Cocaine, rape, orgies: Mike Tyson's sordid life

A look into the latest documentary on one of the greatest boxers of all-time, Mike Tyson. Courtesy HBO.

Mike Tyon's life is back on track. Pictured with his Lakiha Spicer and daughter Mila. Photo: AP Source: AP

BY THE time he was 22 years old, Brooklyn born Mike Tyson was a worldwide phenomenon. A pro fighter since the age of 18, he had won his all but two of his first 28 fights by knockout or technical knockout, and in 16 of those fights, he had crushed his opponents in the first round.

When he was 20, he became the youngest heavyweight champion ever, and at 21 was the first to possess the sport's three major belts at once, making him the undisputed champion of the world.

When Tyson knocked out the legendary fighters Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks in 1988, he became the most athletically and culturally electrifying boxer since Muhammad Ali. Yet Tyson's personal life has been a decades long series of spectacular flame outs, detailed in his forthcoming memoir, Undisputed Truth (Blue Rider Press).

'I PUT GUYS IN COMAS'

Tyson was already partying hard and dating both Naomi Campbell and Miss America runner-up Suzette Charles, plus having sex with dozens of women a week when, at 21 years old, he met actor Robin Givens.

It was 1987. He had first seen her on a broadcast of Soul Train and asked his agent to set up a meeting in LA. Givens was waiting with her mother and her publicist.

"I should have known something was up," Tyson writes. "I ... didn't know that Robin and her mother, Ruth, had been on the prowl for a big black celebrity for Robin since she graduated college."

Tyson fell hard, and he couldn't believe this beautiful, sophisticated woman wanted him. He had grown up in abject poverty in Brownsville. He never knew his father, and his mother, who died when he was 16, ran a brothel out of their apartment. His beloved trainer and surrogate father, Cus D'Amato, died two years earlier, in 1985.

Tyson was a high-school dropout with a lisp and a near-lethal case of low self-esteem. "My social skills consisted of putting a guy in a coma," he writes. "So maybe Robin was just what the doctor ordered."

On Feb. 7, 1988, 11 months after their first date, Tyson and Givens were married - only, Tyson writes, because she had told a mutual friend she was pregnant. There was no prenup. He quickly realised he had made a mistake.

"Right away, Ruth started talking about finding a suitable mansion for us to live in," Tyson writes.

While he was attending a close friend's funeral in LA, Tyson got a call from his account executive, who said Givens and her mother - whom Tyson calls "Ruthless" - were in his offices, demanding $5 million to buy an estate in New Jersey. He advised Tyson not to release the funds. "I listened," Tyson writes, "and then told him to give them the money. I was in love."

Not long after, Tyson says, he moved another $10 million into a separate account for Givens and her mother, and not long after, Givens told Tyson she had had a miscarriage. Tyson didn't buy it. "She was supposedly three months pregnant when we got married," he writes. "Now it was June and she hadn't gained a pound, so the next thing I knew she was in bed and claimed she had miscarried our baby."

But that, he says, wasn't her greatest betrayal. The same year they were married, Tyson and Givens sat down with Barbara Walters. It was, Tyson writes, spur of the moment: As the crew was loading up their gear, Givens - who wasn't supposed to be part of Tyson's profile - "pulled Barbara aside and told her that she still didn't have the truth. I guess Robin knew that Barbara would take the bait."

It went down as one of the most bizarre celebrity interviews ever. Tyson, three times the size of his wife, looked like he had been hit by a tranquilliser dart as Givens detailed the horror of their life together. "I think that there is a time when he cannot control his temper, and that is frightening to me," she said. "He shakes, he pushes, he swings ... just recently I have become afraid. I mean very, very much afraid."

Soon after, Givens filed for divorce - "but that didn't stop us from seeing each other," Tyson writes. He'd often go by her house when he was in LA and was stunned to see her pull up one day with a blond man in the passenger seat. It was Brad Pitt.

"You had to see the look on his face," Tyson writes. "He looked like he was ready to receive his last rites. He also looked stoned out of his gourd."

Pitt begged Tyson, "Dude, don't strike me, don't strike me."

Tyson left, and the divorce was finalised on Valentine's Day 1989. He never had any real contact with Givens again.

