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<p>BRITNEY Spears was holed up in a Perth hotel yesterday as the row over her lip-synching concerts threatened to derail her Australian tour, The Sunday Telegraph reports.</p> <p>Fans walked out after only three songs at Perth's Burswood Dome on Friday, upset by her lacklustre performance.</p>

SRI Lankans are using civil war as an excuse to seek asylum abroad, the country's high commissioner to Australia says. Senaka Walgampaya said many Sri Lankan asylum seekers were actually "economic refugees" wanting a better life in Australia. "As far as we can see, all the people who are seeking asylum in Australia are seeking to come here for a better life," he told Channel 10. "Also, most of them have their friends and relatives here ... they are coming here to join up with them." Mr Walgampaya said the Sri Lankan civil war was being used by nationals as...

SOUTHEAST Queenslanders should be on the lookout for large black funnel-web spiders as big as an adult hand. As the hot, humid weather arrives, the potentially deadly spiders are on the move, with the first reports of the season this week. Queensland Museum senior curator Robert Raven said yesterday sightings of male funnel-webs had been confirmed at Mt Tamborine in the Gold Coast hinterland and Mt Glorious, west of Brisbane. With summer temperatures and rain, male funnel-webs would be active until at least March or April. Males often wandered at night searching for females, especially during rain. They are black,...

AN official Taliban publication warns Australia that it will have to assimilate into a dominant Asia or face the prospect of being overpowered and forced to take population overspill from Asia. The choice is spelled out in the latest issue of the online Taliban monthly magazine, Al Sumud (Steadfastness), whose lead article offers a sweeping view of a post-war order in which a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan becomes a moral pivot for a pan-Asian renaissance that will coincide with the decline of Western power. "The end of European leadership in the world will place the white settler diaspora in Australia before two...

TEN years ago republican campaigner Phil Cleary celebrated a glorious referendum defeat by saying that "very soon" Australians would have the republic they wanted. Cleary's Real Republic group and other supporters of direct election had thrown in their lot with the monarchists to campaign for the rejection of a republic with a president appointed by parliament, a decision that helped turn a monarchist minority into a majority of rejectionists. Their strategy, as Cleary explained, was that, following the failure of the referendum, "I'm of the view that the momentum will build immediately" for the republic that people wanted, namely one...

THE Federal Government told scientists monitoring the huge oil leak off Australia's northern coast to focus on the Indonesian side of the leaking well. The instruction meant waters closer to the Australian coast, which contain more biodiversity and include important whale habitats, were not assessed for oil contamination in a report that the federal Environment Department released on Friday. To complicate matters, fire broke out yesterday on the oil rig, which has been leaking oil into the Timor Sea for 10 weeks. Oil field operator PTTEP Australasia said the West Atlas rig and Montara well-head platform were on fire. No...

Related Story: Australia 'must prepare for cyber attack' SNIPPET: "More evidence is emerging of sophisticated attacks by criminals and foreign governments on Australia's computer networks. Government officials from the spy organisation ASIO, as well as federal police and computer security experts, have joined forces with the top-secret Defence Signals Directorate since July. The Cyber Security Operations Centre has found attacks on company information, apparently conducted by organised crime, which turn out to have national security implications."

AN eight-year-old boy has been hailed a hero after he hot-wired a two-way radio to call for help as his dad lay trapped in the wreckage of a horror truck rollover. Michael Bowron stripped the radio wires and connected them to a spare battery he found among the wreckage. Yesterday, the Bonnie Rock youngster told The Sunday Times his fingers burned from sparks flying off the battery while he desperately called for help. "I was scared, but I was trying to be brave," Michael said. "My dad had heaps of blood on his face and heaps on his leg. "I...

New subs come with a $36bn price IAN MCPHEDRAN October 30, 2009 12:01am The project will be a boon for South Australia, with the Federal Government saying the 12 next-generation submarines will be built at Osborne regardless of who wins the contract. But a report out today warns that trying to build the new subs in Australia would be fraught with danger and the purchase of smaller, short-range "off-the-shelf" overseas submarines should not be ruled out. The report, from the Government-funded Australian Strategic Policy Institute, predicts the Australian-made subs would cost a "staggering" $3 billion each - three times the...

TASMANIAN police are tackling a "new generation" of street drugs, which are being made in a bid to circumvent existing laws. Police said there had been a dramatic shift in the past year towards a new type of party drug with the street name of Israeli's. The drugs are sold in capsule form and contain derivatives of methcathinone, a psychoative stimulant, the Department of Police and Emergency Management's annual report says. The report says the drugs have been produced "in an attempt to circumvent existing legislation". Southern Drug Investigation Services chief Ian Lindsay said police became aware of the drug...

