6 Friday news bites + Week in Pics (Oct 7)

1. Beyonce shows off her baby belly in new video

This woman is stunning. Always. She can dance, sing, all the rest. The preview shots and 30-second teaser clip give a little tease of the new song Countdown which will be released today. She sings: ‘I’m tryin’ to make us 3 from that 2′  in the song, before three images of her displaying her bump are shown. Anyone else here Beyonce fans? Everyone?

2. 14-year-old arrested on drugs charges in Indonesia

The youngest ever Australian will face drugs charges in Indonesia after allegedly being found with almost 7 grams of marijuana in his possession. There are no children’s court systems or jails in the country and he could face 12 years’ prison if convicted, although there is a provision in Indonesian law for a child to receive half that. The boy was on holidays with parents and friends and allegedly bought the $28 worth of marijuana from a man who was begging for money. Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has told Consular officials to make securing the boys release their top priority.

3. The Taj Mahal may collapse in five years

Cracks have formed in the 358-year-old Indian icon and it is also beginning to tilt, due to rotten wooden foundations which need to be fixed … and soon. “If the crisis is not tackled on a war-footing, the Taj Mahal will cave in between two and five years,” Indian lawmaker Ramshankar Katheria, who represents the Agra area, said. “The architectural wonder of the world is losing its shine, and if this persists the minarets may also collapse since the wooden foundation – beneath the wells – is rotting due to lack of water.”

4. Swearing in the media: Terrible or bloody awesome?

Keep your profanities to body parts and functions for the media and you might fare OK, according to a study about attitudes to swearing in television. The study looked at responses from more than 2000 people. It found that older people were more concerned than younger people and that every second person had been offended by something they had had heard on television. How do you rate?

5. Westboro Baptist Church says it will picket Steve Jobs funeral … tweets from iPhone

Nice job.

6. (Another study) finds good bosses … are better.

That’s kind of obvious. But what makes a good boss? An 18-month study by the Society for Knowledge Economics (presented at the Federal Government’s Jobs Forum) found that High Performing Workplaces have 12 per cent higher productivity than Low Performing Workplaces when ranked in terms of their innovation, employee engagement, fairness, leadership and customer satisfaction. The study looked at 78 corporations and 5000 workers. Right, we might have known all this. So, did it miss anything? What makes your workplace better?

News brought to you by Rick.

And here are the pictures we’re talking about this week: