Australia

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'Bomb' Attached to Australia Girl a 'Very Elaborate Hoax'

Madeleine Pulver is 'uncomfortable' but OK

(Newser) - A device, thought to be a bomb, attached to an Australian teen for 10 hours yesterday was actually "a very, very elaborate hoax," police say. A masked man affixed the device to Madeleine Pulver, 18, with "a chain or something similar," says an officer, which took...

Australia Terror Ends as Girl Freed From Possible Bomb

Details are hazy; intruder reportedly strapped collar bomb to teen

(Newser) - A happy ending to a frightening—and somewhat confusing—situation out of a tony neighborhood in Sydney, Australia. The country has been gripped by the 10-hour ordeal of an 18-year-old girl who was reportedly found with "what may be a bomb" attached to her neck. The Daily Telegraph reports...

Australia Freezes Ex-Gitmo Inmate's Assets

Prosecutors say royalties from book on Guantanamo violate law

(Newser) - An Australian man who was captured fighting with Taliban forces in Afghanistan and spent five years in Guantanamo Bay prison , where he says he was tortured, has had a family trust frozen by the Australian Supreme Court, reports ABC News in Australia. The trust contains money David Hicks earned from...

Woman Sues Employer for Sex Injury on Business Trip

Light fixture fell, and now she wants damages

(Newser) - A government employee in Australia is suing her employer because she got injured while having sex at a motel during a business trip. The woman thinks she deserves compensation because a light fixture fell on her, inflicting injuries to her face and causing mental distress, reports the Daily Telegraph .

Woman, 94, Battles Rogue Kangaroo
Woman, 94, Battles
Rogue Kangaroo
Jul 27, 2011 2:42 AM CDT

Woman, 94, Battles Rogue Kangaroo

Broom-wielding Outback woman fights off attacking roo

(Newser) - The Australian Outback is home to millions of kangaroos—and some very tough old ladies. Phyllis Johnson, 94, is recovering in a local hospital after being attacked by a fully grown red kangaroo as she was hanging up her washing. The animal rained down kicks before she managed to fight...

Forklift Drops $1M Worth of Red Wine

Australian shiraz reduced to boozy mess

(Newser) - There's no use crying over spilled milk, but spilled wine? That's another story. Especially when it's $1 million worth. An unsteady forklift dropped a container full of fine Australian wine, smashing most of the bottles. Sparky Marquis of Mollydooker Wines tells the AP that when workers opened...

Mouse Decapitator on Facebook Sentenced

Aussie posted death video

(Newser) - An Aussie woman has been sentenced to 180 hours of community service for slicing the head off a mouse with a steak knife and posting a video of its 40-second death on Facebook. The 23-year-old woman pleaded guilty to animal cruelty. A second enemy of animals faced charges the same...

Australia May Make Muslim Women Lift Veils

Law would require they do so if police ask them to

(Newser) - Muslim women would have to remove veils and show their faces to police on request or risk a prison sentence under proposed new laws in Australia's most populous state, New South Wales. Under the law, a woman who defies police by refusing to remove her face veil could be...

Tour Boat Ditches US Tourist on Great Barrier Reef

Snorkeler saved by another boat in the area

(Newser) - An American snorkeler exploring Australia's Great Barrier Reef surfaced to find a less-than-ideal situation: The boat that had brought him there, had, well, left him there. "The adrenaline hit in and I had a moment of panic, which was the worst thing I could have done at that...

Australia's Aborigines in Cycle of Poverty, Jail

Kids are 28 times more likely to be detained than other Australian kids

(Newser) - For Australian Aborigines, life in the Outback has grown so bleak, jail is not only more appealing, it has nearly become a rite of passage for teens. A parliamentary report last week called the worsening situation a national crisis, noting the imprisonment rate for indigenous Australians has soared 66% in...

Whale Tail Smack Knocks Out Boy, 13

But he's OK, except for a broken collarbone

(Newser) - When a humpback whale’s tail swung over a small boat in Australia, it knocked a 13-year-old boy unconscious—but he survived the onslaught, the Daily Examiner reports. “I was sitting backwards in the boat looking at Drew and the tail just whacked him and sent him flying,”...

Philip Morris Threatens Suit on Cigarette Packaging

Tobacco giant worried Australia's laws will hurt competition

(Newser) - Before the gross new cigarette packages arrive in the US, similar ones will arrive in Australia —and big tobacco is not happy. Philip Morris has threatened to sue the Australian government over its new packaging laws, slated to arrive in January 2012, which would introduce drab, olive-colored packages with...

Dalai Lama Pizza Joke Goes Splat

Punchline met by sound of one hand clapping

(Newser) - A goofy Aussie news anchor did not find eternal satisfaction when his lame pizza joke fell flat with a confused Dalai Lama. "So the Dalai Lama walks into a pizza shop," begins anchor Karl Stevanovic (confused look from Dalai Lama, who turns to his translator for clarification). "...

Heavy Metal Soothes Sharks
 Heavy Metal Soothes Sharks 
in case you missed it
Jun 12, 2011 1:35 PM CDT

Heavy Metal Soothes Sharks

They rub their snouts on speakers for right music, boat operator discovers

(Newser) - How do you soothe an angry shark? You can rock him to near-submission with heavy metal. That's what one Australian charter boat operator has discovered after witnessing sharks blissfully rubbing their snouts against caged underwater speakers belting out the sounds. "I guess the visual people expect is that...

International Leaders Pledge $1B to Back Libyan Rebels

Gadhafi regime close to exit: officials

(Newser) - Countries that stepped into the Libyan conflict are promising $1 billion in support for the rebel cause. The pledge from nations including Italy, France, Turkey, and Australia is backed in large part by Libyan assets, notes the New York Times , but some legal considerations still stand between the money and...

Australian Towns Impose Curfews — on Cats

Deputy mayor's son becomes possums' hero

(Newser) - After attacks on native wildlife, the Sydney area is putting its cats on a leash: Under a new rule, they’ll have to be inside from dusk to dawn, Reuters reports. The decision came after a deputy mayor’s son saved a parent and baby possum from a cat. In...

Australia: Let's Kill Camels to Save Planet

Government wants to offer carbon credits in exchange for wiping them out

(Newser) - Meet another global warming bad-guy: the lowly camel. Australia's government is pitching a proposal in which it would be a-OK to kill camels in the name of reducing greenhouse gas emissions—and in exchange for cash. The AP reports that in one year's time, just six of these...

Aussies Ban Indonesia Cattle Exports After Shocking Videos

Images of slaughterhouse cruelty horrify nation

(Newser) - Australia has banned the export of live cattle to Indonesia amid a public outcry over cruelty in the Islamic country's slaughterhouses. Horrific images broadcast on Australian TV last week showed cattle being whipped, kicked and beaten before painful slaughter. Some cows were left to bleed to death after repeated...

Australia Can't Find UFO Records

Spokesman says files were likely thrown out in routine housekeeping

(Newser) - Cue the conspiracy theories in the land down under: Australian officials say they’ve been unable to locate decades' worth of UFO records. After Great Britain released thousands of its own ‘X-files’ last year , the Sydney Morning Herald filed a Freedom of Information request for Australia’s version of...

Head Injury Forces Naked Rower to Shore

Keith Whelan is attempting to row from Australia to Africa ... minus clothing

(Newser) - An Irishman rowing naked across the Indian Ocean has been rescued off Australia after he hit his head in rough seas. Keith Whelan stopped the bleeding himself after a swell threw him. He called a member of his team in Britain who notified Australian authorities. A cargo ship eventually picked...

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