory in the Senate about 11.30pm (eastern standard time). CNN celebrated its prediction by lighting up the Empire State Building.

Republicans were also expected to increase their majority in the House of Representatives.

According to NBC, it is the first time in eight years that Republicans will rule both the House and Senate.

The latest count from CNN has the Republicans on at least 53 seats, and the Democrats with 45 seats.

In a bad omen for Mr Obama, early results projected Republican senator Mitch McConnell would win the seat of Kentucky.

A voter takes a sticker after casting a ballot at a polling station during the midterm elections. Picture: Joshua Lott/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

The seat was expected to be one of several crucial Senate positions up for grabs, but the Republican leader managed to hold on to his seat.

Contests remain undecided in Alaska and Virginia. Louisiana will go to a run-off as none of the candidates were able to get more than 50 per cent of the vote. This means voters will have to wait at least a month for a result.

There is a surprisingly close race in Virginia, which was expected to be retained by Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, but where Republican strategist Ed Gillespie was briefly leading. Warner now only holds a lead of almost 13,000 votes with 99.5 per cent of the vote counted.

Close results in Senate race for New Hampshire. Source: Supplied

The Republicans are also expected to keep control of the House of Representatives.

Obama will be watching the results closely as a Republican victory in the Senate will make it very hard for his party to set the agenda. This is because the Democrats will not have control over the House of Representatives or the Senate.

But if the Republicans do take control of both chambers, Mr Obama will still be able to veto anything they pass.

RELATED: Obama's legacy could be ruined in one day

Every four years, halfway between presidential elections, Americans vote for congressmen, senators and governors. This time, 435 House seats, 36 Senate seats and 36 governorships are up for grabs.

Twenty-one of the 36 Senate seats were held by Democrats, the Republicans needed to pick up six to form a majority.

In the House of Representatives, the Republicans were likely to continue to hold a majority, with all 435 seats up for grabs today.

Of the 36 governorships, 22 were held by Republicans and 14 by Democrats.

SENATE RESULTS

Republicans have gained the extra six seats they need for a Senate majority, with victories in seven states Arkansas, South Dakota, West Virginia, Montana, North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa.

AP called Kentucky for Republican Mitch McConnell just one minute after polls closed.

McConnell will now likely fulfil his longtime dream of becoming majority leader, one of the most powerful positions in Washington. While he is seen as a conservative with little charisma, he does have sharp political skills.

He's opposed Obama on health care reform and other issues, but also helped broker bipartisan deals that ended last year's government shutdown and averted a 2011 federal default.

Republicans gained a Senate seat in West Virginia, where Shelley Moore Capito will succeed retiring Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat. They took another in Arkansas, where Republican Tom Cotton ousted Democrat Senator Mark Pryor.

Contests remain undecided in Louisiana and Virginia. Alaska's is not expected to be known for a while as polls closed at 1am (EST) and it is usually very slow to count ballots, however CNN analysts believe it will go to the Republicans based on exit polls and voting sentiment across the country.

There is a surprisingly close race in Virginia, which was expected to be retained by Democrat, Senator Mark Warner, but where Republican strategist Ed Gillespie was briefly leading.

GOVERNOR RACE

There are 36 states which are voting on governorships.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has made history by losing his re-election bid. The Republican is the first incumbent to lose in the four decades since a change in the law allowed the state's chief executive to run again. He was defeated by Democrat Tom Wolf, a businessman.

Meanwhile, the contest to be the next governor of Florida came down to the wire.

Democrat Charlie Crist has reportedly called Republican Rick Scott to concede.

Earlier, Crist lodged an emergency motion to extend voting hours in Broward by two hours, but this was denied.

Former Republican Florida Governor who is now running as a Democratic candidate, Charlie Crist, fist bumping a supporter. Picture: Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP Source: AFP

In New Hampshire, Democrat Maggie Hassan won re-election.

Democrats have also captured Senate races in Delaware and Rhode Island. Chris Coons won a full six-year term in Delaware after winning a 2010 special election for Joe Biden's former seat. And Democrat Jack Reed was re-elected in Rhode Island.

In Virginia, the college professor who pulled off a stunning upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Republican primary, Dave Brat, was elected to Cantor's House seat.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

With dozens of House races uncalled, Republicans had picked up nine seats in Democratic hands, and given up only one.

A net pick-up of 13 would give them more seats in the House than at any time since 1946.

Meanwhile, 30-year-old Republican Elise Stefanik, made history by becoming the youngest woman elected to the US Congress, shattering a record set before she was born.

The former White House aide to president George W. Bush, won New York's upstate 21st district, beating her Democrat rival, film producer Aaron Woolf.

"We did it!" shouted a beaming Stefanik in her acceptance speech. "Tonight we made a little history in the North Country.

"I am honoured and humbled to be the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Congress and to add an additional crack to the glass ceiling to future generations of women here tonight."

GETTING THE VOTE OUT

Getting people to vote in the midterms can be difficult but can impact results, so Cosmopolitan magazine are proving the old advertising adage "sex sells".

Television networks are also taking the election seriously, as demonstrated by CNN's wall of 24 live correspondents.

But that doesn't mean people can't have a bit of fun at the expense of the candidates.

