Worrall died in jail from medical problem...

<--Kathleen Worrall (left) stabbed her sister Susan.

Sydney - Thu Sep 22 2011 .A woman jailed for killing her sister after a row about a hair straightener died in her cell as a result of a medical condition, a coroner has found.

Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell said it would never be known whether 22-year-old Kathleen Worrall made up a story about being bashed by a prison officer after refusing his sexual advances.

He concluded on Thursday that she died of pulmonary thromboembolism with morbid obesity.

An inquest into her death heard Worrallhad long suffered from congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a genetic disorder that affects the adrenal glands.

At the time of her death she weighed 133kg, a side-effect of medications she was taking.

Worrall was found by fellow prisoners at Dillwynia Women's Correctional Centre on the morning of August 1, 2010.

Worrall was jailed on June 4 after being found guilty of stabbing her sister Susan more than 50 times with a knife.

She was serving six years for manslaughter, with a non-parole period of four years and three months.

The inquest, held at Parramatta Local Court, lasted less than two hours.

It heard her mother Maureen had reported to Corrective Services NSW that Kathleen had told her she had been bashed by a male prison officer after refusing his sexual advances.

Mrs Worrall made the complaint after receiving toxicology reports that showed bruising on her daughter's buttocks, back and lower neck.

Mr Mitchell said the truth about the allegations would never be known.

"If she did make it up, it's an indication of the degree of distress she was suffering," he said.

"If it did happen, all I can say is that police have tried and failed to clarify the matter."

Mr Mitchell said regardless, Worrall had seemed to be "happy, outgoing, loved, keen to get on with life, and as her father said, euphoric".

"That is something her parents can cling to," he said.

© AAP 2011

Windows 8: full details revealed...

Tech Authority by Barry Collins in Los Angeles on Sep 14, 2011

Los Angeles, Sep 14, 2011. Traditional Windows desktop relegated, as Microsoft moves into the touchscreen era.Microsoft has revealed full details of Windows 8, with an all-or-nothing approach to touch technology, writes Barry Collins in Los Angeles.

Inside Windows 8: a visual tour

All versions of Windows 8 - whether used on a touchscreen device or not - will use the operating system's new Metro interface, which was first developed for Windows Phone 7 devices.

The familiar Windows desktop, which has been the cornerstone of the operating system since Windows 95, has been effectively demoted to an "app".

Microsoft insists that the touch-oriented interface is suitable for any device, regardless of whether it has a touchscreen or not. "We envision an OS that scales from small form-factor, keyboardless tablets, all the way up to servers," said Windows president Steven Sinofsky, at a special press preview of the new operating system.

What's more, the company believes that every device should have a touchcreen. "The UI is the same UI, whether you use a mouse, keyboard or touch," said Jensen Harris, director of program management for the Windows Experience. "Every screen needs to be touch. A monitor without touch feels dead."

New application model

The advent of Windows 8 sees Microsoft introduce a new style of application, dubbed Metro Style apps, and its own app Store. The Metro Style apps are run in full-screen mode, with no Windows taskbar or other menu items getting in the way.

"Every single pixel of your beautiful screen is for your app," said Harris. "You're just immersed in the content."

Metro Style apps have more in common with the lightweight web apps found in Google Chrome than traditional Windows software. They can be written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as the more traditional C and C++ programming languages.

Microsoft will automatically syncrhonise a user's Metro Style apps across their Windows 8 devices, and allow users to pick up an app from where they left off on another device.

The Metro Style apps will be downloadable for the Microsoft Store, which offers developers the chance to offer "free trials" of their applications to customers, automatically wiping the app from users' machines when the trial period expires. All software distributed through Microsoft's Store has to be vetted by the company first - a process that the company claims will take mere hours, not the days and weeks that developers wait for software to be approved by Apple.

Old-style desktop

There will still be a place for traditional, desktop-style applications. These will run from the Windows 7-style Desktop, which now appears as an app on the Windows 8 Start Screen. "The Desktop is just another app that you can launch when you want to," said Harris. "There are no compromises. When you want a mouse and keyboard you can have it."

Microsoft insisted it wasn't trying to phase out desktop software in favour of the Metro apps. "There's no new conspiracy here," said Steven Sinofsky, in a spiky exchange with journalists who questioned Microsoft's motives. "We don't think the Desktop is some old place that you will never want to go."

Traditional x86 software will also be sold in the Store alongside the Metro apps.

No version announcements

Microsoft hasn't announced a release date, price or even which versions of Windows 8 will be offered to consumers and businesses. Sinofsky did however suggest there will be an element of differentiation between the versions of Windows that run on traditional x86 processors and the version running on ARM-based chips.

Despite showing off versions of Microsoft Office running on ARM processors earlier this year, Sinofsky claimed the "vast library" of x86 software "is not an asset we're going to port to ARM."