THE Australian Greens have described as "despicable'' a suggestion that Australia needs to have a serious discussion about the growth of its Muslim population. At least one Liberal frontbencher has distanced the party from the views of the last immigration minister in the previous Howard government, Kevin Andrews. Mr Andrews says the issue of a growing Muslim population is a topic that has to be discussed. "To have a concentration of one ethnic or one particular group that remains in an enclave for a long period of time is not good,'' the Liberal backbencher told Macquarie Radio Network today. "You...

SKIES around the far west Queensland town of Boulia are teeming with budgerigars. This year's floods along river systems such as the Diamantina and Georgina sparked prolific breeding by the budgies which have been feasting on an abundance of grass seeds, the Courier-Mail reported. "I have been here since 1983 and never seen anything like it," Boulia grazier Ann Britton said. "The skies are thick with budgies - how they do not collide with each other is a miracle in itself. "My father, who has travelled extensively in the Outback, was with me when we saw a massive flock and...

Japan's Tokai Challenger solar vehicle has taken victory against a strong international field in the 2009 Global Green Challenge. After covering almost 1860 miles (3000km) in four days across Australia's baking red center, the entry from Japan's Tokai University crossed the finish line at 3.39pm local time. The team's run was nearly flawless, reporting only a single flat tire with just over 100 miles of the course to race and the win breaks a string of four consecutive victories by the Dutch Nuon team, which is currently battling it out for second place against University of Michigan Solar Car Team....

Wild dromedary camels, brought to Australia in the mid-19th century to help explore and develop the outback, were left to breed and survive on their own. Now they number a million in the wild and have become pests, officials say. Camels are not usually associated with Australia, but Australia is home to the largest herd of feral camels in the world. About 12,000 dromedary camels were brought to Australia in the mid-19th century to carry people and supplies during the exploration and development of the Interior but after the advent of the automobile, they were abandoned and left to fend...

"Australia: Islamic cleric harasses families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan with haranguing phone calls and letters" SNIPPET: "Mr Sher's father Felix received a phone call and letters, allegedly from self-styled Muslim cleric Sheikh Haron, just before his son's funeral." SNIPPET: "Other Australian families of men killed in Afghanistan have allegedly received similar letters in the past two years. On Tuesday Sheikh Haron was charged with seven counts of "using a postal service or similar service to menace, harass, or cause offence". He was granted bail to appear in court on November 10. [...]"

By Nick Bryant BBC News, Ceduna, Australian outback One of the holes is called 90 Mile Straight The vast Australian emptiness of the Nullarbor Plain is famous already as one of the world's most gruelling car journeys.Now it has become the proud home of the world's longest golf course. Eighteen holes spread over 1,365 km (848 miles) of outback terrain that can take as long as seven days to play - longer even, if you keep on hitting your balls into the scrubland or suffer the indignity of having them stolen by an errant dingo. But more of the hazards...

TAC Primate Archbishop John Hepworth Blackwood, Australia, Oct 22, 2009 / 02:57 am (CNA).- The Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion has responded to the Vatican’s announcement of a new provision for Anglicans who wish to convert to Catholicism, saying his church is “profoundly moved” by Pope Benedict’s generosity. He added that the provision will now be taken to the national synods of his Communion.In an Oct. 20 statement published on the website of the communion’s The Messenger Journal, Traditional Anglican Communion Primate Archbishop John Hepworth said he had been speaking with bishops, priests and lay people of the...

A MAN who established a sophisticated network of peepholes and cameras to spy on his flatmates has escaped a jail sentence after police were unable to crack an encryption code on his home computer. Rohan James Wyllie, 39, yesterday pleaded guilty in Southport District Court to charges of attempting to visually record one of his flatmates when she was in a private place without her consent. But police were unable to prove his elaborate surveillance system had actually been used. Wyllie's three flatmates, two women and a man, grew suspicious that he was up to something when they noticed lights...

Industry leaders in Australia are urging the Australian federal government to overhaul its skilled immigration program to address a looming shortage of workers. Recent changes by DIAC to the skilled migration visa processing times have meant that many hundreds of applicants for visas have been told that they may have to wait up to 3 years and this is slated to impact on several massive projects announced for Western Australia, including the Gorgon gas development, expansion of the Pluto LNG plant and the development of the Mid-West iron ore region including the massive Gindalbie iron ore mine which will need...

