High School for Home Schoolers

Home schools are a good option for parents who want to be involved hands on in the education process of their children. However, when home-schooled children reach the high school age, a critical question that parents face is whether to continue instructing them at home or enroll them in a public school.Teenage is the stage in the life of any child when you need to be very cautious as a parent. During adolescence, children are easily influenced by negative thoughts and activities, and there are limits to how much you can keep an eye on them. If you want them to be under your guidance when they are passing through this often emotionally tumultuous period, then home schooling is certainly recommended. Though home schooling a child who has reached the high school stage can be a tough job, it can certainly be achieved with determination. Home schooling through high school is beneficial, as your child can complete the studies at home in just 24 months or even less. This not only saves time compared to high schools where the tenure extends to 4 years, but also enables your child to focus energy and resources on specific subjects of his or her interest. Since your child will not have to face peer pressure, acts of bullying or even traces of negative influences like sex or drugs while being schooled at home, it could set an efficient learning environment.If you send Rosetta Stone Chinese your child to a public school, a lot of time is spent on administrative duties, which includes roll calling for attendance, distributing out work and supplies, maintaining discipline, and the collection of homework and reports of each and every student. Commuting to and from school is also a time consuming activity that can exhaust your child. Home schooling can help children make optimum use of the time at their disposal. Teenage children are the fastest growing group of the home-schooled population in the US that is currently estimated to be approximately two million. It has been proved that students, who have been home schooled, possess greater ability to absorb information and produce better results than students who have been educated in a public school. No surprise then that most colleges or universities in the US welcome home schooled students, provided they meet their basic eligibility criterion. In order to start teaching your child at home through high school, you should make a plan that is based on their style of learning. You should place emphasis on the areas where they display specific interest. The curriculum should be conducive to their natural inclination along with covering the basics of all subjects so that they get to learn everything but master a few. If you are facing problems in covering difficult subjects, you could try using online school, educational software and videos. If you want your child to acquire a diploma or certification to apply for jobs in the future, you could help them prepare for the General Development Test (GDT) that is used to measure the skills and general knowledge of a home-schooled child.With the help of a planned curriculum supplemented with real life experiences, home schooling of high school children can help them become mature and responsible human beings, and good decision makers.

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Home Schooling During the High School Years

Home schooling during the high school years can be a fun and rewarding time for both the child and parent. This time can be used to keep, maintain and even deepen a relationship with your child during a high stress time of their lives. This can be a time to build a trust with your child so that they are willing to listen to council that you would like to share with them during this time of their lives. Also, as a Christian parent it can be the time to guide your child in their Christian walk and to help with any questions that they have so that their relationship with the Lord is their own; which will help them as new choices and decisions come their way in the upcoming years.As your child enters the high school years record keeping becomes very important. You will want to start recording the things that your child accomplishes so that you can report them for college admission considerations. This is the time to start looking at the requirements of the top three college choices that your child is thinking about attending. This will help in knowing what they require from incoming freshman. Also, check your state requirements in what they recommend a high school student to have before graduation. Some things that we learned along the way is to start a record writing down every book read during the high school years either for school or free reading. Keep up to date with your records; Rosetta Stone Language this will help if you need to present them for scholarships or grants.Keeping track and recording your child's extracurricular activities are just as important as recording the grades of the academic classes. For homeschoolers this is important because sports can also be counted as physical education credit as well as extracurricular. Colleges are interested in a child's outside activities only to show that they are a well rounded person, sports, 4-H, part time job it isn't important to a college what a student is involved in just that they have a well balanced life and are active in academic as well as extracurricular activities.During this time of your child's development it is important for them to start learning life lessons while they are still in a safe environment and still have you as a sounding board to hear from them and have some input towards their dreams and decisions.

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Home Schooling Your Autistic Child: Tough Choice To Make

