Australia

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Child Abuse Probe Attacks Catholic Priests' Celibacy

Australian commission slams 'catastrophic failures'

(Newser) - An Australian inquiry into child abuse on Friday recommended that the Catholic Church lift its demand of celibacy from clergy and that priests be prosecuted for failing to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional. Australia's Royal Commission into Institution Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered its final...

Australia's Novel Move Against Pedophiles Gets Results

Man arrested at Sydney Airport a day after law went into effect

(Newser) - A law that Australia is hailing as the first of its kind went into effect Wednesday—and was immediately put to use. With an eye on the relative ease with which the country's convicted pedophiles have been able to travel throughout Southeast Asia, where children are typically more vulnerable...

Town Plans Big Celebration for Wrong Year

Aussie town was 3 years too late for 150th shindig

(Newser) - Charleville, Australia, had a huge shindig prepared for the town's 150th anniversary. Then they realized that they were three years too late. Mayor Annie Liston says some locals believed the town of 5,000 people was officially recognized in 1868, but a check of Queensland state records revealed that...

Couple Shirk Their Extreme Pledge Against Gay Marriage

Nick Jensen says original plan to divorce wife upon legalization is 'untenable'

(Newser) - Amid a flurry of weddings expected to follow Australia's legalization of same-sex marriage Wednesday, there was also to be one divorce: Back in June 2015, Nick Jensen wrote an editorial explaining he and his wife of 10 years would dissolve their marriage as a "matter of conscience" if...

Australians Party as Country Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

'About bloody time,' senator says

(Newser) - The Australian Parliament voted on Thursday to allow same-sex marriage across the nation, following a bitter and divisive debate settled by the government polling voters in a much-criticized ballot survey that strongly endorsed change . The public gallery of the House of Representatives erupted with applause when the bill passed to...

During Debate on Gay Marriage, a Proposal

Australian lawmaker pops the question on House floor

(Newser) - It's not every marriage proposal that gets recorded in an official parliamentary record, but such is the case with one in Australia. During a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Monday in support of gay marriage, lawmaker Tim Wilson turned to his partner in the public...

30 Years After He Fell to His Death, a Ruling
They Said His 1988 Death Was
Suicide. Now, It's Definitely Not
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 3, 2017 5:00 PM CST

They Said His 1988 Death Was Suicide. Now, It's Definitely Not

Australian coroner finds Scott Johnson's death was a hate crime

(Newser) - It's believed that Australia has only twice opened a third coroner's inquest into someone's death: with the infamous case of Azaria Chamberlain , the baby taken by a dingo, and with the 1988 death of a 27-year-old American mathematician. On Thursday, a coroner gave the ruling his brother...

Uproar Leads to Probe of 95-Year-Old 'Indiana Joan'

Some say Joan Howard's antiquities collection is illegal

(Newser) - Her collection of ancient artifacts, worth more than $750,000, includes a Roman dagger, Neolithic ax heads, a mummy mask, and a crucifix from the era of Jesus Christ—treasures unearthed in Egypt, Syria, Israel, and beyond. But her boasts about them have some red with anger rather than green...

Elon Musk Made Bold Promise, Fulfilled It

World's biggest lithium ion battery is installed in South Australia

(Newser) - Elon Musk promised to have the job done in 100 days or it's free . Well, it looks like Australia will be paying up. Tesla has completed installation of the world's biggest lithium ion battery in South Australia and will be turning it on next week, ahead of a...

Oldest Australian Human Returned to 42K-Year-Old Grave

The Mungo Man is home

(Newser) - The oldest human remains found in Australia were on Friday returned to the Outback desert that he roamed some 42,000 years ago in a ceremony celebrated by traditional owners, the AP reports. The ice age Aborigine was dubbed Mungo Man after the dry salt Lake Mungo where he was...

UN Diplomat Dies in Alleged Trust Game Gone Wrong

Australia's Julian Simpson fell from Manhattan balcony Wednesday

(Newser) - "Let's play the trust game" and "I will prove that you can trust me," Australia's second secretary to the United Nations reportedly told his friend as he leaned back over a railing, some 70 feet above a Manhattan street. The words were among the last...

2 Marriage Equality Bills at Odds in Australia

Critics say one would roll back protections for LGBT

(Newser) - Some 62% of registered voters supported gay marriage in an Australian postal survey that ensures Parliament will consider legalizing same-sex weddings this year, although the form any law would take and its allowances for religious objections sparked immediate debate, reports the AP . The conservative government promised to allow a bill...

Results of Australia's Survey on Same-Sex Marriage Are In

The country is overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage

(Newser) - Australians have overwhelmingly voted in favor of same-sex marriage, the New Zealand Herald reports. The results of a two-month-long, $93 million survey were released Wednesday morning: 61.6% in favor of legalization, 38.4% opposed. According to CNN , the "yes" side won every state and territory in the country....

Man Pulled Into Wood Chipper Dies 'Within Seconds'

His 'traumatized' friends couldn't save him

(Newser) - A man trying to do a favor for a family friend ended up dead in a tragic accident in Australia Sunday night that local authorities are calling one of the worst scenes they've come across. Emergency services were called to a rural property in Queensland, where they found the...

When Shark Came, Surfer Remembered a Trick

Charlie Fry punched it in the nose, escaped

(Newser) - A novice surfer mastered a pro's move on the first try: He punched a shark on the nose to escape its jaws, per the AP . The attack Monday afternoon off the Australian coast left Charlie Fry with superficial puncture wounds on his right shoulder and upper arm. Fry, a...

Facebook to Users: Send Us Your Nudes

Goal is to prevent revenge porn before it happens

(Newser) - Hoping to keep nude photos of yourself off of social media? Upload them to Facebook. While it might seem counterproductive, that's what the social media site is instructing users to do in Australia, where it's testing new "photo-matching technologies." The idea is that once Facebook has...

Want to Climb Uluru? Better Do It Soon

Climbing at sacred Anangu site will be banned in 2019

(Newser) - If your bucket list includes a trek up Australia's sacred monolith Uluru, you'd better get moving. The management board of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park—made up of eight indigenous members and four government officials, per the BBC —voted unanimously Wednesday to ban people from climbing the huge...

&#39;Idiots of the Century&#39; Swim Into Croc Trap
'Idiots of the Century'
Swim Into Croc Trap
in case you missed it
Oct 28, 2017 7:21 AM CDT

'Idiots of the Century' Swim Into Croc Trap

Australian authorities are 'gobsmacked'

(Newser) - Authorities in Australia say they're "gobsmacked" by the sheer stupidity of a group of men seen swimming to a crocodile trap in Queensland—and getting inside with the bait. The men were spotted getting into the mouth of the trap at the Port Douglas marina, close to where...

10 More Seconds and Great White May Have Gotten Her
She Was Kayaking,
Then a 'Big Bang'
Oct 23, 2017 10:15 AM CDT

She Was Kayaking, Then a 'Big Bang'

Sarah Williams, her dad recount frightening experience in Australia

(Newser) - It was "everything you picture in the Jaws movie," minus the bloody death. A 15-year-old Australian teen relates her harrowing encounter with what's believed to have been a great white shark on Sunday. ABC reports Sarah Williams was fishing for squid in a kayak off the Normanville...

Court: Unsent Text Message Is a Valid Will

It was found in man's drafts folder

(Newser) - A last will and textament? An Australian court has decided that a will found in the drafts folder of a dead man's phone is valid, even though it was never witnessed or even sent, the BBC reports. The man, a 55-year-old who killed himself a year ago, made it...

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