Tyson regrets getting involved with promoter Don King. Photo: AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Source: AP

'BLACKBALLED'

One year later, Mike Tyson was completely unravelling. He was 30 pounds overweight and had lost all interest in boxing - by his own admission, all he wanted to do was party.

In January 1990, he fought pathetically against Buster Douglas, an opponent he underestimated, and lost his title as heavyweight champion of the world. He was so delusional that he remembers thinking that "I had become so big that God was jealous of me."

By now, the famously crooked boxing promoter Don King had worked his way into Tyson's life, and that same year, Tyson learned that King owed him $2?million. "My assets totalled $15?million," Tyson writes, "but with all my purses I should have had a lot more."

Tyson knew King couldn't be trusted - "Everybody blackballed me once I got involved with him" - but was so self-loathing and self-destructive he kept King on the payroll.

Tyson was also undermining his training regimen. "I was out of control," he writes, "drinking, gorging on food, f-?-king women." His friends were tasked with rounding up girls for orgies. Tyson's promiscuity caught up with him in July 1991, when a beauty-pageant contestant named Desiree Washington accused him of raping her in a hotel room in Indianapolis.

Tyson has always maintained the sex was consensual, but in February 1992, he was convicted of rape and sentenced to six years in prison. He figured he'd be out in three, and he was right.

"It was hard to maintain my ¬humanity in a place like that," he writes. "I saw things that I couldn't understand one human being doing to another. I watched people get cut fighting over a cigarette. Somebody might throw some gasoline in another man's cell and try to light it and burn him up. Or somebody would grab a lady guard and throw her in the bathroom and rape her."

He began asking to be placed in "the hole" - solitary confinement, locked up 23 hours a day, the light always on - just for some peace of mind. He read voraciously: Tolstoy, Dostoevski, Shakespeare. He converted to ¬Islam and did a jailhouse interview with Larry King.

John F. Kennedy Jr. flew in for a visit. Kennedy was a fan, and there were reports he wanted a post-jailhouse interview with ¬Tyson for his floundering magazine, George.

"He was such a beautiful, down-to-earth cat," Tyson writes. They talked about Kennedy's cousin Michael, who had been having an affair with the family's teenage babysitter. JFK Jr. also told Tyson he didn't know that much about his grandfather, except that the patriarch had coddled his sons so they'd run for office. "Nobody in my family knows how to run a business, that's why they all went into politics," Kennedy told him. "He wanted us to be pampered guys."

They also talked about relationships, and JFK Jr. mentioned other women. "I got a sense he was going through a lot of s-?-t with his wife," Tyson writes. As the visit wound down, Tyson asked if Kennedy would reach out to his cousin Kathleen, the lieutenant governor of Maryland, to help expedite his release date.

"Mike," he said, "I don't really know her."

"You don't know her?" Tyson said. "What the f-?-k do you mean? You all play football together up there in Hyannis Port."

JFK Jr. smiled, then was off.

'I WANTED TO DIE'

By November 2005, the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world was a disgraced fighter, most notorious for having bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield's ear during a 1997 fight. It got him banned from boxing for one year. Tyson was broke, having squandered at least $100 million. At the grocery store, he'd do the math in his head and pull items out of the cart - one of his greatest fears was not being able to pay the bill at the register.

"The last time I remember doing that," he says, "was when my mother was on welfare."

Tyson was so promiscuous, he'd pick up any woman around, including, once, a 50-something cashier at Kmart. He was petrified that he had AIDS, yet he was sleeping at strip clubs and having unprotected sex with hookers. His diet at the time consisted of Hennessy, Cialis, cocaine - which he carried in bricks - Zoloft, pot, Marlboros and morphine.

Naomi Campbell attempted to intervene. "Mike, the word is out you're doing a lot of blow," she told him. "You need to stop. You're f-?-king your life up."

Tyson's therapist finally persuaded him to check into rehab, but it wasn't till his third attempt that he began a true withdrawal from drugs.

The pain, he writes, was worse than anything he experienced in the ring. "The coke and the liquor were like Novocain for me. Once I stopped doing that, all my arthritis came roaring back. I was a cripple. I couldn't walk, my feet hurt so bad ... I just wanted to die," he writes.