I wanted to take the time to share some information on home-schooling your autistic child. Autism provides some unique challenges to parents. It is a spectrum disorder that makes it much more difficult for a child to relate to others, as well as communicate to others. As you can guess, teaching someone that lacks the basic communication skills is quite difficult. Often teaching becomes a two-part process. The first to teach the skills of communication and than moving onto the actual teachings a child needs. This will require a lot of preparation on your part, a lot of patients and understanding because this won't be a walk in the park. I'm going to show you how you go about home-schooling your autistic child.Structure and routine are the two most important things you can have in place for any autistic person. You have to understand that you can't just throw this together each day and hope for the best. It has to be well planned and consistent to a routine. Since autism is so hard on the senses for children, they need this routine to keep everything familiar for them. You should stick to a schedule and start each day the same way. A fun learning exercise that can help a Rosetta Stone Greek child learn and keep a routine is to allow them to make the routine. Have them draw some pictures of what will be done through the day and have them put it up on a chart. This can help a child want to follow the routine.Home-schooling your autistic child will require a lot of help. You need to speak to a professional. You can't just teach the same things a regular child would learn. It just doesn't work that way. You need specialized material that is going to help the child out best. A doctor may disagree with your desire to do home schooling, but they should recommend the type of education they would need. Each autistic child is a different, with different skills and abilities; there is no universal teaching manual for the autistic. Make sure you pick up professional teaching material for autism, to ensure they get the best quality education.One of the best tools you have at your disposal when home schooling your autistic child is the ability to journal the experience. A lot of people don't see the value in journaling, but they tend to be the people that stop after a week. The real value from journaling comes months down the road. When you start going through things, you can pick up on certain behaviors. If there was a bad day with your child, than you might notice some similarities in what happened that day. It is also a great tool in measuring how your child's progress is coming. Since progress seems like a crawl day-to-day, going back over the months can really show you a strong learning patter, which will make you a much more motivated teacher.

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They will take the pressure off

They apparently have some very special needs that have to be met immediately regardless of laws or basic human decency. Well, the boys must be delighted that City of Sydney now recognises this specialness and will be providing public opportunities for them to express their specialness, and whip it out in full view of other revellers. And they can conveniently do this while neatly corralled in groups of four on prominent corners around Sydney's busiest night spots. Now that's the kind of bonding even the best footy coach could only dream of. Camille Manley Camperdown Portable urinals were used in Bradfield Park at the start of the 2009 Sydney Marathon, with singular success. They are a splendid idea to literally relieve pressure and facilitate flow and motion. After all, there's nothing worse than to join a queue at a portaloo just for a "number 1" only to find the person ahead/inside was there for a "number 2"! City to Surf organisers please take note. Edward Loong Milsons Point Well done to the City of Sydney council for trialling the new portable urinals. I saw these in action last year in Paris at the Vendanges de Montmartre, even tried one myself. There were large crowds, not many portable toilets and a couple of these. Guess what, no big queues for the loos. I commented at the time that they should be a part of every music and outdoor event. They will take the pressure off. Ross Mayberry Mudgee Perhaps they should put ''temporary public urinal'' along the Corso at Manly and inform rugby league players that it's there. They'd then be allowed to piddle in public and not get in trouble. Michael Deeth Como West Umm, where do I sit? Amanda Lyons Darlinghurst Families in crisis The story in today's Herald is sad in that it condemns all men to changes in family law as a result of the actions of one, although sadly it's not only men who murder their children (''She once escaped a killer - under today's laws she would still be trapped,'' April 7). The proposed changes to the Family Law Act will bring back the behaviour that I and other fathers experienced when I went through my divorce in 2001. At that time the law encouraged mothers to maximise their income from child support and Centre link by minimising the time the father was given access to his children Rosetta Stone Chinese . I am a good father and I love my children. Why should I be condemned by the actions of others? The presumption of shared care is fair for all. Name withheld Helen Cummings is correct in highlighting the need for amendments to the Family Law Act. My ex partner, a respected professional man who was emotionally abusive, used the Family Law Act to "grasp shared care (in our case custody) as a weapon to use against" me. While the four-year legal battle took place, our son was shuttled between the two of us in a decision made by the court in "the child's best interests". The process left me and my son emotionally drained, not to mention the prohibitive financial cost that caused hardship to me but not to the professional father. Since the conclusion of the custody case, three years, where I was awarded full custody, there has been no contact from the father but, thanks to the Family Law Act, the consequences are long lasting and permanent. Name withheld What about the husbands? There are many independent studies out there from Europe and America showing that the incidence of wives abusing their husbands is almost on par with the reverse situation. I have been physically and verbally abused by my wife and it only stopped when I got police intervention. Most of the time she attacked me because I was protecting the children against her and her outbursts and drew her attention away from them, otherwise she would have been physically and verbally attacking them. But with the focus on the women being the victim, I did not know where to go and what to do as there is very little out there for men. Finally my family assisted me.

