WWI Diggers made of tougher stuff

For overseas readers: "Digger" is a respectful Australian term for a soldier

Ned Farrelly has never been armed with anything more than an iPod and a mobile phone. But like hundreds of other Australians, the 18-year-old yesterday came to the Somme in northern France to understand how generations ago youths like him carried a pack, a gun and bravery as they lived and died in unimaginable hell. "You hear about it but you can't imagine it until you come here and see it," the youth said as he stood before rows of white headstones. Hundreds of Australians yesterday braved freezing conditions to attend memorials at sites across the French and Belgium battlefields to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I.

From Villers-Bretonneux to Verdun, they paid their respects to the 46,000 Diggers who died on the Western Front in four years of mental and physical pain. Governor-General Quentin Bryce led the Australian commemorations in France with Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin. Sprigs of wattle were laid about memorials as well as Australian flags and insignias stating, "Thanks and peace to our boys".

Ned had just finished his last school exam last Friday, but rather than celebrate with his mates, the Sydney school leaver decided to run away with three uncles and his grandmother and learn about the sacrifices made during the Great War. "My great grandfather fought here," Ned said. "He's got all these medals and stuff and I was just interested in seeing where he earned them all." "You see it all -- the graves. They were probably like me, some of them -- and here, what they had to deal with we've never faced back home. They raised them tougher then. I couldn't do it, I don't think."

Geelong psychiatrist Anne Ward came to the Somme for a family reunion with both the dead and living. She wanted to spend holiday time with her brother, sister and cousin and decided to visit the site where her grandfather fought and survived but other family members didn't. Ms Ward described the mood as sobering. "It's been a chance for the family to spend time together and reflect on the family history, particularly for me to get to know a man whom I never met," she said. "I feel incredibly proud to say this is what my family has done and I think it lovely to travel to the other side of the world and feel something of meaning, something so personal. It's hard for generations today to appreciate what generations before them were prepared to do."

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Paternity tests prove hundreds of men duped

"Mothers are being forced to pay back as much as $60,000 to men they wrongly claimed fathered their children following a contentious reform of child support laws. The Daily Telegraph can reveal 18 men, cleared by DNA testing, have made use of changes permitting them to claw back funds paid through the Child Support Agency. More than 300 men have been cleared by DNA of being fathers. Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show orders for $171,567 to be returned have so far been made against the mothers.

Angry women's groups said last night that it would be the children at the centre of the disputes who would suffer most if money were paid back. The money is being garnisheed from mothers' incomes by the Child Support Agency in the same way that payments are taken from the wages of non-custodial fathers.

In each case the duped men were able to prove beyond doubt in the courts they were not the fathers based on DNA paternity testing. The new law, section 143 of the Child Support (Assessment) Act, requires the Family Court to consider issuing orders for repayment where paternity is successfully challenged and child support has been paid. The law allowing such repayment debts to be collected by the Child Support Agency became effective on January 1 last year.

In the biggest case, Queensland man Ken Rodgers obtained orders for the repayment of $60,000 after making child support contributions over a decade to a woman who refused to even send him a photograph of his alleged child.

But not every man who is disproving paternity using DNA testing through the courts is getting his money back. A Child Support Agency spokesman said courts decide on a section 143 order based on "particular circumstances of the parties".

But making mothers pay back child support was last night condemned by women's groups. Sole Parent's Union president Kathleen Swinbourne said garnisheeing a mother's wages would only hurt the child. "The money has already been spent on rearing the child," she said. "If the mother is forced to pay it back, its hard to imagine the child won't be disadvantaged." She said men should raise doubts about paternity when they are first told they are a father.

Men's Rights Agency director Sue Price said men wrongly named as a father of a child were entitled to justice. She said all child support payments made by a man should be "refunded in full" by the Child Support Agency where paternity is successfully challenged and then recouped from the woman. "A woman's knows who she's been with in a particular month," she said. "They must know if there is any doubt about whether the man they are pointing their finger at is actually the father."

The repayments are being made despite a landmark 2006 High Court ruling that stripped a $70,000 compensation payment for pain and suffering to father Liam Magill. The High Court ruled there was no legal obligation for husbands and wives who cheat on each other to disclose their infidelity.

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Minor procedure in public hospital nearly kills man

A man says he could have died after an operation left him bleeding heavily and turned his penis black. Michael Eglington, 53, Mr Eglington went Royal Darwin Hospital last Tuesday to have a wart removed from the base of his penis, The Northern Territory News reports. He said he collapsed from blood loss as he rushed back to the hospital less than an hour after being discharged.

"Why did they let me go?" he said. "I could have passed out while I was driving." The internal bleeding caused his penis and testicles to turn black - and his testicles swelled to more than three times their normal size. The Northern Territory News reports it has seen photographs to prove it.

He was treated under local anaesthetic but said he was sent home straight away. "Next thing I started feeling a bit warm about the groin," he said. He said he looked down to see that he was sitting in "an inch of blood" in the chair. He used a nappy to soak up the blood as he drove back to hospital where he collapsed against the emergency counter. "My shorts, my shirt, everything was covered in blood," he said.

Royal Darwin spokeswoman Michelle Foster said the hospital would not comment until an investigation into the incident was complete.

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100-year construction completed on Brisbane cathedral



After 100 years of construction, Brisbane's Anglican cathedral was finished this morning when a 22-tonne copper spire was put in place. A massive crane has lifted the 22-tonne copper clad spire into place.

At one stage there was concern about the wind but Brisbane's Anglican Archbishop Doctor Phillip Aspinall was not worried. Dressed in all his religious robes he climbed aboard a cherry picker to bless the spire and cross which will forever rest over the central tower. "It's wonderful, it's a great day," he said.

The church is believed to be last gothic cathedral under construction anywhere in the world. Edward Taylor organised this morning's lift and shortly before the spire was lifted in to place he was hopeful the weather would prevail. "At the moment it's blowing perfect for us to lift it," he said. "If it stays like this all day it will be great."

More than 100 people cheered as the spire was lowered into place. Parishioners say it is a huge achievement that has taken years of fundraising.

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