He was also sent to a sex therapist. At first, Tyson writes, he was sceptical, even though "at one point, everything I did sexually consisted of orgies." He always knew these experiences were empty - "It makes you feel like s-?-t" - but now he was curious as to why he couldn't stop.

"It sounds trite," he writes, "but I was probably looking for someone to mother me. My whole life I was looking for love from my mother. My mother never gave love to a man. She gave them headaches, she scalded them, she stabbed them."

In rehab, he watched La Vie en Rose, the French film about the troubled chanteuse Edith Piaf, and sobbed hysterically. Piaf, too, had been raised among hookers and pimps and never wanted to leave, and Tyson got that.

"You could be in hell and happy there," he writes. "Some people thrive in misery. You take away their misery and bring them into the light and they die emotionally and spiritually because pain and suffering has been their only comfort. The thought of someone loving them and helping them without wanting anything in return could never enter their minds."

Tyson would do several more stints in rehab - each time he relapsed, he'd call it "letting the devil in." He had a cultural resurgence in 2009, playing himself in The Hangover. He now admits that he was drunk and high during the entire shoot. But he won strong reviews, and, encouraged, "my vanity kick[ed] in," he writes.

He was 380 pounds. Tyson went all vegan and began working out for three hours a day. His chronic ailments disappeared.

Oprah called. He went on her show and talked about the monumental losses he had suffered - including the accidental death of his 4-year-old daughter, who had been living with her mother at the time - and his remorse over the Holyfield incident. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

"When I look back on my life, it's hard to believe how big an entity I was at the height of my fame," Tyson writes. "I felt like I was part of a freak show for most of my career as a boxer. Later, I just felt like a freak."

Now 47 years old, he still hopes for a happy ending, but he knows he may never get there.

"I still have a lot of work to do," he writes. "I have to try to really love myself."

Mike Tyson spoke to Oprah in 2009. Photo: AP Photo/Hapro Productions Source: AP

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Ms Marvel returns as Muslim teen

A comic book image showing the newly revamped Ms Marvel character Kamala Khan  second left, with her family Aamir, father Yusuf, mother Disha and friend Bruno, from the first Ms. Marvel issue. Picture: AP Photo/Marvel Comics Source: AP

Ms Marvel will explore what it means to be young and lost while coming to grips with having superpowers, similar to Peter Parker, Marvel says. Picture: AFP Source: AP

MARVEL Comics is bringing Ms Marvel back as a 16-year-old daughter of Pakistani immigrants living in Jersey City named Kamala Khan.

The character - among the first to be a series protagonist who is both female and Muslim - is part of Marvel Entertainment's efforts to reflect a growing diversity among its readers while keeping ahold of the contemporary relevance that have underlined its foundation since the creation of Spider-Man and the X-Men in the early 1960s.

Writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona, working with editor Sana Amanat, say the series reflects Khan's vibrant but kinetic world, learning to deal with superpowers, family expectations and adolescence.

Amanat calls the series a "desire to explore the Muslim-American diaspora from an authentic perspective" and what it means to be young and lost amid expectations by others while also telling the story of a teenager coming to grips with having amazing powers.

"I wanted Ms. Marvel to be true-to-life, something real people could relate to, particularly young women.

"High school was a very vivid time in my life, so I drew heavily on those experiences - impending adulthood, dealing with school, emotionally charged friendships that are such a huge part of being a teenager," said Wilson, a convert to Islam whose previous comics work includes the graphic novel Cairo and series Air from Vertigo.

"It's for all the geek girls out there and everybody else who's ever looked at life from the fringe."

This Ms. Marvel can grow and shrink her limbs and her body and, Wilson said, ultimately, she'll be able to shape shift into other forms.

The idea came after a discussion with senior editor Stephen Wacker as he and Amanat, a Muslim-American, compared stories about growing up.

From there it germinated into a "character for all those little girls who are growing up now the way you are growing up," she recalled. Wilson was brought on board to write the series and the team quickly got approval from Marvel's creative committee to move forward.

DC Comics last fall relaunched its Green Lantern series with Simon Baz, an Arab American and Muslim. The character reflects writer Geoff Johns' Lebanese ancestry and his upbringing in the Detroit area.