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Guide to Dungog in NSW

It is believed that the area was occupied by the Gringgai clanof the Wanaruah people prior to European settlement. It ispresumably from their language that we inherit the word 'Dungog'supposedly meaning 'place of thinly wooded hills'. The first Europeans in the area are thought to have beenstockmen in search of wayward cattle. The thick stands of cedar inthe area soon drew timbergetters. One account concerns a cedar treewith a circumference of nearly 9 metres which it was estimatedwould yield 9 km of timber. Advertisement: Story continues below The initial property grant was made by Governor Darling in 1824.The first grant to the north was made to James D. Dowling in 1828.His descendants have remained on the property. It is JamesDowling's name which graces Dungog's main street. The land for a township to be named Upper Williams was set asidein 1830 but 'Dungog' was adopted in 1834. At this time the settlers petitioned the Rosetta Stone authorities for amilitary post to deal with bushranging in the area. CaptainThunderbolt and his wife had been involved in plundering homesteadsin the Munni, Monkerai, Main Creek and Underbank districts. JoeBurn, a member of Ben Hall's gang was shot in the shoulder by alocal woman when he bailed her up. The Governors and the Jew BoyGang were also active in the area. The hilly terrain made fornatural cover. Hence the town courthouse was built between 1835 and1838 as a barracks and stables for troopers who successfully drove Thunderbolt north over Gloucester Tops and out of the area. A town plan was approved in 1838. A school, built in 1843, wasdesigned by noted architect, Edmund Blacket. It was only his secondcommission in the colony. By 1850 the town was wellestablished andof good reputation. Timbercutting remained a central focus of the local economy intothe 1860s when it was supplemented by a tannery, a tobacco factoryand a flour mill.The railway arrived in 1911. In 1972 the Dungog timber industry supplied timber for elementsof the interior of the Sydney Opera House. Today the town's majorindustries are beef and dairy cattle, poultry, timber andtourism.

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The spartan dashboard is shaped like a surfboard

From behind the wheel the Z4 feels like a tighter Z3. The throttle and steering are responsive, the engine is highly refined and the exhaust growls subtly between gear changes. Acceleration is brisk by any standards. The 2.5 covers the 0100kmh dash in a respectable 7.0 the 3.0 takes a claimed 5.9 seconds. The 3.0 test car provided by BMW (there were no 2.5s available for media evaluation) felt quick, but not that quick. If the exterior is a departure from conventional design, wait until you see the cabin. The spartan dashboard is shaped like a surfboard. Overseas markets have a confronting woodgrain finish as standard but BMW Australia opted for brushed aluminium, which is little consolation: the horizontal etching feels like sanper. The controls are otherwise functional and cupholders are fitted for the first time. The glovebox appears to be an afterthought, hidden as it is by the shape of the dashboard. The lid opens down into the passenger's footwell, causing what few items it holds to fall out. A lockable compartment between the seats aims to compensate for the lack of storage. BMW intends to compete directly with the likes of the MercedesBenz SLK and Porsche Boxster, yet it has retained a fabric roof rather than switching to the vogue folding metal designs. The ragtop, however, saves weight and enables the roof to be raised or lowered in about half the time of a folding metal roof. BMW claims either operation takes less than 10 according toDrive 's stopwatch, it was up or down in about eight seconds. All cars tested were equipped with the fully automated roof. There were no latches, just one button to press. However, we were disappointed to learn, this roof is optional. The softtop also has what is possibly an unintended benefit: it doesn't hurt when you hit your head on the roof. On every bump (and even on gentle undulations) we encountered, the suspension bucked sharply upwards, causing nausea after an extended spell of driving. The Z4 still does not ride and handle as a thoroughbred roadster should. It is Rosetta Stone Korean surprising to find this shortcoming in the model that would benefit most from BMW's expertise in this field. Like the Z3, the Z4 was created by fitting a new body on the underpinnings of the 3 Series sedan. The convertible's lowslung stance may have created limitations with the suspension. The Z4 is competent but it is no rival for the Porsche Boxster. There are two suspension setups but, as a colleague said, the comfort set up is not comfortable and the sporty option is not sporty. The test cars, BMW said, were built to US specifications and did not necessarily reflect the setup of cars to be delivered in Australia. We will reserve judgement until it arrives mid2003. Mixed mediaThe Z4's mix of convex and concave lines proved a challenge for some of the world's best car photographers. One said the reflections were so hard to eliminate it was "like trying to photograph the back of a spoon". 44 time Those keen to buy a highper formance version of the Z4 will be disappointed. BMW says it has no plans to build an M roadster based on the new model for "at least three years". And even then, given the rush of new models due in the next five years, there is no guarantee the Z4M will be built. What the new BMW Z4 must beat ... Mercedes Benz SLK The BMW Z4's main rival is not due for replacement until late 2004. The secondgeneration Mercedes Benz SLK is expected to share visual cues with the flagship SLR, such as a Formula Onestyle nose and twin round headlamps. The car has been spied during testing but has been heavily cloaked to disguise the design. E

