This week has already seen calls from the supporters of ousted former PM Thaksin Shinawatra to rally against the government which is currently led by the Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva. The Thai PM had earlier cancelled an upcoming Australian visit and is reported to be considering relocating to a government safe-house until the trouble has passed.

In recent months the pro-Thaksin supporters, or Red Shirts, have been openly vocal in their condemnation of the Abhisit government. Last week’s court ruling against Thaksin, ruling out his eligibility for some 78 million baht (USD 2 billion) in frozen assets due to corruption links, has only fanned the fires of protest. The security concerns ahead of the decision were enough for Abhisit to declare what effectively amounted to martial law in Bangkok.

Thaksin has further ostracised himself from the incumbent government and middle-to-wealthy classes by basing himself in Cambodia where he appears to be coordinating a dual leadership push with the notorious despot Hun Sen.

The past few weeks have seen the celebrity couple in the unwelcome spotlight, with nude photos of the supermodel surfacing on the internet, along with footage of a clearly disturbed Clarke confronting his partner in the SCG corridors. His body language, where he forced Bingle into a corner, came across as somewhat intimidating, particularly for a young lady who has had to put up with the likes of serial bad-boy Brendon Fevola in the past. It was Fevola’s distribution of a naked shower image that appears to have been the final straw for Bingle, who is suing the AFL star over his unlawful publication of the photo. Her decision to sell her side of the events to the same magazine that published the image allegedly incensed Clarke, who has had to put up with endless speculation over potential suitors of the supermodel.

Friends of Clarke claim he has been distressed and disturbed by recent events, which led him to return home to his $6 million Sydney apartment to work things out with Bingle, who has apparently confided to friends that she will probably vacate the premises soon.

The Australian cricket team showed it can cope with the loss, beating New Zealand twice in succession to lead the one-day series.

The information in question was contained in a leaflet which has been called a possible breach of trading practices by the NSW Green Party. The Green Party yesterday lodged an official complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for contravention of the Trade Practices Act.

The leaflet features the logo of the Scientology education division – the Applied Scholastic emblem – which is displayed in the bottom corner of the pamphlet. The logo is accompanied by notation that advises the school’s educational services are based on the teachings of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. According to the Sydney website of the Church of Scientology, the father of Dianetics wrote about education on such diverse topics as family, marriage, education and drug rehabilitation.

John Kaye, the NSW Greens MP, wrote in his letter to the ACCC that the flyer being distributed failed to declare that the school uses for its moral code the controversial work The Way to Happiness by Hubbard, and that it was using the Applied Scholastics approach with its pupils.

School principal Fiona Milne claimed that Scientology was not taught as a religion at the school, which rather used study methods proposed by Hubbard in its teachings. Saying that children’s education was the primary goal of the school, Milne acknowledged that some pupils and at least four teachers were confirmed followers of Scientology.

Hot favourite for the Oscar following her role in The Blind Side, Bullock was the proud recipient of her Razzie for All About Steve at the awards which recognise all the worst that film has to offer. The actress was a picture of good-natured humility in accepting the award, commenting that she would be happy to come back next year if it meant people were watching her movies. She and her co-star Bradley Cooper, who jointly won Worst Screen couple as well, could be seen passing out copies of All About Steve on DVD to the audience.

Bullock had left an important dinner with Hollywood kingpin and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg to collect her Razzie – a spray-painted golden plastic raspberry. Should Bullock take out the Best Actress title at the Oscars it would be the first time any actress has performed the double.

Elsewhere, the Worst Actor award was won by all three of the Jonas Brothers for their roles in their eponymous The 3-D Concert Experience. Sienna Miller was acknowledged for her cardboard cut-out performance in G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, while faded country superstar Billy Ray Cyrus won the Worst Supporting Actor award for his part in Hannah Montana: The Movie.

The 30th Razzies celebrated an end of a decade, with Worst Actor and Worst Actress of the noughties being named as Eddie Murphy and Paris Hilton respectively.

Hanson’s revelation came in an interview with Woman’s Day magazine, where the controversial and polarising politician spoke of the sale of her Queensland home and desire to farewell Australia for good. Hanson told the magazine that this would be goodbye forever.

The decision was made out of a longing for peace and contentment in her life, something which Hanson has found difficult due to her political career. She is most noted for her maiden parliamentary speech where she warned that the country would soon be overrun with Asians. Hanson has also been a leading campaigner for continued reductions in immigration.

The fiery Hanson has gone on to suggest that her county, which once was a land of opportunity, has deteriorated to the extent that young people are growing into a society which is over-taxed, over-regulated and not truly represented. She also claims that she blames the lack of willingness by Australian politicians to say what they think has contributed to the current climate.

Hanson ran as an independent candidate in the Queensland state elections in 2009, where she unsuccessfully contested the Beaudesert seat. She had previously ran for a seat in 2007 on the Queensland senate where she was similarly unsuccessful, leading her to acknowledge that she would be unlikely to ever be voted into Parliament again.

A measure of which class of celebrity will be using their own apps may indicate the level of their popularity or perhaps the mental age of their target audience. Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, along with Kim Kardashian, have all pledged to app-date their fans with all things them. Essentially this means all videos, tweets, pics and sightings can be streamed directly to your iPhone.