There have been a few others: Marvel Comics has Dust, a young Afghan woman whose mutant ability to manipulate sand and dust has been part of the popular X-Men books. DC Comics in late 2010 introduced Nightrunner, a young Muslim hero of Algerian descent reared in Paris.

The creative team said that Khan's backstory, growing up Muslim, is an element of the story, but not the critical foundation, either.

"Kamala is not unlike Peter Parker," said Marvel Editor-In-Chief Axel Alonso of the teenager turned Spider-Man.

"She's a 16-year-old girl from the suburbs who is trying to figure out who she is and trying to forge an identity when she suddenly bestows great power and learns the great responsibility that comes with it."

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'Problem' with bushfires clean-up: mayor

The mayor of the Blue Mountains is concerned that bushfire-damaged properties have not been cleared. Source: AAP

MORE than three weeks after bushfires tore through the Blue Mountains, the region's mayor says not a single destroyed property has been cleaned up by state or federal authorities.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell granted affected communities access to disaster assistance after 203 families lost homes to ferocious fires around Springwood, Winmalee, Lithgow and Mount Victoria.

The massive fire complex west of Sydney tore through more than 50,000 hectares of bushland, forcing schools to close and hundreds of locals to flee.

But Blue Mountains Mayor Mark Greenhill says none of 210 properties destroyed by fire have been cleared of debris.

"The main concern I've got is the fact that no blocks have been cleared in the three weeks since the fires; that's too long," Mr Greenhill told AAP.

"People need to be able to move on with their lives both psychologically and physically.

"The fact that those blocks remain uncleared is a massive problem."

He says families that lost everything are "sitting around waiting for something to happen" because the rebuilding effort has stalled.

"It's just not happening," Mr Greenhill said.

"They (government) need to pull their socks up.

"People are really, really, really getting stressed about the fact that they're not seeing any action."

Mr Greenhill says he has heard nothing from state or federal authorities on when the razed properties would be cleared.

"We're just hearing nothing. There's promises of action but then no action," he said.

"(State Emergency Management Committee chairman) Phil Koperberg is doing a great job, he has coordinated the relief effort, but what I'm concerned about is the reconstruction effort."

Rebuilding was lagging similar efforts that followed bushfire crises in Tasmania and Victoria, he added.

"We do seem to be getting different treatment," he said.

Acting federal opposition leader Tanya Plibersek says the government needs to adopt a clean-up plan similar to that used after the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

"The Government simply does not understand the issues facing the community and businesses as a result of the most devastating bushfire seen in the Blue Mountains for decades," Ms Plibersek said in a statement.

"Fire-affected communities in the Blue Mountains are missing out because of the Abbott Government's inaction."

The federal government is being sought for comment.

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O'Farrell weighs up gang firearm laws

Gang members found with firearms could face five years in jail under laws being considered in NSW. Source: AAP

GANG members in possession of firearms could face a mandatory five years' jail under tough new laws being considered in NSW.

Premier Barry O'Farrell is working on the mandatory minimum sentences laws out of frustration at the recent spate of shootings across Sydney, News Corp Australia reports.

An announcement on the new mandatory minimum system is said to be made in about two weeks, with gang members tipped to be a particular focus.

News Corp reports senior police are backing the mandatory sentencing penalties, but that Attorney-General Greg Smith is against them.

In the latest Sydney shooting, two men were shot in Bankstown early on Thursday morning.

Residents on West Terrace reported hearing gunshots soon after midnight, before two men arrived at Bankstown Hospital suffering gunshot wounds.

Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening, and police later arresting three men over the attack.

There have been 292 shootings since Mr O'Farrell was elected, according to News Corp.

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Blip: You will never beat this robot at rock-paper-scissors

100% winning rate so far

Here's a robot that will always win at rock-paper-scissors. Even worse, it's far too fast to be accused of cheating.

Instead of using any prediction nonsense, the robot instead uses high-speed movement recognition so it knows exactly which imaginary weapon you're opting for.

The robot, which can recognise your hand's shape in just one millisecond, was created by the team Ishikawa Oku Laboratory as part of the University of Tokyo, who showed off an earlier version last year.

Our blips are just as quick and to the point. Perhaps even more so.

