"welcome to the land of the not-so-free sex" automated translation by google*

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Qantas Airways grounded all of its aircraft around the world indefinitely on Saturday due to ongoing strikes by its workers.

The Australian carrier's entire fleet of 108 aircraft will remain grounded until unions representing pilots, mechanics and other ground staff reach an agreement with the airline over pay and conditions, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told a news conference in Sydney.

"We have decided to ground the Qantas international and domestic fleets immediately," Joyce said.

Flights already in the air when the announcement was made were to continue to their destinations.

"I mean there's a lot of jokes about, you know, mother-in-laws," he told PM.

"Well they're funny, but they're not really funny. I mean there is a mechanism in there.

"You know, when you've got everybody living on top of each other and getting on each other's nerves, kids get on parent's nerves, parents irritate kids.

"I mean, you've got to understand when you've got 15 people in a house the result is just dreadful ... and that can be fixed tomorrow."

Women at the rally said his lack of awareness was disheartening from a long-serving Member of Parliament.

Domestic violence expert Betty Taylor has written reports for the Government on the issue.

"I love your costume..." "Thank you..."

Europe's leaders are claiming a victory in the eurozone crisis after agreeing new deals that halve Greek debt and increase the firepower of the main bailout fund to around €1trn.

Athens will be handed a new €100bn bailout early in the new year. The accord was reached in the early hours of Thursday after hours of fractious debate.

At one stage talks broke down with holders of Greek debt but they ended up accepting a loss or "haircut" of 50% in converting their existing bonds into new loans.

Mr Abbott said he was not making any promises, just a prediction that his party is likely to kill off any mandatory pre-commitment scheme for poker machines that Labor introduces.

But Mr Wilkie says he is not convinced Mr Abbott would rescind the legislation if he was able to.

"He's actually been somewhat ambiguous. It's not written in blood like other promises are. He's talked about a prediction," Mr Wilkie told Lateline.

"And I think, in fact, that when these reforms are realised, he will find it very, very difficult to overturn them because, for a start, they have majority public support.

mischief by Gus...

picture by Gus...