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The noise it makes is fantastic

It has a 240 km/h top speed and shattering acceleration." When he starts its Fiatbased 1100 cc engine with avgas flowing through twinchoke Weber carbies, the sound is earshattering, too. The Stanguellini is identical to the factory race cars but this one was privately owned, apparently, and in 1960 won a formula junior race at Monza. "When he (the owner) finished racing in 1963, he just put it away." McDowell is only the second owner. Finally we get to his sleek, silvery blue ASA, the coupe with hints of Ferrari at the rear. McDowell opens the bonnet to reveal its neat, black 1000 cc engine. "That, effectively, is just four cylinders cut off the 250 V12 Ferrari," he says. "These produced 100 hp (75 kW) in 1959. It was equivalent to the racing formula at the time." The car had been repainted in Barcelona before he bought it but the rest is original. "It's only done 30,069 since new," he says, peering at the speedometer. "The noise it makes is fantastic. It's such a responsive little motor." We walk around the car, McDowell singing its praises. "It's got Borrani centrelock wheels. They were just the absolute best money could buy. And the Nardi steering wheel and the Jaeger racingtype instrumentation. The interesting thing about this car is that it came standard with four wheel disc brakes in 1959. Only really highper formance stuff, like Ferraris and Maseratis, had four wheel disc brakes." The Rosetta Stone ASA is still lefthanddrive and the dashboard looks very sporty with its big matching tacho and speedo flanked by lots of smaller gauges and toggle switches. The gear lever sits high on the centre console. But that's not the interesting bit. What looks like a lever for blinkers on the steering column is overdrive. "It's a fourspeed gearbox with electronic overdrive in third and fourth gears," McDowell says. "Which is really fun to use. You can flick it in and out as you go along. It (the ASA) is just so much fun to drive." He claims the ASA could probably do 200 km/h at a time similar British cars were "flat out at 130 or 140". He's done his best to prove it. The speedo tops out at 220. "I've tried to do 220. I've had it as fast as it will go (on a closedroad speed event in WA)," he laughs. "We couldn't get the needle past the 220 but we sure tried. It was absolutely screaming." Autobiography The "Mille", as it was known, was a show car but Enzo Ferrari didn't want to build it himself and sold the concept to the Italian company Autocostruzione Societa per Azione (ASA). The first ASA 1000 GT its body was designed by Bertone and the mechanicals by Giotto Bizzarrini, who worked at Ferrari was powered by a 1032 cc fourcylinder engine with twin carbies; it produced 91 hp (nearly 70 kW). The car was unveiled at Turin in 1962 and became known as the "Ferrarina" or "baby Ferrari". Only about 120 were built, the last in 1967. Stanguellini was a Modena car dealer. He launched his first road car in 1947 and first formula junior car in 1958. In 1963 Stanguellini broke six speed records at Monza. A roadgoing GT was planned but only four prototypes were made.

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You can't time travel with a companion