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Qld farmers to tackle wild dog problem

FARMERS will be able to mix their own poisons to kill wild dogs wreaking havoc in western Queensland.

Wild dogs are estimated to cost the grazing industry $60 million in stock losses annually and their numbers are estimated to have doubled in the last five years.

The government will relax restrictions to allow farmers to mix their own 1080 poison and use livestock destroyed on their properties as bait meat.

Agriculture Minister John McVeigh says bureaucracy has been standing in the way of farmers who want to tackle the problem.

"Providing graziers with even more flexibility will assist them reduce on-farm production losses and help us achieve our target of doubling agriculture production by 2040."

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The Tip Off: TechRadar Tip Off: 35% Off the Samsung NX300 Mirrorless Digital Camera with ED II Lens

A high-performance camera at a low price

The holidays are coming up and you'll need something with a little bit more power than your 8MP smartphone to capture your coworkers making bad life decisions at the company holiday party.

Lucky for you the Tip Off found one heck of a deal. For a limited time, you can get 35% off this Samsung NX300 Mirrorless Digital Camera with ED II Lens.

Fancy, huh? The NX300 can be yours for 35% off

The NX300 camera retails for $749.99, but The Tip Off found it for $489.99 - a huge savings for one amazing camera.

Some of the more notable features of the NX300 include:

A 20.3MP APS-CMOS Sensor3D Photo and Video CaptureFull HD 1080p VideoBurst Shutter speed20 - 50 mm f/3.5-5.6 ED II LensDual Channel Wi-Fi Connectivity and Smart Camera App3.31" AMOLED Tilt Touch Screen DisplayHybrid Auto Focus System

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The NX300 form factor sports a retro design and can be purchased in black or white. A bit of advice: The camera is slightly chunky - the lens weighs 4.20 oz (119 g) and the camera body weighs 9.88 oz (20g) without the battery - but the ease of use makes up for a bit of bulk.

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The Tip Off will have more deals for you, so stay tuned!

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Big Brother winner segment rates second

The Big Brother Celebration was the most watched TV program on Wednesday with 1.474 million viewers. Source: AAP

A MARATHON episode of Big Brother threw up an odd result for the Nine Network with the winner's announcement finishing second in the ratings.

Oddly, more people watched the Celebration segment of Big Brother than Tim Dormer being named the 2013 series winner, according to OzTAM's overnight ratings.

TV Networks break down the finale of shows into segments for ratings purposes and usually the winner's announcement is the summit on the night.

However, the Big Brother Celebration was the number one show on Wednesday with 1.474 million viewers while the climatic end to the three-month series was second with 1.398 million.

Nine telecast Big Brother live in all states and it ran for three hours, about 30 minutes overtime, ending about 10.30pm (AEDT).

It was hard to determine which part of the telecast was the celebration because once Tim emerged from the house, he answered a couple of questions before the telecast ended.

A Nine spokeswoman told AAP the winner announcement was when second place-getter Jade left the house.

The Celebration came soon after and included Tim being on his own for several minutes to contemplate the win before he arrived on stage just minutes before the telecast ended.

Dormer made headlines late last year when he streaked during Rihanna's promotional tour flight and after surviving 101 days in the Big Brother house people are talking about him again.

The Big Brother Grand Final was fourth on Wednesday with 1.131 million viewers and behind Nine News (1.149 million).

By running overtime, Big Brother inflated the ratings of Nine's US drama Hostages which finished 10th with 720,000 viewers.

The big surprise of the night was the poor performance of Chris Lilley's latest comedy Ja'mie: Private School Girl which launched on ABC1 on October 24 with 924,000.

Episode three on Wednesday attracted 592,000 to be 17th overall and fewer viewers than Nine's late afternoon quiz show Hot Seat (598,000) which was 16th.

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Acer CEO gets the chop after failing to turnaround tumbling sales

This thing probably didn't help

It's tough times for Taiwan-based company Acer, which has seen its CEO J.T. Wang step down following less-than-stellar financial results. It's the second tech casualty in a week following the departure of BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, who exited the company after it failed to secure a buyer.

The world's fourth-biggest computer maker saw sales plunge 11% year-on-year to $3.11 billion (around £1.9 billion, or AU$34.9 billion) during the quarter ending October 31.

