Sunday 8th May

Can you believe that it May already? 2011 has flown by and what a year it is turning out to be. Alone, Brisbane has been devastated by two major natural disasters, the floods and Cyclone Yasi. New Zealand was hit with a shattering earthquake and most recently, a tornado which we are much too familiar with after seeing them tear through the United States.

Many would think that this was enough for one year however on Sunday, May 1 2011 in Pakistan something shocked the world.  After being in hiding for eleven years, Osama Bin Laden was found by US Navy Seals and shot dead after being tracked by members of the CIA. Bin Laden was the Al Queda leader named responsible for  September 11 and other terrorist attacks. Barrack Obama says it was a surgical raid with a small team of US operatives on ground for 40 minutes and refers to the killing as “our nations most significant achievement to date”.

Since the event, travel warnings have been administered for all Westerners, particularly those planning to visit crowded tourist attractions. Security has been increased at all major airports and train stations as a result of protests in the Middle East.

Some are sceptical that it was Bin Laden who was shot and many conspiracy theories have been developed however the US government is determined not to share photos of a dead Bin Laden as this would be glorifying the assassination and become and even greater threat.

In other news, Splendour in the Grass tickets went on sale this Thursday however some buyers had great difficulty in securing their tickets.  Westpac Bank suffered from glitches relating to their ATM’s which effected the use of  debit and credit cards. Suncorp, Citibank, St George, Jetstar and Cashcards. The website suspended the sale of tickets at 9pm on Thursday night and re-opened on Friday morning when the problem was solved.

The trail of natural disasters doesn’t seem to be stopping as this week, Auckland in New Zealand was hit with a tornado on Tuesday which killed one person and injured others.

7 people were injured yesterday at the Grand Annual Steeplechase at the Warrnambool race carnival in southwest Victoria when a horse jumped a fence into a crowd of audience members. The safety and future of the yearly carnival is being explored.