A typical day would be to get up as late as possible, eat ahearty lunch and spend the afternoon driving around the countrysidevisiting local producers.If I have the time, I wouldn't mind having a massage or two,either! However, the most decadent thing I would do is eat outevery lunch and dinner. Stephen Smith, 53, is Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister.He lives in Perth. Having spent the past 15 years regularly flying from Perth toCanberra, and having spent more than 100 days overseas in more than25 countries in my role as Foreign Minister, my dream holidaydestination is one that doesn't involve a plane. Fortunately, the dream is reflected by reality. For the pastdecade or so, our Christmas family holiday has been in thesouthwest of Western Australia in the Margaret River, Yallingupand Dunsborough triangle.We stay within striking distance of the appropriately named SmithsBeach. The ideal day starts with a morning walk for an hour or so,sometimes past Yallingup Woodfired Bread to pick up the best breadin the area. Then it's off to Smiths Beach for a swim, followed bya session of a Test cricket match on TV and perhaps a coffee inDunsborough. Afternoon or early evening dips at Bunkers Bay, or more usually Eagle Bay, invariably open up the prospect of a glass of WestAustralian white or red wine on the beach. The occasional foray toa local winery, with Cullen Wines my favourite, is also readilyavailable. And after all of that (for a fortnight, if we can manageit) it's only a leisurely threetofourhour drive back toPerth. Robert Dessaix, 65, is the author of several books. Hislatest is Arabesques. Whenever I leave home alone for overseas, I like to time travel.You can't time travel with a companion. A fellow traveller keeps hauling you back to the present like amobile phone. Of course, I could just go to Devonport in Rosetta Stone Hindi Tasmania,but I want more than a time warp. I want to jump into the river ofcivilisation.Ideally, I head first to Bhutan for a taste of medieval Buddhistculture. No trekking or kayaking, just a bit of mooching invillages unchanged for centuries. From there, I might zip across to Zanzibar, and not just becauseit has two Zs in it and Freddie Mercury from Queen was born there.Wandering through the ancient streets of Stone Town, I would hopeto catch a whiff of cloves wafting among the mosques and topplinghouses, and a glimpse of what an old Arab spice and slaving portwould have been like. It would be tempting to drop in on Sana'a in Yemen to delight in its fantastic architecture and lose myself in the aromatic souks so Arabian Nights. But Yemen is not very safe these days, soperhaps I would head straight for Libya first class, naturally.There is no point in suffering en route, although on trains the crowd in second class is usually more communicative and fun. In Libya I'd go from Roman ruin to Roman ruin, trying to think myself back into the Roman Empire 2000 years ago. It's so much easier todo there than in downtown Rome. Sometimes I think I would like to visit a few truly appallingplaces not Las Vegas, somewhere worse. Lagos, say, or Mogadishu.It might remind me of the paradise I have here in Hobart. Paradiseis fine for living in, but now and again you have to get out. Les Murray, 70, was born in Nabiac, NSW. He has published morethan 30 volumes of poetry and has been called Australia's "bard ofthe bush".Nuuk, formerly Godthaab, is the capital of Greenland, which isstill faintly attached to Denmark [as an autonomous territory].Princess Mary's first royal tour went there in 2004. This vasttreeless land, with its towering mountains and one of the world's prettiest flags, contains the remote Thule airbase and the Inuitsite of Qaanaaq. Nuuk has a meat market called the bord ("table" in Danish) where you can buy walrus steaks, whale blubber, polar bearand fermented fulmar birds all the rich constituents of an Arcticmeatonly diet. I would try more than one, pleading that, afterall, I'm a vegetarian in India.

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Internet changing consumer electronics world: Intel chief

The Internet is a magnificent "disruptive force" changing the world's gadgets along with lifestyles, computer giant Intel's top executive said Monday at the top consumer electronics show. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) abounds with televisions and other devices that link directly to the Internet, bypassing computers, making gadgets smarter and increasingly interconnected, said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini. "The Internet is a disruptive force that is changing the consumer electronics industry," Otellini said, in a speech wrapping up the first day of the CES event in Las Vegas that ends Thursday. Advertisement: Story continues below "I submit we are just getting started," the head of the world's largest computer chip maker said. "The next generation is the Internet coming to us instead of us going to the Internet." Otellini demonstrated a prototype handheld device that combined satellite positioning technology with translation software, image recognition and mobile Internet connectivity. The gizmo can determine where it is, download the applicable maps and language information and essentially act as a personal tour guide, translator and local business reference guide. In a demonstration, the device translated restaurant and street signs in a faux Chinese stage setting after being pointed towards them. "Doing things like realtime translation and augmented reality will require Rosetta Stone Chinese (Mandarin) exponentially more powerful processors that are also exponentially using less power," Otellini said. To fulfill the promise of "personal Internet" people can take wherever they go will take not only faster computer chips but ubiquitous, reliable broadband Internet access, he added. "Eventually, we will blanket the globe with wireless connectivity." Also needed are better "natural interface" technologies that let people command devices using gestures, words and even body movement, according to Otellini. "Think of the Nintendo Wii," he said, referring to the Japanese electronics giant's coveted video game console with motionsensing controllers. "The popularity lies not in the graphics, but in the motion." As these technologies come together, computerized virtual worlds such as Second Life will "take another step up" with people's ingame proxies resembling them and mirroring their realworld movements, Otellini predicted. He called Smashmouth front man Steve Pederson to the stage and used technologies by startups eJamming, BigStage and Organic Motion to orchestrate "the world's first virtual jam session." Animated versions of Pederson and his band mates, each in different parts of the world, played one of their hits in an online replication of his garage. "Wow, that's amazing," Pederson blurted. "The cool thing is not having to be in the same room." Otellini urged electronics makers to fulfill his vision and advised them to take advantage of the business opportunities it holds. "You may argue over when this will happen, but I believe it is inevitable," Otellini said. "More and more industries are going to be transformed." CES continues Tuesday with nearly 3,000 electronics, Internet and software companies showing off their latest innovations and forums with industry insiders and government policy makers.