It posted an operating loss of $86.61 billion (around £54 billion, or AU$91.3 billion), which the company put down to readying Windows 8.1 devices and related inventory management.

Acer hasn't exactly shied away from experimentation in the Windows 8 arena - its flawed Iconia W3 was the first 8-inch tablet featuring Microsoft's tactile OS - and its hinge-toting R7 laptop took the unconventional approach of putting the trackpad above the keyboard.

But the company has struggled to bolster computer sales in the face of an increasingly competitive tablet market and weak global demand for laptops. It saw global PC shipments drop by 34.5 per cent year-on-year during the quarter, according to market watcher IDC.

Wang, who has led the company since 2008, will step down as CEO on January 1 but will stay on as chairman until the second quarter of 2014.

He is being succeeded by Acer President Jim Wong, who will be tasked with leading a significant restructuring program that will see 7% of the company's work force laid off, a move expected to save the company in the region of $100 million a year from 2014.

Though Acer says that it expects shipments for its notebooks, tablet PCs and Chromebooks to decrease by 10% in Q4 compared to the previous quarter, it expects profits to improve.

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Fire forces campers to flee WA's Karijini

UP to 100 campers were forced to flee Karijini National Park in Western Australia's Pilbara region overnight as a lightning-sparked bushfire tore through the area.

A watch and act warning was issued at 6.30pm (WST) on Wednesday for people in the north-east part of the park.

The fire started next to Dales Gorge Road and continues to burn near Dales Gorge Campground, which has been closed along with Karijini Visitor Centre, Kalamina Falls and Fortescue Falls.

The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) helped 80 to 100 people to flee the campground.

The fire alert level was downgraded to an advice at 10.30pm (WST) and also applied to people travelling in the Wittenoom, Youngleen and Auski Roadhouse areas.

At 8.30am (WST) on Thursday, a DPaW spokeswoman said the fire remained out of control and unpredictable.

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SA abalone ruling may have national effect

A decision allowing two native title holders to take undersized abalone may have a national effect. Source: AAP

A HIGH Court decision upholding the native title rights of two Aboriginal people to take undersized abalone may have national ramifications.

South Australian Attorney General John Rau says the government is getting legal advice on the implications of Wednesday's ruling that the rights of Owen and Daniel Karpany were not extinguished by the South Australian Fisheries Management Act.

Mr Rau told ABC Radio the government wants to find out whether the decision is confined to this particular case or has wider ramifications.

Fisheries officers busted the father and son in 2009 near Cape Elizabeth in possession of 32 abalone - 24 of them under the 13-centimetre size limit.

The pair, members of the Narrunga people, said they planned to divide up the catch and eat them at a banquet with about 15 family members.

The case went to the full bench of the SA Supreme Court, which held that their native title rights had been extinguished and the Native Title Act did not apply in any event.

But the High Court held that SA fisheries law did not bar native title holders gathering undersized abalone for personal, non-commercial communal needs.

"Maybe the implications are quite modest and it just means these gentlemen can occasionally go out for private purposes and get some abalone," Mr Rau said on Thursday.

Asked if it sent the wrong message about keeping undersized catches, Mr Rau said it was not a good thing according to fisheries laws.

But if the decision meant only one or two individuals, who were native title holders, could occasionally do this, it would have a limited impact.

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Hope fades for NZ man missing at Vic beach

POLICE say they still hope to find a New Zealander feared drowned in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula even though the chances of recovering the man are becoming slimmer.

The man, aged in his 20s, was washed off a beach while trying to save a friend that slipped off a rock into the water at Pearse's Beach near Blairgowrie on Wednesday afternoon.

The friend managed to paddle back to shore but the second man was swept out to sea by a large wave and has not been seen since.

Sergeant Danny Lean says SES crews have expanded their search to take in the area southeast of where the man was last sighted.

"We're still holding out hope, but obviously as time goes on the chances of finding him are becoming slimmer and slimmer," he told AAP.

Sgt Lean said the group of friends were shocked and distressed by the event and were assisting police with their investigations.

"The group was very distressed and quite traumatised by the event and were assessed by ambulance crews for shock," he said.