A voter photobombs Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as he votes. Source: AFP

You have to remember, this is the country where campaign videos feature candidates saying they want to make Washington squeal: "I grew up castrating hogs ... so when I get to Washington I'll know how to cut pork," said Republican candidate Joni Ernst.

CAN BEARS EAT DOUGHNUTS?

Many states are also holding ballots on specific issues, including whether marijuana should be legalised, changes to abortion, allowing gambling, background checks for gun sales, labelling of genetically modified foods and whether you should be able to trap a bear using bait like doughnuts.

Bob Parker, owner of Stony Brook Outfitters, dumps a mix of doughnuts and granola into a barrel at a bear-hunting bait site near Wilton, Maine. If Maine voters decide to ban the use of bait, dogs, and traps to hunt black bears, Parker says he'll be out of business. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty Source: AP

Two black bear cubs pause as they climb a tree in a residential area of Kingston Township, Pennsylvania. AP Photo/Citizens' Voice, Andrew Krech Source: AP

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Muscle man revealed as a fraud

Cheat ... Peter Beddoe claimed nearly $54,000 in disability benefits while at the same time competing in bodybuilding championships. Picture: home.bt.com Source: Supplied

A BENEFITS cheat who claimed to be too weak to walk has turned out to be Mr Wales, a competitive bodybuilder.

Peter Beddoe, 49, from South Wales, claimed nearly $54,000 in disability benefits while at the same time competing in bodybuilding championships, even taking out the title in the Mr Wales Over 40 contest.

A court heard that Beddoe visited the gym every day and was a respected role model on the British bodybuilding scene.

He was being paid the higher rate of disability allowance meant for people who could not walk, Wales Online reported.

VICIOUS: Female bodybuilder arrested over boyfriend attack

PRICE TO PAY: Secret sacrifices of entrants in bodybuilding competitions

Caught out ... Beddoe was busted after tip offs from the public alterted authorities to his actions. Picture: Walesnews.org.uk Source: Supplied

He scammed the system claiming he needed a walking stick, crutches or other means of support to be able to get around, a far cry from the images of him strutting his stuff on stage.

Officials from the Department of Work and Pensions launched an investigation after two tip offs that he was illegally claiming benefits while competing in bodybuilding contests.

The investigation uncovered that he made 340 visits to the gym in one year alone, using weights in his training sessions.

Prosecutor Stuart McLeese said, "Between 2008 and 2013 he visited the gym more than 1,100 times."

Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard Beddoe took up bodybuilding to build up the muscles around his spine after he was involved in an accident at the age of 30.

Wales Online reported that he legitimately claimed disability benefits at the time but didn't notify the department of working pensions that his health had improved and that he was receiving help with pain management.

Lawrence Jones, defending, said, "Mr Beddoe has to accept that when his medication improved and pain management improved he should have let the benefits agency know."

Sentenced ... Beddoe was sentenced to six months in jail. Picture: BBC Wales News Source: Supplied

Beddoe admitted to two charges of making dishonest representations to claim benefits and one of fraud between 2006 and 2013.

Judge Recorder Richard Booth jailed him for six months saying his "disgraceful" offences were so serious that only a prison sentence was necessary.

The judge told him, "Your claim for disability reads 'I would injure myself without support. I need a frame or other means of support to be able to walk...'

"But you failed to disclose you were training as a bodybuilder and exercising over a long period.

"You were awarded a higher rate for those who are unable to walk but I see that you made 1,100 visits to the gym between 2008 and 2013.

"You also passed yourself off as a role model to other bodybuilders at the gyms where you trained."

The court heard Beddoe - a former hairdresser before claiming benefits - had shown no remorse for his offences and had told investigators "everyone exaggerates their claims".

After the case Carolyn Davies, team fraud leader with the DWP, said, "We were very surprised when we had two anonymous tip offs that a bodybuilder was receiving disability benefits.

"It's unfair that some people get support when they do not have a disability, while many people depend on the benefits system to provide a safety net."

Bodybuilding deputy principal

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Why Melbourne Cup ended in tragedy

Tragic news as Admire Rakti, the pre-race favourite, has died shortly after finishing last in the Melbourne Cup.

AUSTRALIA'S most glamourous race has been overshadowed by tragedy for the second year in a row after favourite Admire Rakti died post-race and another runner fractured its leg.

So what happens to these horses? Are they pushed too far? And why can't they be saved?

As millions of Australians popped bubbly and celebrated their race winnings — or losses — after the Melbourne Cup this afternoon, Admire Rakti started badly shaking before collapsing and dying in its stalls.

TRAGEDY AT THE MELBOURNE CUP

At the same moment, Araldo, which finished 21st, was left fighting for its life after it shied at a spectator's flag, jumped a fence and fractured a cannon bone — a large bone in the lower leg.

Connections of Japanese-owned Admire Rakti are visibly distressed following the horse's death. Picture: Jake Nowakowski Source: News Corp Australia

It followed tragedy last year when Verema also shattered her cannon bone during the Race That Stops A Nation and was promptly put behind a green screen and killed on the track.

Gold Coast Equine Centre vet Charlie McCormack said mystery still surrounded the rare circumstances of Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti's presumed heart problem.