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Wave of Iraq attacks kills 49

Two truck bombs targeting a tiny sect in a village in northern Iraq and a spate of bloody attacks across the country killed at least 49 people on Monday and wounded more than 250, officials said. In the deadliest single attack, two boobytrapped trucks exploded before dawn in the village of Khaznah, east of the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving 28 people dead and 155 wounded. The massive blasts levelled 35 houses and gouged deep craters into the ground of the prosperous village of 3,000, home to members of the small Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin. Advertisement: Story continues below Falah Ridha, a 23yearold nurse wounded in the attack, said he was the only survivor of 12 people in his family home. "Eleven people in my family were killed when their house collapsed. All of them woke up after the first bomb, but the second bomb was very close to my house, it was like an earthquake," he said. "No one else escaped, just me." Mohammed Kadhem, 37, told : "I was sleeping on the roof and I woke up as if there was an earthquake. After that I saw a plume of smoke and dust spreading everywhere." "A minute later another bomb went off, knocking me off the roof onto the ground. I was struck unconscious by shrapnel and stones," he said. Another local resident, Assaad Salem, said: "I had just finished my prayers and was trying to sleep when the first bomb went off and destroyed everything in my house, it was like a dust storm. "Then the other bomb went off and I thought this is doomsday, this is the end of all life." Mosul has been the frequent target of attacks despite a Rosetta Stone German marked decline in violence elsewhere in the country, and US commanders describe it as the last urban bastion of alQaeda loyalists in Iraq. The country's second city with a population of about 1.6 million, Mosul is mainly Sunni both Arab and Kurdish but it also has significant Christian and Shi'ite Turkmen minorities. Later Monday afternoon, unidentified gunmen shot dead two offduty policemen in separate attacks in the city, said a police source, who declined to be identified. In Baghdad, two bombs went off as day labourers were gathering in the early morning looking for jobs, police and the interior ministry said. The first bomb, hidden inside a bag of cement, exploded at Hay alAmel in the west of the capital, killing seven people and injuring 46. The second attack, a car bomb in Shurta Arbaa in the north of the city, killed nine people and wounded 36 others. A third bombing at a market in the southern suburb of Saidiyah killed three people and wounded 14. Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki at a meeting with army commanders praised efforts in fighting insurgents but said the struggle was ongoing. "The pursuit is still on and, God willing, we will remove all those corrupted people who willingly and in cold blood kill Iraqis," he said. On Friday, a powerful car bomb blast killed at least 37 Shi'ite Muslims near a mosque in Mosul in a wave of attacks that also killed 10 people in Baghdad, threatening to plunge the country into a new round of sectarian conflict. Despite a reduction in violence in recent months, attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and in the ethnically divided northern oilrich city of Kirkuk. The number of violent deaths fell by a third last month to 275 from 437 in June, following the pullout of US forces from urban areas. The figure for May was 155, the lowest of any month since the USled 2003 invasion. The Shabak community numbers about 30,000 people living in 35 villages in the province of Nineveh, and many want to become part of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. They speak a distinct language and largely follow a faith that is a blend of Shi'ite Islam and local beliefs. The Shabak community was persecuted under ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and after the invasion they were targeted on a number of occasions by alQaeda.

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Most of those flying were compensated by the airline