"The man got swept out to sea by a big wave and, while he helped his friend get back to shore, he has not been seen since."

The group called triple-zero but a five-hour sea search until darkness fell about 8.30pm (AEDT) on Wednesday failed to find the man.

A search involving a police helicopter, local officers and water police resumed at first light on Thursday, but poor weather conditions grounded the aircraft and prevented Water Police from searching by jet ski.

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'Drunk' skipper abandons tourists in Qld

A SKIPPER who was three sheets to the wind has left about 20 tourists stranded on a Queensland island.

The crew of the 75-foot Alexander Stewart was forced to ponder what they should do with the drunken sailor on a recent day trip in the Whitsundays.

The answer was leave him to it and abandon ship.

The crew and its paying passengers took refuge on Whitehaven Beach, on Whitsunday Island, after deciding it wasn't safe to stay aboard.

The allegedly intoxicated skipper, who'd reportedly been drinking before setting off on the trip, promptly set sail, leaving them behind.

He was nabbed by water police as he tried to return the ship to its Airlie Beach base. He's since been charged with drink driving.

"There's no alcohol allowed for these sort of skippers," Sergeant Graeme Pettigrew told ABC radio on Thursday.

The tourists were picked up after about an hour by a different tour company.

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Carbon tax tops agenda of new parliament

The carbon tax will be atop Tony Abbott's agenda when the 44th parliament formally opens on Tuesday. Source: AAP

ABOLISHING the carbon tax will be atop Prime Minister Tony Abbott's agenda when the 44th federal parliament sits for the first time next week.

The parliament will be formally opened by Governor-General Quentin Bryce on Tuesday before the political battle kicks off in earnest on Wednesday morning.

Mr Abbott will be flanked by 89 coalition colleagues, having reduced Labor to 55 members at the September 7 election.

Newly elected MPs, billionaire Clive Palmer (Fairfax) and Victorian farmer Cathy McGowan (Indi), will be joined on the crossbench by Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt (Melbourne), Bob Katter (Kennedy) and Andrew Wilkie (Denison).

But the crossbenchers will have less time to conduct private member's business in the new parliament with the coalition planning to turn back the clock on changes to standing orders made by the previous Labor government.

The government will propose veteran NSW MP Bronwyn Bishop for speaker and Nationals MP Bruce Scott for deputy speaker. Labor's Rob Mitchell is set to take up the second deputy speaker role.

Both the Labor caucus and coalition will meet in Canberra on Monday evening to discuss tactics and the legislative agenda.

The opening will start with a 9am (AEDT) indigenous welcome to country in the parliament forecourt before Ms Bryce outlines the government's agenda in the Senate chamber at 3pm (AEDT).

This will pave the way for the carbon tax repeal bills to be introduced first thing on Wednesday.

So far, the Australian Greens oppose the bills outright. Labor is open to scrapping the fixed carbon price if the government caves in - which is unlikely - and moves to a floating price emissions trading scheme.

The government will also introduce laws to increase penalties on corrupt union officials, set up a Registered Organisations Commission and reinstate the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Also slated are bills to take the debt ceiling to $500 billion and repeal the mineral resources rent tax and its related measures, such as superannuation top-ups for low paid workers.

A number of parliamentary committees will be set up and one of the most watched will be the joint standing committee on electoral matters.

It will examine the conduct of this year's federal election and could recommend changes to the Senate voting system.

A federal police investigation is already under way into how votes went missing in the WA senate election recount and there's concerns preference deals between so-called micro parties distorted the overall senate result.

The first question time of the new parliament, on Wednesday afternoon, is expected to be dominated by questions about the budget and economy and the government's commitment to tackling climate change.

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Blip: Google exploring making mystery barges spaces to check out new tech

Looks like a fun place... (credit: sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com)

Alright, Sherlocks, put your pipes away.

Google is out with a statement on what the hell is up with the mystery barge (actually, barges) the purpose of which everyone's gone gaga over trying to figure out.

"Google Barge ... A floating data center? A wild party boat? A barge housing the last remaining dinosaur? Sadly, none of the above. Although it's still early days and things might change, we're exploring using the barge as an interactive space where people can learn about new technology," a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch.

So while the party deck is seemingly out, it looks like people will still get the chance to play with Google Glass (now in its second edition) and other Google gizmos on these floating structures.