He said the horse most likely suffered a rupture of a major blood vessel in the heart or lungs, not a heart attack, during heavy exertion in the 3200m race.

"The fact the horse stopped racing three quarters of the way through but still made it back to the stalls indicates it was probably a ruptured blood vessel. If it was heart attack it probably would have died on the spot," he said.

LAST MINUTES: Zac Purton and Admire Rakti leave the track after finishing last during the Emirates Melbourne Cup. The racehorse died moments later (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images

"Heat stress can also affect horses in severe and acute ways.

"Exertion is likely to have played a major part. If it was a heart issue, it is more akin to an elite athlete dropping dead in the middle of a game.

"Usually there is no indication or abnormality ... it is just freakishly bad luck."

An autopsy will be conducted on Admire Rakti to determine the cause of death.

As for Araldo's fractured leg. The odds are not looking good for recovery.

In short, horses are bad patients and just aren't built to recover from fractures.

The high impact and often 'catastrophic' injury when a 500kg horse, racing at 60km h, breaks its leg sends a huge amount of energy through the bone.

Araldo rides toward the Melbourne Cup starting gate and is now fighting for its life. Picture: Sarah Matray Source: News Corp Australia

Mr McCormack said the sheer weight of racehorses means their bones often shatter into irreparable pieces.

Inserting metal plates, commonly used to repair fractures in humans and other animals, was not an option.

"The forces that go through the bones of the horse are huge when it is at full gallop. They are designed to cop that but when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong," he said.

Mr McCormack said the horse needed to be able to bear weight on all four legs to survive.

"The vast majority of horses with broken legs can be saved but they must be able to be up and walking the next day after surgery for it to be viable," he said.

GREEN SCREEN: Verema is euthanised after falling during the 2013 Melbourne Cup. Photo: Jake Nowakowski. Source: News Limited

"You can't amputate a horse's leg, it just won't survive. If it can't bear weight on one front leg for example, the other front leg will collapse. It is just the way they are designed."

Mr McCormack did not know the extent of Araldo's injury but believed it was catastrophic.

He said often insurance companies played a major role in deciding the fate of an injured racehorse.

"If the horse is insured for $15m and is a future breeding stallion, you can be sure the insurance company will make sure all options are exhausted before a horse is put down," he said.

Despite the tragedies, he defended the racing industry, saying the animal's welfare was paramount and 'no trainer has anything to gain from a horse going into a race that is not in peak condition'.

Admire Ratki was in second place down the straight before it dropped back and died after the race. Picture: Mark Stewart Source: News Corp Australia

"I'm an advocate for horse racing. Horses are natural athletes," he said.

"They are naturally-born to run fast — horses in the wild race to the front of the mob.

"The notion that horses are racing in pain or being pushed by all accounts are definitely not true."

Animals Australia has sought to raise awareness about the dark side of racing, saying injuries are often deadly to the animals and most horses bred for the track end up in the slaughterhouse.

"Some 18,000 horses are bred in Australia every year — two thirds of them will never see the track. Every year, thousands of thoroughbreds are sold at auctions for a few hundred dollars apiece, only to be ferried away and 'processed' into pet meat," says Animals Australia.

Originally published as Why Melbourne Cup ended in tragedy

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Admire Rakti dies after race

Tragic news as Admire Rakti, the pre-race favourite, has died shortly after finishing last in the Melbourne Cup.

Admire Rakti works down the straight during a trackwork session at Werribee Racecourse on October 28. Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images Source: Getty Images

JAPANESE racehorse Admire Rakti has collapsed and died after pulling up distressed after the 2014 Melbourne Cup.

The horse, who started a well-backed Melbourne Cup favourite but faded to last after leading, dropped dead in his stall shortly after the race.

"I knew he was in trouble when he didn't tow me into the race around halfway from home so I eased him down straight away, the horse's welfare comes first," jockey Zac Purton said.

"It's very sad. He gave me a great thrill at Caulfield and for this to happen to him is just not fair.

"I didn't think they'd beat me. I thought he'd win today and the whole way through the first half of the race I thought that too."

The news of Admire Rakti's sad death came just minutes before further reports that another 2014 Melbourne Cup runner, Araldo, may be have to be euthanased.

The Mike Moroney-trained stayer fractured a cannon bone (leg bone) jumping a fence after shying at a spectator's flag.

Araldo has been taken to Werribee Veterinary Hospital for emergency surgery to have plates inserted into his leg in an attempt to save it.

The injury is the same one French horse Verema sustained in the Melbourne Cup last year.

Verema's injury was so bad it had to be put down within hours of the race so it wouldn't suffer.

Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey said told Channel 7 that Admire Rakti "unfortunately ... collapsed and died" in his stall.

Melbourne Cup Chief Stewart explains the events which lead up to Admire Rakti passing away after running the Melbourne Cup.

The Japanese superstar, who only last month was the toast of Australia after rocketing home to claim the Group 1 Caulfield Cup, was eased out of the Melbourne Cup on the home turn, his jockey Purton allowing him to walk across the line.

Soon after, he began to shake before collapsing in his stall.

Bailey said on its performance, Admire Rakti would have been subject to a veterinarian inspection anyway.