The dollar is not as volatile now, but it could reasonably be expected to correct its value in the longer term to about US80162;. Buyer beware. Neil Bloomfield ThirlmereStorm damage I added a large bit to Macquarie Airport's massive take from parking fees on Monday night. Because of the storm, my partner's flight arrived three hours late, but I was still expected to pay the parking fee at $7 a halfhour. I checked the arrival time online before driving to the airport, but the information was incorrect. I soon discovered there was a snowflake's chance in hell of getting a discount. Most of those flying were compensated by the airline. Those of us on the ground were ground into it by the excessive parking fees. Joseph Barakat Maroubra Money limit doesn't curb free speech John Kaye confirms the status of the Greens as the lapdogs of the NSW Labor Party (''Influence of big money must be removed'', November 9). The proposed ban on donations from the tobacco industry, clearly targeted at the NSW opposition, is only a token gesture. As Kaye himself says of the proposed changes, ''loopholeswill undoubtedly appear''. He says restricting the spending of third parties, such as unions, on election campaigns ''is a difficult task that skirts dangerously close to threatening free speech'', but restriction of spending is exactly what is needed. Restricting spending is not restricting free speech, it is only restricting the inordinate amounts of money spent on advertisements. Politicians, unions and others will all doubtless have their say, and be reported ad nauseam in the media as they are now. Politicians the world over have shown they are incapable of both raising money and governing in the public interest. It is time we made their jobs easier for them, for all our sakes. John Croker WoononaFine grading of the genitalia debate Andrew Rosetta Stone Hindi Bazar (Letters, November 10) credits the ''classification review board'' for the increase in vaginal plastic surgery. The review board does not, as a matter of routine, classify publications. It exists to consider appeals against the decisions of the Australian Classification Board. As a former member of the classification board I was routinely involved in decisions about the acceptability of images in publications. The board considers whether the impact of the image exceeds what is acceptable in a publication for public display, or if it warrants restriction to an audience over 18. In my experience there was no bias against women with ''outies'', or a preference for tidy little pudenda. There was always debate (a great way to spend an afternoon, discussing the finer points of genital display), but it revolved around the concept of ''emphasis'' of what was there through posing, splaying of legs, cropping of images and myriad other editorial techniques. If the board rejected an image as too detailed and with too much emphasis, the publisher could substitute it (in an unrestricted publication), change the requested classification of the publication to ''restricted'' (sold in a wrapper) or get busy with Photoshop. My three years on the board gave me plenty of reading material to form the opinion that stick mags were not a hothouse of positive selfimages for women. Porn is part of modern life. The classification system is designed to ensure we don't have it staring us in the face at every newsstand, petrol station and corner shop. Sally Bryant Wellington Blueprint to weld ethics and religion exists: here it is Jessica Stewart (Letters, November 9) asks how her child can attend both special religious education and ethics classes. Picture this: each week, children gather in unsegregated classes with their regular, professionally trained teachers. They learn about a variety of belief traditions and philosophies, religious and nonreligious.

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Glass half full for A-League but coffers are not

Limit ... Ben Buckley says the FFA can go only so far in providing short-term assistance to Newcastle. Photo: Getty Images The Socceroos are in a transitional phase. The A-League is in trouble. Football is losing ground to other codes in the battle for audiences. Sebastian Hassett speaks with FFA chief executive Ben Buckley about the problems facing the game in Australia. SMH: The state of play in football in Australia has everyone concerned. What's your take on it? Ben Buckley: I think it's extremely positive. We've just been to our second World Cup in a row, we've got a new Socceroos coach who is charged with developing the next generation and our sights are set on the Asian Cup and the ride to another World Cup. I don't see issues at a select number of A-League clubs as cataclysmic for football. Advertisement: Story continues below SMH: Then why are people talking about a ''crisis'' and the potential death of the A-League? BB: A lot of commentators put one and one together and come up with five. Individual issues gain momentum and the language used becomes more exciting than the reality. By no means are we saying the A-League doesn't have issues. We have some clubs who need financial support in the short term, but if you look at any football competition in the world, that's not unique. SMH: Many within the game say the existing club model is flawed. True or false? BB: We definitely need to generate more income and manage our costs. Over time, our goal is for the FFA to provide a central grant to cover the salary cap but that's not likely to happen until we've got a new television agreement and new sponsorship agreements that will come over the next few years. SMH: The money runs out for Newcastle next Monday. What happens after that? BB: We want Newcastle to be in the competition but Rosetta Stone English the FFA cannot bail [out] every club all the time and we can't put the rest of the competition in jeopardy. Whether it's in Adelaide, Townsville or Newcastle, the loyalty and passion for the team has to be realised through sponsorship and support. We can only go so far in providing short-term assistance before it becomes a drain on the competition. SMH: If Con Constantine can't produce the money, are you prepared to let the Jets die? BB: We don't want the Jets to die. We won't leave any stone unturned to make that happen. SMH: But is it a possibility? BB: Put it this way - we don't have an endless supply of finance. SMH: Archie Fraser's very public critique of you made headlines. Were you expecting those comments? BB: I don't agree with his assertions but what I can say is that we have a fantastic new head of A-League in Lyall Gorman. He's had five years of hardcore, coalface experience [with Central Coast]. Since he's been in the chair, our communication with the clubs has improved dramatically. SMH: Fraser did mention the importance of an independent commission for the A-League, just like the AFL. Does he have a point? BB: That shows how naive his comments were because the FFA is governed by an independent board, the same way the AFL is by an independent commission. But the AFL doesn't have responsibility for national teams, like the FFA does. The FFA has a board elected by the members of the FFA in an independent way and are charged with the responsibility, amongst other things, for the A-League. SMH: What's your theory on why crowds keep falling? BB: Clubs and the FFA have to work together to engage with the fan base and to get fans coming along regularly. Teams will ebb and flow in performance and crowds will be the same. I'm sure once some of the noise from the other codes has dissipated our trend line will improve. SMH: You can see the SFS from your office window. Do you ever look over and wonder how Sydney FC will ever work? BB: I wonder about a lot of things out of that window - but I think there's no one simple remedy for Sydney. It's a combination of performance on the field and strong engagement with the community. SH: Your trip to China was kept quiet. Did you make any inquiries about their interest in bidding for the 2026 World Cup? BB: I won't comment about my international trips but I will say we are in the process of establishing friendly relations with a lot of our counterparts in Asia. SMH: We're getting closer and closer to December. How is our bid placed? BB: We're well positioned in a competitive field. We've built up a certain rapport with people who make decisions but it's going to be a strong race right to the finish line.