Cast yourself over to more blips.

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Warning as consumers duped by van sales

THERE'S been a spike in dodgy appliances being sold from the back of vans in Perth.

The state government's Consumer Protection watchdog is warning against buying from travelling conmen after a Wundowie man bought audio-visual equipment in the car park of a Midland hardware store this week and saw smoke pouring from an amplifier as soon as he plugged it in at home.

Not only did the equipment pose a fire risk, it also did not match the description and model images on the box.

Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll says travelling conmen often sell inferior and sometimes counterfeit products at a high price, convincing their targets that they are getting a genuine bargain.

"Instead, consumers are paying far too much for goods that are generally low in quality and, as in this case, could be dangerous as they may not comply with Australian safety standards," she said.

Consumer Protection has recorded 277 reports of dodgy sales in the past 12 months, the vast majority being from vans parked outside major shopping centres, retail outlets and service stations.

The hot spots were Midland (17 reports), Cannington (11), Morley (10), Maddington (10), Belmont (9) and Rockingham (9).

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Microsoft reportedly names Ford, Nokia chiefs on CEO shortlist

Elop's in the running

How do you solve a problem like replacing Microsoft's outgoing CEO? Trimming the fat from a long list of potential candidates is one option, and it looks like the company has done just that.

According to Reuters' all-knowing anonymous sources, the software and services giant has whittled down a list of 40 potential candidates to leave at least four remaining.

They include ex-Nokia chief Steven Elop, former Skype CEO Tony Bates (who now runs Microsoft's business development), Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Satya Nadella, who oversees Microsoft's cloud and enterprise services unit.

All four names have been passed through the rumour mill in recent times - Elop has long been backed as Ballmer's potential successor due to Microsoft and Nokia's special relationship.

Ford's Mulally has repeatedly made clear his desire to stay at the motor company's helm until 2014, though he may be persuaded to pursue other glittering opportunities should they arise, according to Reuters' sources.

Names not to appear in the list include ex-Windows chief Steven Sinofsky (who appeared in our own list of six potential candidates) and former Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson.

Microsoft has until August 2014 to find a replacement for Ballmer after the larger-than-life exec announced his departure from the company in a blaze of teary, Dirty Dancing-styled glory.

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Joe Tripodi's ALP membership suspended

The Labor party membership of Joe Tripodi has been suspended amid a corruption inquiry. Source: AAP

THE Labor party membership of Joe Tripodi has been suspended while the ICAC investigates possible corrupt behaviour by the former NSW minister.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption last week announced it was widening its inquiry into the conduct of crooked former Labor kingmaker Eddie Obeid to include the conduct of Mr Tripodi.

The NSW branch of the ALP on Thursday said officials have accepted a request by Mr Tripodi to suspend his membership.

"Mr Tripodi wrote to the NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party stating that whilst maintaining his innocence, he wished to have his party membership suspended while the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigates him as a public official," the NSW ALP said in a statement.

Mr Tripodi told the ICAC last week Obeid didn't inform him of family investments in two restaurants and a cafe at Circular Quay when he was ports minister and responsible for making decisions about the leases.

The hearing is investigating whether Obeid lobbied state ministers to change the Circular Quay leases.

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Tas offers first home builders $30,000

TASMANIA has announced the country's most generous first home builder grant, doubling its offering to $30,000.

Premier Lara Giddings says the First Home Builder Boost could result in people priced out of housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne heading to the struggling island state.

"This assistance is now the most generous in the country and will act as a significant incentive for interstate migration which, in itself, is an important economic driver," Ms Giddings said in a statement.

The state government previously doubled the grant to $15,000 last year.

The premier said the grant, which will be available for 12 months, was part of her response to a jobs forum convened to address the state's nation-high 8.2 per cent unemployment rate.

The Northern Territory offers $25,000 and other state governments $10,000-15,000, including $7000 from a federal scheme.

The Housing Industry Association has welcomed the Tasmanian boost.

"If you're going to do something, I think you need to do something that's bold and brazen and has a bit of courage to it and I think this is it," spokesman Stuart Clues told the ABC.

"If this doesn't get people excited, you might as well give the game away."

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