He said the horse's owners were "very saddened" about the stayer's death. The horse will be taken to Werribee veterinary hospital for an autopsy to confirm an official cause of death.

"The exact cause of death is yet to be determined, although the circumstances of the horse's passing are very rare," said Racing Victoria's Head of Veterinary and Equine Welfare, Dr Brian Stewart.

"Our sympathies are extended at this time to the owner Mr Kondo, trainer Mr Umeda and his staff who cared deeply for their horse and are naturally saddened by their tragic loss."

Two sports journalists said the horse may have suffered a heart attack.

Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses (CPR) spokesman Ward Young said he was distraught another horse had died, especially given the huge event that is the Melbourne Cup.

While Mr Ward said while he was shocked by the news, he wasn't surprised given the number of horses which had died on Australian racetracks this year.

"He [Admire Rakti] is one of 125 horses killed in the last 12 moths during or after training or on the track," Mr Ward said.

"That is a horse every 2.9 days."

Mr Ward said Admire Rakti's death followed that of Verema in last year's Melbourne Cup. The mare snapped a bone in her leg and was euthanased.

"Last year was a real shock, but really it's not a shock because this happens every 2.9 days on average.

"We think the real issue is over exertion and use of the whip."

Mr Ward said it was time the industry honoured horses' memory with a minute's silence, rather than simply covering the scene with a green screen.

The RSPCA issued a statement calling for a full and transparent investigation into both incidents.

"Events like these are a stark reminder to the community of the real risks to horses associated with racing," the statement read.

"Sadly, injury and death are the price some horses pay for our entertainment in a sport that puts intense pressure on animals to perform to the limits of their endurance."

Admire Rakti's bridle is taken away. Source: News Corp Australia

The Japanese connections of Admire Rakti at the stable where the horse died. Source: News Corp Australia

One member of the Admire Rakti team is overcome with emotion. Source: News Corp Australia

And is comforted by a friend. Source: News Corp Australia

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Aussie Exum ‘Frozen’ out by NBA teammates

Australian teenager Dante Exum produced a brilliant performance in his second NBA game, leading the Utah Jazz to a 118-91 win over the Phoenix Suns.

Dante Exum has been in eye-catching form on and off the court. Source: AP

DANTE Exum played his best game as a pro on Sunday, scoring 10 points in the Jazz's first win of the season against Phoenix.

But the Aussie basketballer was quickly brought down to earth by team leader Gordon Hayward, who had a "gift" for Exum to wear on the team flight out of Utah the next day.

Exum's new "Frozen" backpack. Source: Instagram

Pink backpacks have become somewhat of a traditional way of hazing rookies in American sports league in recent years.

Portland's Damian Lillard sported a Hello Kitty backpack during his Rookie of the Year campaign.

And former Golden State Warriors forward Jeremy Tyler was forced to wear this during his rookie season in 2011.

Tyler does his best to look hood with a pink fairy on his back. Source: Supplied

But that's all relatively harmless compared to what other rookies have to endure.

New York Knicks forward Chris Copeland was made to wear these pyjamas on team flights:

Real cute, Chris. Source: Twitter

While Warriors rookie Kent Bazemore had his car filled with popcorn by Golden State teammates.

Some of these other hazing examples for the past year or two need no explanation.

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What Australians gossip about at work

What do you think they're talking about? Source: AAP

AUSTRALIANS love to talk about ourselves to anyone who will listen. Maybe a little too much.

Whether it's with our mates, on social media or at work, we love to share. A global survey by workplace services provider Regus found Aussies like to share quite a bit about our lives with our colleagues. More than the average global citizen.

What are we most likely to talk about? Our holiday plans. To the tune of 82 per cent, compared to the global average of 71 per cent. Melburnians like to talk about them the most at 87 per cent while Brisbanites are more reticent at 78 per cent.

In what could become a headache for HR reps, 10 per cent of Aussies will happily tell their co-workers all about their love lives. This compares with the global average of 7 per cent, and other than Japan (17 per cent), is the highest in the world. Sydneysiders and Perth residents are more likely to chatter away about our dalliances than the more straight-laced Brisbanites (7 per cent).

Forty-four per cent of Australians will talk about their partners compared to the global average of 32 per cent. Women are more likely to do so at 50 per cent compared to 41 per cent of men.

We also over-index against the rest of the world in sharing about details about our children (56 per cent to 55 per cent), our pets (56 per cent to 47 per cent), our previous job (55 per cent to 53 per cent), our health (27 per cent to 26 per cent) and our social media contacts (18 per cent to 17 per cent).

Fifty-seven per cent of us love to talk about our pets.

But Australians are tight-lipped compared to the global average when it comes to talking about our positions within the workplace. Only 9 per cent of Aussies will discuss the outcomes of their performance reviews compared to the 15 per cent global average. We're also less likely to talk about our salary or other job benefits (3 per cent to global average of 4 per cent).

When it comes to letting slip who in the office you don't like, 8 per cent of Australians are guilty of it (9 per cent globally). But men are more likely than women to let the daggers fly at 9 per cent to 7 per cent, as are those living in Perth or Adelaide.