New Metro Style apps coded in HTML/JavaScript will, however, run equally as well on ARM processors as x86, suggesting Microsoft views the ARM versions of Windows as a pure tablet play.

Comments in this discussion

"Not convinced either. I like the monitor at the far end of my table so I have space for my paperwork etc. Not great if I have to touch the screen regularly. Ok, I can use the traditional desktop ..." By P.Visser

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Copyright © PC Pro, Dennis Publishing

And the most tolerant nation for sex scandals is...

Reuters By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Thu Sep 8, 2011. When politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived in France last week, cleared of a New York sex scandal, he returned home smiling despite facing a frosty reception. Maybe he should have gone to Mexico, instead.

Pay attention Anthony Weiner, Tiger Woods, Brett Favre and others caught up in public, sexual indiscretions.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday shows 57 percent of Mexicans would be either very likely or somewhat likely to tolerate the sexual indiscretions of stars and politicians.

They were followed by Belgians at 55 percent. In the United States, the tolerance factor was 48 percent. France, in fact, was way down the list at only 33 percent, while Japan was the least forgiving country at only 28 percent.

In total, 44 percent of some 18,700 respondents in more than 20 countries said they would likely tolerate a scandal.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey also asked if behavior exhibited in sex scandals was reflective of people's true personalities, or if fame and power led them to think they could get away with their acts.

In France, some 80 percent of respondents said fame was the root cause, while Mexico was about equally divided: 49 percent on the side of power and 51 percent on personality.

Throughout all the world, the decision was roughly split with 46 percent saying power and 54 percent citing personal characteristics. In the U.S. the percentages were 43 percent power, 57 personality.

"There is a Jekyll and Hyde issue here, and in some places the behavior is just more acceptable," said John Wright, managing director at Ipsos.

In recent months Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund and a presumed candidate for the French presidency, faced a possible trial in the United States for allegedly attempting to rape a hotel maid.

Last week, New York City prosecutors dropped charges, allowing him to return to France where he faced a mostly chilly public reception and unease among his political allies.

Former U.S. congressman Weiner, golfer Woods and football star Favre faced their own sex scandals in the last two years.

A slight majority of the respondents around the world, 51 percent, said women were just as likely as men to engage in sexual indiscretions but less apt to get caught in the act. Perhaps it's no surprise, Mexicans agreed, at 51 percent.

The full poll can be found at www.ipsos.com.

(Reporting and writing by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Alex Dobuzinskis)

Ordinance would cover naked bottoms...

Reuters By Laird Harrison

OAKLAND (Reuters) Fri Sep 9, 2011. In the San Francisco Bay area where tolerance is king, it is a rare politician willing to clamp down on citizens who let it all hang out.

San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener stepped into that position earlier this week when he introduced an ordinance that would require nudists to cover their seats in public places and wear clothes in restaurants.

Public nudity, he explains, is legal in San Francisco and in recent years a group known informally as Naked Guys have shown unbridled enthusiasm for appearing in the nude.

"I see it pretty regularly, and unfortunately there are nudists who are not doing what they should," Wiener told Reuters.

The nudists, who expose themselves most often in the city's famous gay neighborhood, the Castro District, have got Wiener and others worrying about public health.

"I'm not a health expert, but I believe sitting nude in a public place is not sanitary," he said. "Would you want to sit on a seat where someone had been sitting naked? I think most people would say, 'No.'"

Wiener, who represents the Castro neighborhood, said he hears from merchants who fear the public displays may drive away customers, hurting the business' bottom lines.

That's particularly true in restaurants. He acknowledged that he has not seen any research establishing a health risk. "But when you have your orifices exposed in an eating establishment, a lot of people don't like it," he said.

California does have legislation against indecent exposure. But the law is lenient enough that it has barely affected San Francisco's current coterie of flaunters.

Weiner's proposed ordinance will next be assigned to a committee, and Wiener expects a public hearing within months. Clothing required.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Cynthia Johnston)

Abandoned for two weeks, starving dogs eat owner...

Reuters

JAKARTA Wed Sep 7, 2011.(Reuters) - Seven dogs starved of food and water for two weeks are suspected of eating their Indonesian owner after he returned to his hometown in Manado from a holiday, local media reported on Tuesday.

A neighborhood guard was curious when he saw luggage lined up at the front of Andre Lumboga's house, days after the 50-year old arrived back home. He approached the house, smelled something foul and called the police, according to a report.

"His skull was found in the kitchen, and his body was found in the front of his house," Eriyana, a local police chief in Batam, an island off Sumatra, told VIVAnews website.

Lumboga arrived home last Wednesday, but his body was just discovered on Monday.

"We suspect that the dogs were hungry, so they attacked Andre, because they had not been fed for 14 days," he said. Police also found bones of two other dogs, believed to have also been eaten by the hungry canines.

Lumboga was from northern Sulawesi island, a predominantly Christian area, where the local spicy diet is famous in Indonesia for including dogs, bats and forest rats.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Ed Lane)