AUSTRALIA – As a swarm of up to 10,000 live music fans, bar owners, and hospitality workers took to the CBD’s streets to fight for their right to party on Friday, a coalition of doctors, police and paramedics urged Premier Mike Baird to keep “lifesaving” lockout laws in place. The massive crowd of protesters — which included Kings Cross nightclub owner John Ibrahim — at the Keep Sydney Open rally were campaigning against 1.30am lockout laws and 3am last drink laws in bars within the Sydney CBD, which they blame for stifling the music scene and crippling small businesses. But at St Vincent’s Hospital, Dr Tony Sara, a spokesman for the Last Drinks Coalition, said the laws not only should be kept in place, but extended to any precinct marred by alcohol-fuelled violence. (The Daily Telegraph)…[+]