"Whether it's discussing holidays or sharing fitness tips, sharing personal information is a great way to build rapport with fellow colleagues. In today's busy workplace, it's easy to forget the importance of getting to know one another and building up good relationships," Regus chief executive Paul Migliorini said.

"More and more businesses are realising that these personal and professional interactions give birth to valuable ideas and build strong teams. It is, therefore, important for employers to support collaboration among teams."

Just remember that what you think is interesting about your kids may bore the pants off your workmates. Source: ThinkStock

Global snapshot:

- If you don't like hearing about other people's kids, maybe avoid working in Canada. Canadians are the most likely to talk about their kids at work with 67 per cent of those surveyed admitting to it.

- The British are the most likely to talk about their partners (51 per cent) while Indians and Brazilians are the least likely (14 per cent).

- The French are the most likely to talk about their salary and job benefits at three times the global average (12 per cent compared to 4 per cent).

- Indians are the most open about who they don't like in the office (15 per cent) while the Chinese are the least likely to do it (5 per cent).

- The Japanese are the most likely to talk about their health (49 per cent), compared to the global average (26 per cent).

What do you think about sharing personal info with your colleagues? Sound off in the comments below.

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Peace at last for Mayang’s family

Forgiven ... Mayang Prasetyo's mother says she forgives the killer, Marcus Volke. Source: Supplied

THE Indonesian victim of a shocking murder-suicide in Brisbane has finally been laid to rest.

The body of Mayang Prasetyo, 27, was discovered dismembered in her Brisbane apartment last month.

The transgender woman's Australian husband Marcus Volke, 27, fled the apartment when police arrived, and took his own life in a nearby industrial bin.

HORRIFYING: Husband cooks and kills trans wife

DARK SIDE: Schoolmates reflect on Marcus Volke

Laid to rest ... Mayang's family says it's a relief to finally lay their eldest child to rest. Source: Supplied

Happier times ... Acquaintances say the pair met while working on a cruise ship. Source: Facebook

Police say he had tried to dispose of Ms Mayang's remains by boiling them on the stove, in what they can only surmise was a domestic violence situation that got terribly out of hand.

Ms Mayang's mother Nining Sukarni said on Saturday it was a relief to finally lay her eldest child to rest.

She thanked both Australian and Indonesian authorities who made the repatriation to Bandar Lampung a smooth process.

Grisly crime ... Parts of Mayang's body were cooking in chemicals on the stove when police came to the couple's Brisbane apartment. Source: Facebook

"Everyone has been very helpful," she told AAP.

"Friends, neighbours, even people from the related government offices. Many of them came to her funeral." It's understood identification issues delayed the release of Ms Mayang's body.

Volke's funeral was held in Victoria last month.

Farewelling a killer ... Volke's burial service was held at the Doveton Park Funeral Centre, North Ballarat. Source: News Corp Australia

Then, Ms Nining said she was stunned the quiet, polite young man she had met was capable of such a crime, but that she was able to forgive him.

She says Volke's family has not contacted her since the deaths. Ms Mayang, who was born Febri Andriansyah, worked as an escort to support her family in Indonesia and put her two sisters through school.

Family-minded ... Mayang worked as an escort to put her younger siblings through school. Source: Facebook

Her friends have remembered her for this dedication to her family, as well as her fascination with celebrities and bubbly personality.

* Anyone seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.

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Depraved family sex ring revealed

Dustin Kent, uncle to Brittney Wood, pleads guilty to rape and sodomy

Suicide ... Donnie Holland was found shot in the back of the head the day he was to be questioned by authorities about sex abuse. Source: AP

BY most accounts, 19-year-old Brittney Wood was with uncle Donnie Holland the night of May 30, 2012, the last time anyone saw her.

Holland — who was under investigation for horrific sex crimes at the time — died from a bullet within days in what was ruled a suicide.

The investigation that followed has publicly unravelled what authorities describe as a dark, twisted tale of perversion in the working-class neighbourhoods and piney backwoods of coastal Alabama.

Eight of Woods' adult relatives and three family friends have been charged with dozens of felonies in two counties as the alleged members of an incestuous ring that authorities say shared children for group sex. Holland was the leader, prosecutors say, of what has been described as the largest sex ring ever uncovered in Alabama. Wood was a victim and likely key witness.

Missing, presumed dead ... A flyer describing missing teenager Brittney Wood (AP Photo/Jay Reeves) Source: AP

"Brittney could have been huge," said prosecutor Teresa Heinz. "She could have corroborated so many things."

Wood is presumed dead, but authorities haven't found a trace of her and no one is charged in her disappearance.

Even without Wood to testify, two of her uncles and an older brother already have pleaded guilty to sex charges, and jurors this month convicted a friend of Holland's of multiple sex charges in the first trial. Others — including the missing teen's mother, Chessie Wood, and two aunts — await trial.

Chessie Wood denies committing any crime, but says some of her closest relatives are guilty of abusing children, including of abusing her daughter.

"There are innocent people in this and there are guilty people in this," Wood, 39, said in an interview. "I don't know how the judicial system is going to figure it all out because they're not the sharpest tools in the shed."

Chessie Wood, accused of having sex with a young female relative, said she had no idea what was going on in the family until after her daughter's disappearance.

