Australian Red Cross campaigns to Make Nuclear Weapons the Target

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 06.09.2011 (InDepth News Analysis – IDN): It was 7am on a fateful day in 1953, 10-year-old Yami Lester and a group of Aboriginal children were playing with a toy truck, when they heard a loud bang intercepted with several small bangs as the ground beneath their small feet shook.

“We saw a shiny black cloud coming from the south, moving above and through the trees, which spread across 70 miles. We shut our eyes as they began to burn. In the days that followed, about 50 Yankunytjatjara people in Walatina began to complain of skin rashes, sore eyes, vomiting, diarrhoea and coughing. There was no treatment on the cattle station. The closest health clinic was hundreds of miles away and we had no transport,” says Yami Lester, who was living160 km from Emu Junction in South Australia, the site of the first nuclear test on mainland Australia.

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Over many cups of tea, MJF built an empire that spans 101 countries

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 03.09.2011 (The Business Times, Singapore): From a microcosm tea business, founder and patriarch Merrill Joseph Fernando has catapulted Dilmah tea to amongst the top eight brands in the world with his catchphrase `Single origin, 100 per cent pure Ceylon tea’, winning loyal consumers in 101 countries.

Come October and Dilmah will be capitalising on its `integrity, freshness and quality’ of tea to lure Singaporeans, aiming to exceed its sales by US$ 1.3 million by December-end and US$ 5 million in the next three to five years, capturing 15 per cent of the top-end tea market in the republic.

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Future of construction is in pre-cast methods

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 06.08.2011 (The Business Times, Singapore): Tom Lane has combined his childhood fascination with building blocks and savvy business acumen to establish Quicksmart Homes that designs, manufactures and supplies prefabricated building modules for high-end readily available accommodation.

“It is the big boys Lego kit. The modules, designed in Sydney and manufactured in China, come complete with plumbing and electrical fittings, carpet and furnishings. They are quick to install, cost effective, and 30 to 50 per cent cheaper than a traditional building”, says Lane, who founded the company in 2007 with just an architect as partner.

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