The SpeidiWeb (Spencer and Heidi, get it)  app used by The Hills stars promises that constant uploading of material will ensure the fan experience is kept real and fresh. You can also buy Heidi’s latest single at the touch of a screen, unless you are one the just 1000 people who have actually bought the song since its release.

On a more practical note, the mini-cookbook app from Jamie Oliver may have some practical use.  Still undecided is the Hammertime app which keeps you up to date with all of the latest news surrounding the one-hit wonder rapper who disappeared into his balloon pants in the 90’s. Snoop Dogg’s iFizzle allows you to hear the rapper’s 16 best quotes, slowly, while Diddy can direct you to his favourite bars and clubs across the US, allowing you to avoid him in all major cities. The magic eight-ball application called Ask The Hoff, however, sounds pure class.

The annual survey is from leading industry booking agent Hotels.com. The Hotel Price Index has declared that holidaymakers and frequent travellers can look forward to the year ahead, where continued low prices will remain the norm.

Australian hotel goers are still reaping the rewards of plunging international and domestic hotel prices, well, all of those except visitors to Perth. The Western Australian capital bucked the nationwide trend of falling hotel rates, being the only city where the average room rate actually went up – from $152 a year ago to $154 this reporting period. This represents a huge turnaround for Perth which not so long ago was the second cheapest Australian city.

Adelaide came in second this time around, with an average room rate of $148 for last year, a 15 percent decline. Sydney hotels averages just $145, a massive fall from last year’s $173 rate while Melbourne equalled the 16 percent drop as rates fell from $177 to $148. Cairns took the honour of 2009’s cheapest city for accommodation, with a room averaging just $117 per night.

Globally, average hotel rates have mirrored the Australian trend to fall to a five year low, 14 percent down from 2008. The last quarter of 2009 was particularly severe for the Asian region which saw close to a 20 percent fall for that period.

The latest drama revolves around a saucy picture the disgraced footballer took of Lara in the shower during their brief relationship. Apparently the photo is now standard mobile phone wallpaper among a host of AFL stars, with Woman’s Day reporting that the image is used widely. Bingle will now undertake legal action after the image went public, making the front page of every media source in the land.

The image, in case you have been living under a rock and not seen it, shows the beauty covering her naked torso with one hand as she appears to convey a message along the lines of please leave to the footballing photographer.

Max Markson, Bingle’s manager, confirmed that lawyers had met with the bikini model and that she would be suing Fevola for defamation, breach of privacy and misuse of her image.

The Woman’s Day piece cited an unnamed AFL player who claimed that Fevola made no secret of having the photo, and that he was more than happy to pass it around. The player also added that it has been doing the rounds for years and was indeed a mobile photo screen favourite. According to the magazine Fevola also received a gentle word of warning from John Ibrahim, Sydney nightclub baron and friend of Bingle, or face the consequences.

Fevola and Bingle had a secret affair in 2006, lasting a mere five weeks, that was ended after Bingle discovered Fevola was married.

Sydney has been forced to sit, or stand, through frankly disastrous performances by supposed pop queens Whitney and Britney, George stole the summer with a sizzling performance that punctuated Mardi Gras. Despite being 40 minutes late, due to traffic, and the fact that he was appearing at the home of the distinctly homophobic rugby league, George received a hero’s welcome.

Opening with Fast Love, Michael then had the crowd moving with Father Figure and I’m Your Man. Twenty-two years wait seemed worth it as Michael, dressed all in black, showed his class despite audiences not seeing him since the 1988 Faith tour. He won all of Australia over when he claimed that the public were all so good looking, which he attributed to a healthy diet of sex and sunshine.

Recently declared the most often played British artist on the airwaves over the past twenty years, Michael has sold an incredible 100 million records during one of pop music’s most flamboyant, entertaining and enduring careers. For the record, he can also boast of a Grammy, six US number ones, 11 British number ones, an MTV Video award, three American Music Awards and two highly prized Ivor Novello song writing awards.

The investigation comes after Gary Burns, the well-known Sydney gay rights activist, lodged a complaint against the distinctly heterosexual presenters. Mr Burns is no stranger to launching complaints against the network, having done so in the past over a tasteless Footy Show skit, in addition to taking legal action at the likes of Golden Tonsils John Laws and Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

The comments causing the concern came after Molloy said that competitors don’t leave anything in the locker room – a reference to the flamboyant costumes of the skaters. McGuire responded that the men do not leave anything in the closet either. Hilarious. McGuire also went on to suggest that there was a touch of Brokeback in another outfit, confirmed by Molloy, in reference to the gay cowboy film.

What the two heavyweight lightweights do not seem to appreciate is that your average, straight, male viewer will not be watching men’s figure skating, and that their mucho bravado, well suited to football shows, is clearly way out of its depth on an international stage such as an Olympic event.

Burns compared the two to a couple of pub goons at a drinking session, rather than in a powerful position on national influence. Their antics have incited hatred against homosexuals claims Burns, but in reality the hatred may well be directed to the two true-blue Aussie blokes, who it seems just aren’t funny.