"The No. 1 thing here is to find Brittney. The No. 2 thing is to get all these sick (people) off the streets," she said.

Authorities are making plea-bargain offers and getting ready for more trials, but questions persist. Perhaps most troubling, why didn't child welfare workers pursue charges following what prosecutors describe as multiple complaints about sexual abuse within the family going back at least six years?

"You'd be surprised how many of them had prior allegations. Nothing happened," said Heinz, an assistant district attorney in Baldwin County. "You have to wonder what wouldn't have happened to these children if something had been done. And Brittney might still be alive."

The case is so big officials don't know exactly how many kids inside and outside the family might have been victimised; estimates range from 11 to 16 children who were as young as three or four when they were first molested or made to watch adult relatives during drug-fuelled orgies. The children of the suspects have all been placed in foster care or with relatives who weren't involved in the crimes.

Brittney Wood isn't the alleged victim in any of the cases filed so far; each involved other young people, mostly within her family. But the investigation mushroomed only after she was reported missing and her uncle Donnie had died.

Authorities believe group sex and child sexual abuse went on for three generations in two families that merged when Holland married Wendy Wood, Chessie Woods' sister.

"Donnie was the manager. He'd say, 'I've got this child and this adult, come on over,'" said Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Nicki Patterson.

'We didn't even realise she was missing until they found him shot' ... Brittney Wood's stepmother (AP Photo/Jay Reeves) Source: AP

Brittney Wood, meanwhile, led a life that was troubled long before folks on the Alabama coast came to know her smile because of missing persons flyers posted in store windows and shared on social media.

The single mother of a daughter born when she was 17, Wood was molested as a child by a step-grandfather who went to prison for the crime, said Patterson. Before she went missing, Patterson said, Wood was using drugs and had a gun for personal protection while bouncing between relatives' homes; others often cared for her daughter.

A relative reported Holland for allegedly abusing one of the family girls in February 2012, authorities said, and word spread through the clan. Private Facebook messages provided to The Associated Press by Stephanie Hanke, Brittney Wood's stepmother, show that a female relative informed Wood about being raped by three male relatives on May 27, just three days before Wood vanished.

The night of the disappearance, mobile phone records and witness accounts indicate Wood left west Mobile with Holland and crossed Mobile Bay into Baldwin County, where Holland was found two days later inside his SUV by his wife and one of her friends. He had been shot in the rear of his head behind an ear, which authorities considered an odd spot for a self-inflicted wound.

Holland was scheduled to be questioned about allegations of sexual abuse the very day he was found in the car on an isolated dirt road.

Wood's mobile phone battery was in the vehicle with Holland, but there was no sign of the teen. Her gun was there as well, it was the only gun in the car. Holland never regained consciousness and died several days later.

After Holland died, relatives and police wondered about Wood.

Suicide ... Donnie Holland was found shot in the back of the head the day he was to be questioned by authorities about sex abuse. Source: AP

"We didn't even realise she was missing until after they found him shot," said Hanke.

Searches for the teen began and the sex abuse probe picked up, too. Two of Woods's uncles, Dustin Kent and Scott Wood, were arrested within three weeks and later pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy. Aunts and family friends were eventually charged.

This month, family friend Billy Brownlee, 50, was convicted in Baldwin County on charges of sexually abusing a girl in the Holland family when she was about 12. Brownlee claimed Donnie Holland forced him into the acts against his will, but jurors needed only 20 minutes to return a guilty verdict.

Donnie Holland's 35-year-old wife, Wendy, is set for trial in early December in what could be a key prosecution. Court records show she has pleaded not guilty, and Heinz said she shows no interest in a plea agreement.

Still, authorities wonder how child sexual abuse could go on for years between so many people without anyone being charged until 2012. One girl accused an uncle of sexually abusing her as early as 2008, Heinz said, but welfare workers found the complaint unsubstantiated.

"You look at these reports and wonder, 'Why? How did it not go anywhere?'" said Heinz.

Barry Spear, a spokesman for the Alabama Department of Human Resources, said privacy statutes prevent the agency from commenting.

"I can't even say whether we're had any involvement with this family at all," Spear said.

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Melbourne Cup 2014: Your Guide

The Darren Weir-trained Signoff has stormed into the Melbourne Cup with a convincing win in the Lexus Stakes at Flemington.

Fiorente, ridden by Australian jockey Damien Oliver, crosses the finish line to win the 2013 Melbourne Cup. Source: AP

THIS year's Melbourne Cup promises to be one of the best ever so make sure you do your homework before Tuesday.

The race that stops the nation begins at 3pm at Flemington Racecourse in Victoria, where a field of 24 will battle it out for the $6.2 million prize.

One of the last horses to secure a start was Darren Weir's Signoff, who posted an easy win in the Lexus Stakes on Derby Day.

