New home energy ratings reward Queensland design

The Queensland Government says verandahs, wide doors and hallways will be included in new home energy efficiency ratings.

Infrastructure Minister Stirling Hinchliffe says it will raise the maximum rating from five- to six-stars, in line with the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) new requirement for the national building code.

Mr Hinchliffe told State Parliament the changes will promote Queensland architectural features.

“The six-star standard will recognise and reward Queensland design features and work with our unique regions, not against them,” he said.

“We understand that Queensland has a unique climate that ranges from the tropical north to the sub-tropical south and beyond the range.

“We acknowledge the shortfalls of requirements developed for southern climates are not appropriate for Queensland.”

The rating will come into effect on May 1.

Jack Tweed’s ‘eight-hour free-for-all sex orgy’

London, Aug 9 (ANI): Jade Goody’s widower Jack Tweed held a party at his place which turned out to be an eight hour long sex orgy, it has been reported.

Last week, Roxy Townsend, Biannca Lake and Sam Grierson were spotted leaving Tweed’s house in the morning soon after Tweed was snapped standing naked on his balcony.

After claiming to have gone there to help Sam – who they said was Tweed’s cousin – clean his house, the three girls have accepted they attended a free sex party after all.

The New Of The World quoted Roxy as saying: “Jack was moving from girl to girl, kissing one, groping the next, snogging another. And he clearly likes variety because he went from a blonde to a mixed-race girl then onto Sam. Girls were passed round like pieces of meat and we felt pressurised into having sex.

“At one point, one guy shouted to another, ‘Mate, you can have her next, I’m done with her’.”

“It was disgusting, disrespectful and degrading.

“Couples were having sex in all the different rooms. You could hear the moaning.”

“When I made it clear that I didn’t want to have sex, one of Jack’s friends told me, ‘Well what are you here for then? If you’re not going to do anything, just f*** off’. Then he turned his back on me and picked up with another girl he might have better luck with. They made us feel very cheap. It was constant pestering for sex all night.”

Talking about the party, Roxy said: “Jack and his pals have a codeword to use when they want to have sex with a girl. They say they are going to take a girl ‘on a tour’ of the house.

“Jack and his pals were taking girls ‘on tours’ all over the house and we’d all be crossing in the hallways and exchanging looks.

“Nothing happened between myself and Jack that night although he made it clear that he was interested in me. But on the tour with his pal we ended up in the living room when no one else was in there.”

Sam has known Tweed for four years and met him at a nightclub last week, where she and her friends innocently accepted the invitation to the party.

Twenty-four-year old Sam said: “Jack suckers you in and makes you feel like you’re special. I should have known better and my pals warned me about his womanising ways.”

“But I was taken in by his sweet and innocent act. Before I knew it, we were kissing openly in front of everyone. He didn’t seem like a man who had recently lost his wife. He certainly never mentioned Jade once and there were no photos up of her. I really liked Jack and I thought he felt the same way about me. But I realise now that he was just using me.”

Meanwhile. Tweed’s spokesmen has denied any such act and said: “Jack says he wasn’t involved with any of the girls in any way that night. There were no photos of Jade or their boys that night simply because he has just moved in and hasn’t unpacked them from boxes.” (ANI)

Brangelina searching for luxury house in Big Apple

New York, July 13 (ANI): Globetrotting Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are apparently thinking of setting up base in New York, for reports have suggested that the celebrity couple have been secretly checking out plush properties in the Big Apple.

According to reports, the star couple have even seen the Apthorp-the century-old upper West Side landmark that’s undergoing a condo conversion.

Although the ‘Mr. And Mrs. Smith’ pair have always rented out properties during whenever they have stayed in the city, they now seems to be interested in the fortress-like luxury of Apthorp.

“The gated courtyard means they can get in and out of their car without being hassled by paparazzi. The building also has several other exits,” The New York Daily News quoted a source as saying.

It is believed that Pitt and Jolie are thinking about putting together three units in the building.

“I heard they’re ready to spend as much as 25 million dollars,” said a source.

It is believed that the couple is beguiled by the hand wrought period details of the Apthorp, which was built in 1908 by the Astor family.

Some apartments are as large as 13 rooms and boast 11-foot ceilings and 44-inch-wide hallways. (ANI)

22000 refugees stream into strife-hit NWFP hospital

Mardan (NWFP, Pakistan), May 7 (ANI): Over 22,000 refugees have asked for help in the Mardan area of Pakistan’s strife-hit North West Frontier Province alone, and most of them in the past 10 days.

Thousands of people are reported to have queued up outside a hospital in Mardan, reports the New York Times.

They piled into the hospital courtyard, then into the hospital itself, moving down the hallways, sitting on the floors. It was mostly men who came but women did, too, nearly all of them lost and bewildered and wondering what fate awaited them next.

Most of these refugees are fleeing battles that are now unfolding across a 50-mile arc northwest of Islamabad, even as the army, following months of indecision, has begun waging offensives against Taliban militants.

Government officials here say that about 40,000 people have already left and that a half million might ultimately be forced to run.

Refugees besieged the Mardan Tuberculosis Hospital, built by Danish missionaries in 1907, on Wednesday when government officials declared it a place where refugees could sign up for food and other help. By the end of the day, over 2,000 people had entered the premises.

Most of the refugees wear the gazes of men who longer control their own lives

One refugee said that Muslims don’t have much problem with the Taliban enforcing Islam, but are angered when the militants cut the throats of policemen.

No one is ready to criticize the Taliban directly. There is a palpable sense of fear that pervades among the refugees.

Some of the refugees milling about the tuberculosis hospital have raised doubts about the agenda of the Pakistani Army. Some echo the view that the Pakistani Army, or at least elements of it, had not merely failed to combat the militants, but had colluded to make them stronger. (ANI)