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We wanted it to be transparent, wanted it to be done

The first letter, in late May, threatened to expose Ryan in the press unless she resigned. "And this time no amount of sweet-talking and networking will be able to placate the media as happened before." She showed the letter to Tutton and sat tight. The second letter, in late June, was longer and more vituperative but still provided no evidence to back its dramatic claims: "Don't be put off by the bull. Scratch just below the surface and you will uncover a mine of mismanagement, deceit, lies, bullying and intimidation." The allegations were nevertheless serious. On June 29 Ryan and Tutton agreed on the terms of an investigation. Tutton later claimed he was "summoned" to this meeting and then "summarily lectured on what I could or could not do in response to the national council's concerns about the substance of the letters". Ryan says: "It was a cordial meeting. We all parted good friends." Her plan was to wait. "I thought by being quiet, commonsense would prevail, the investigation would take place and I would be cleared." But a week later she discovered to her dismay that Tutton had backed the anonymous complaints in an email to the incoming president-general of the international society, Brother Michael Thio. Tutton wrote: "I believe it is sadly written by someone that deeply loves the society, but is frustrated by a culture of cover-up, poor management and bullying that has developed in the state council of NSW." Ryan and her lawyers drafted a long, sober letter warning Tutton that he was mishandling the complaints, appeared already to have made up his mind and needed to offer them procedural fairness. His response was to sack Ryan and suspend the NSW council. He told Paris: "I formed a firm conclusion that the prevailing circumstances in NSW including the attitude and stand of the senior NSW state council officers meant that any investigation processes would be compromised and ineffective." Tutton did the sackings by phone on the afternoon of July 8 and called the national council of the society together only to endorse his actions the following day. Ryan was not present: she had also been sacked from the council. He employed a law firm and leading Sydney QC to tick off on that order of procedure. The public announcement the following Rosetta Stone German Monday gave as reasons: the repeated failure of the NSW hierarchy to address at his request issues of "over-corporatisation accompanied by incidents of bullying". Ryan was appalled. "I wanted to clear my name. My name! My face was on the TV. People out there thinking I'm a bully, that I've done all these wrong things. And I have done nothing wrong - except work for the good of the society and I have been destroyed." Only late this week was she given formal reasons for her sacking: the same statement of reasons Tutton gave Paris for his intervention. In these he makes a number of extremely tough allegations: accusing the NSW council of disrupting the work of the society in Australia, taking an "adversarial stand" at the national council, allowing "bullying, victimisation and intimidation" and mismanaging allegations of sexual abuse. Ryan told the Herald Tutton had ''never raised any of this with me". The intervention was justified three weeks ago as a last resort after NSW failed to act on repeated requests from Tutton to address these issues. Ryan says no such requests have ever been made. To her knowledge three allegations of sexual abuse - none involving children - have been examined in her time as president. One is resolved. Two - including one she believes was previously swept under the carpet - are continuing. But all three are in Tutton's hands. Did NSW do anything to frustrate or delay his work? "No, definitely not. We wanted it to be transparent, wanted it to be done. We did everything to co-operate." There is no denying that St Vincent de Paul in NSW has been dogged by a number of grim controversies in the recent past. Intervention was welcomed by the Australian Services Union. "The NSW St Vincent de Paul," said the NSW branch secretary, Sally McManus, "has behaved like the worst of private sector employers, focusing more on controlling workers and bashing the union than what they should be focused on: supporting the disadvantaged." Claims and counter-claims of bullying stretch back in a long line to the earliest days of the reform push: bullying by staff, volunteers and especially those diocesan representatives.

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