It leaves the field as follows ahead of Saturday night's barrier draw:

1 ADMIRE RAKTI (JPN) Tomoyuki Umeda

2 SIGNOFF (IRE) Darren Weir

3 FAWKNER Robert Hickmott

4 RED CADEAUX (GB) Ed Dunlop

5 CAVALRYMAN (GB) Saeed Bin Suroor

6 PROTECTIONIST (GER) Andreas Wohler

7 SEA MOON (GB) Robert Hickmott

8 MY AMBIVALENT (IRE) Roger Varian

9 LUCIA VALENTINA (NZ) Kris Lees

10 SEISMOS (IRE) Marco Botti

11 ROYAL DIAMOND (IRE) Johnny Murtagh

12 JUNOOB (GB) Chris Waller

13 WHO SHOT THEBARMAN (NZ) Chris Waller

14 MUTUAL REGARD (IRE) Johnny Murtagh

15 GATEWOOD (GB) John Gosden

16 WILLING FOE (USA) Saeed Bin Suroor

17 PRECEDENCE (NZ) Bart & James Cummings

18 BRAMBLES (NZ) Peter G Moody

19 MR O'CEIRIN (NZ) Ciaron Maher

20 OPINION (IRE) Chris Waller

21 AU REVOIR (IRE) Andre Fabre

22 LIDARI (FR) Peter G Moody

23 ARALDO (GB) Michael Moroney

24 UNCHAIN MY HEART David Hayes & Tom Dabernig

If you're still unsettled on who to back, check out our comprehensive Mug's Guide which features bios on every horse.

Or test your knowledge of past Melbourne Cup winners by taking our quiz: Horse name or movie title?

Movie or horse, can you guess?

Can you guess whether these are the names of a movie or horse?

Or, if you've ever wondered what type of horse rider you'd make, take this quiz to find out which Melbourne Cup jockey best matches your personality.

Which Melbourne Cup jockey are you?

Take this quiz to find out how what sort of jockey you are just in time for the Melbourne Cup.

Trainer Gai Waterhouse won her first Melbourne Cup in 2013 with the Damien Oliver-ridden Fiorente. Source: News Corp Australia

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‘Why I left my $254,895 a year job at Microsoft’

Adam Herscher quit a cushy and lucrative job at Microsoft. Source: Supplied

IT WAS 9 o'clock on a Wednesday morning when I took a deep breath, stepped into my boss's office, and asked for a minute of his time.

"So, I've given this a bit of thought, and well… I'm going to take some time off… and uh… I'm gonna be leaving the company." [deep gulp]

"WHAT? ARE YOU GOING TO AMAZON?"

"No, no… I just want some time to clear my head, travel for a while, and figure out what's next for me in life."

"Oh… Okay. Hard to compete with that. Have you thought about a leave of absence? And are you sure you don't want to wait until September?"

"You mean, for the money?"

"Yeah …" [brief pause.] "It's not about the money is it?"

"Nah … it's not about the money."

It's not always about money. Source: YouTube

Ah, the money…

When I told a few co-workers what was going down… the most common reaction was something I'd describe as a cross between admiration and "Are you insane? You're just gonna walk away from the paycheck? I could never do it."

Or more bluntly, as a close friend still back there confessed on a long walk, reflecting on life with me recently, "I just really love the f**king money."

Looking back on my time at Microsoft it's hard to nail down the exact point at which money entered the conversation. Words like "money", "salary", "pay" were nowhere to be found in my first impressions and experiences.

My salary straight out of university nine years ago was $75,000.

It was $10K-$15K over the Computer Science median at the time. I was ecstatic about the journey. I accepted on-the-spot without negotiation.

And then gradually, something happened.

Every 18 months there was a promotion to a new pay level, often paired with a "re-recruitment" effort — a 1:1 meeting with higher-level management, kind words of encouragement, entrance into a "High-Potential" employee program.

Somewhere along the way we started referring to pay as 'golden handcuffs', implying that were it not for the money, we'd be long-gone.

My salary when I left Microsoft at the end of nine years ultimately amounted to $254,895.

I'll just say… to the child of an immigrant and middle class family, raised of sufficient but not excessive means, I can only describe that number as feeling both grossly obscene while at the same time a bit like: "Well, I've made it."

But the irony in having 'made it' was that as my salary was rising, the intrinsic meaning I found in work had been falling.

Whereas the things I valued most early on in my career had been achieved, other ambitions in life were slipping further away with each year that went by.

START SOMETHING NEW AND CHANGE THE WORLD

Though a bit cliche, changing the world was what originally sold me on creating products at Microsoft.

Okay, so not physical handcuffs, but you get the idea. Source: Getty Images

Over time though, I began to feel real differences between starting something on a team of hundreds, if not thousands of people within a big corporation, versus starting something where you personally pour your heart and soul into all that's required to earn the business and trust of your first customers, employees, and investors/partners.

I'd had a small taste of the latter in past start-up life, and found myself craving the unique experience, challenge, and exponential learning curve that are intrinsic in it.

CREATE YOUR OWN DESTINY WITH NO LIMITS OR CONSTRAINTS

I started out with insanely high aspirations and commitment level.

And there were multiple points in my career where I had the fortune to work with amazing teams on revolutionary projects, often only to see their potential limited in some way by inside forces such as broken corporate systems or endless re-orgs.

And after nine years in the system, I was very ready to double down on creating something new, without the risk of an impending re-org or other self-imposed artificial constraint tearing it down.

Stay strong my Amazonian friend, we've all been there.

