Australians in Kabul seeking consular assistance from the relatively new embassy there are in a bind. DFAT’s travel advisory for the country says, unsurprisingly, to not go. But if you are there, don’t risk turning up to the embassy for help. Housed in the Serena Hotel, it is one of just a few places named as a likely terrorist target because, surprise, surprise, westerners go there.

Re: “How dizzy school girls wiped $1bn off CSL” (Friday, item 3). I was a former student of Sacred Heart Girls’ College and I suspect the religious angle may have more to do with the Gardasil scare than your article suggests. Religious teachings at the school at the time of my attendance were more than a little fire-and-brimstone. S-x education consisted of a graphic video of an abortion and the school’s then principal and cronies were vehement supporters of George Pell. So I think it’s entirely possible (and troubling) that the seemingly violent reaction to Gardasil may have been brought on by more than the jab.

I disagree with the sentiment that it was merely a psychological reaction to the injection. Being Year 11 coordinator at a Melbourne Secondary college I found that I did have to send a number of girls home that felt quite ill and were noticeably pale after they received their injection. Out of 50 girls about four were either sent home or were ill the next day.

Janette Howard is currently visiting nursing homes on the lower North Shore of Sydney – checking. She says it’s for her mother.