The #1 risk/fear of great engineers I've met at big corporations is "cancellation by re-org".

When it happens there's no pivot, no "let's change a few things and try again" — just a token "thank you for your service, here's your next project, better luck next time."

There are start-up risks, and then there are big company risks. The former can often be de-risked by means under your control, the latter cannot.

CREATE A RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME PLACE TO WORK

This is mostly about surrounding yourself with a brilliant team of people you enjoy working with every single day,  and I feel fortunate to have met many great people at Microsoft.

It's also about laying down a mission, core values and/or principles you believe in, and systems to support and scale them — something that was, at times, missing.

"Mission and values" have been removed from the 'about' page. Remnants remain in meta description and search results only.

AND THEN THERE WAS AN IDEA

As time went on, much closer to the point of pulling the trigger, there was the beginning of an idea. It was an idea that, once discovered, became a sort of mission — one I just couldn't shake.

And so I decided to pursue it.

FROM GOLDEN HANDCUFFS TO START-UP FUEL

The Jerry Maguire moment. Source: News Corp Australia

I've never known anyone who's had a real Jerry Maguire moment. I sure haven't.

In my own journey, making the decision to leave what was in many ways a very secure, financially rewarding job, happened in three stages.

The first stage began two to three years before I gave notice – when I first began to notice and feel that something was missing in work and in life.

I wasn't quite sure what it was yet, or what I truly needed to feel fulfilled again, but I started to suspect that it wasn't something I was going to be able to find without taking a leap, a big one, and leaving the comfort of corporate life.

So without knowing exactly what I wanted to do or start next, I just began to save. I looked at my personal "burn rate" and set a Mint.com goal to stash away enough cash, on top of retirement and rainy day savings, to live comfortably for at least two years without a paycheck.

And all the while… I stayed super-focused on my product work at Microsoft, often working 10 to 12 hour days, and trying to learn as many new and different things as possible that might be useful somewhere other than in corporate life.

AM I STILL ENGAGED?

The second stage began two to three months before I gave notice — yet another re-org had hit our newly minted Operating Systems Group, and signs were emerging that the new product I'd spent the past year-or-so creating was going to be killed.

As a manager at Microsoft, I'd been trained to recognise the conditions or circumstances under which employees generally decide to leave their jobs — and it often boils down to a cross between low engagement and satisfaction (a book called The Carrot Principle has a great list of indicators here).

I realised that my engagement was quickly going down the tubes.

And so, on a rainy Seattle afternoon, curled up in a blanket at home, I reflected a bit on work and life and finally wrote out the reasons I'd stayed so long:

January 8, 2014

1. See through shipping product that will have awesome impact [cancelled]

2. Smart people I like to work with every day.

3. Smart, capable boss who cuts through bullshit/politics and minimises overhead.

4. Loyalty to manager, employees, peers.

5. Money in the bank to fund my own thing down the road.

6. Feels nice to be recognised/appreciated for what I do.

And after writing it out, I decided not to jump ship… yet.

I felt fortunate for having a job that afforded me all of the above. Morale across the team was low. I was running a team. I'd just received a promotion. There might be new challenges ahead. It just felt like the wrong time to leave, and I didn't think I was ready to.

Over the next few months the people around me wanted to know I was committed to what was next. I told myself, and then I told them, that I was.

"I decided not to jump ship… yet." Source: AFP

TIPPING POINT

The day I decided to finally walk away from corporate life and leave the Microsoft-sized paycheck behind was Monday, March 17th.

Work had stabilised. I took a first-ever four-day 'staycation' and was spending the second-to-last day off with a friend who had founded an awesome start-up in Seattle's Fremont neighbourhood.

He'd jokingly egg me on, "just quit!" and I'd quickly respond "not ready!"

And then later that evening sitting on my sofa, I did something one shouldn't ever do on vacation from corporate life and tapped open the Outlook Web Access app on my iPad.

And as I started glancing through the stream of several hundred new messages as they arrived, provocative thoughts started crossing my mind, and for once I couldn't shake them off:

This isn't changing the world. If I write more emails, I may never stop.

It started to sink in. The project timing was right. The personal timing was right.

If I still wasn't "ready" to take the leap, then it was time to accept fate and resign myself to abandoning any bigger ambitions. There was nothing else to "wait" for.

And so 9 o'clock that Wednesday morning, I went into the office, and I leapt.

And I haven't looked back since.

It's now been more than six months since leaving Microsoft, and three months since my co-founder and I incorporated and began to talk to customers and create our first product.

Start-up life so far is what I expected and more.

I feel appreciation towards all my friends and colleagues at Microsoft who gave me the opportunity to learn and grow, and to the company itself for the resources and opportunities it afforded me as well. This really can't be overstated.

And at the same time, I know there are so many brilliant minds out there aspiring to start their own thing, change the world — who haven't yet found the courage or the right time to do so — particularly in the Seattle area where larger companies play a major role in the tech and business ecosystem.

So this post is dedicated to anyone who's thought or is thinking about leaving their corporate job for start-up land.

If your situation was anything like mine, I'd highly encourage it.

Adam Herscher is co-founder and chief executive of Has Metrics. This post was originally published on Medium and was reproduced here with permission.

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