Defence has admitted the Collins submarines are again a major concern, with the most recent mishap requiring a vessel to limp home after a catastrophic engine breakdown. Head of the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) Dr Stephen Gumley said the Collins submarines had now gone to the top of the list of troublesome projects - a position once occupied by the now cancelled Seasprite helicopter project. Once labelled "dud subs" after a series of problems, the Collins had undergone a protracted remediation program over the past decade which seemed to have overcome all defects. Following the recent engine breakdown, just one...

Australia on Wednesday flagged moves to bring military operations in Afghanistan to a quick end, despite US and NATO calls for more troops to shore up the campaign against a resurgent Taliban militia. Defence Minister John Faulkner said Australia was studying how to complete the mission in the "shortest time-frame possible". Australia has about 1,550 troops in Afghanistan with no date set for their withdrawal. "I've certainly asked the Australian Defence Force for any recommendations they have about ensuring we do complete that important role and responsibility both effectively, but in the shortest time-frame possible," he told ABC radio. Faulkner...

Engine problems cripple Collins-class submarines THE navy's $6 billion Collins-class submarines face serious operational restrictions after being hit by a run of crippling mechanical problems and troubling maintenance issues. Some senior engineering experts now contend that the Swedish-supplied Hedemora diesel engines may have to be replaced - a major design and engineering job that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take years to complete. So serious are the problems that the Defence Materiel Organisation has put the Collins boats at the top of its list of "projects of concern" - the key equipment issues troubling Australia's Defence leaders....

Inflation Fears Drove Rate Rise, RBA Minutes Show (Australia) James Glynn October 20, 2009 Article from: Dow Jones Newswires GROWING concerns that inflation could increase were a decisive factor in the Reserve Bank's decision to raise interest rates, the central bank's minutes released today showed. The elevated rhetoric on inflation supports the prevailing view in financial markets that the RBA is set to continue hiking the cash rate target over coming months and through 2010, seeking a return to more normal levels around 5.0 per cent. "Underlying inflation was still, on the latest data, above the target and, while current...

A FISHERMAN spent a nervous night perched in a mangrove tree as two crocodiles menaced him from below after his boat sank on a remote Kimberley river in Western Australia. Stan Martell told Wyndham police his boat dragged its anchor on Friday night and became wedged under a tree branch as he slept during a fishing trip ... The 7.2m craft was then swamped by the incoming tide ... two crocodiles surfaced near the sinking boat as he scrambled up the tree were he spent the night "sitting there like a Koala bear".

A MELBOURNE man who conducted a reign of terror against his ex-lover, including strangling her cat with a telephone cord, has been jailed for more than nine years. Paul Maher began his two-month crime spree after breaking up with Lynne Forehan and when tensions grew over his contact with their toddler. The County Court in Melbourne heard Maher, then 24, began harassing and threatening Ms Forehan and her family last year. The court was told he threw two Molotov cocktails at her parent's house where she was staying, setting the loungeroom alight. He also ransacked her North Melbourne flat and...

YEAR six and seven students have been banned from mixed-sex consensual hugging at a primary school in South Australia for fear it would set a "bad example" to younger students. YEAR six and seven students have been banned from mixed-sex consensual hugging at a primary school in South Australia for fear it would set a "bad example" to younger students, AdelaideNow reports. Following complaints from parents at Largs Bay Primary School, the school has banned hugging and other displays of affection for "boyfriends or girlfriends" in the two senior grades. "Hugging is not banned (between friends) at Largs Bay Primary...

AUSTRALIANS could soon be paid for spotting crimes happening on the other side of the world. British company Internet Eyes will offer a reward of up to $1740 to people who detect shoplifting and other crimes on a network of UK security cameras. Subscribers will watch live footage over the internet on their home computers. The company believes the different time zones made Australia the ideal location for detecting night-time crime in the UK.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is expected to discuss Australia's policy on asylum seekers with Indonesian officials when he visits Jakarta on Tuesday. Mr Rudd is making the trip to attend the inauguration of the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The Opposition has criticised Mr Rudd's decision to ask Indonesian authorities to stop a boatload of Sri Lankans reaching Australia last week. Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard has told Channel Nine that Australia and Indonesia are cooperating well on people smuggling. "I don't want to give the impression that somehow nothing is happening now. "There is very close cooperation with Indonesia...

MELBOURNE, Australia — A 6-month-old baby has miraculously survived a train hitting his stroller, which rolled onto the tracks when his mother let go for an instant. The escape was captured on security camera footage that shows the red, three-wheeled stroller plunging off a station platform just as the commuter train pulls in, and the mother's panicked lunge to grab it. The train pushed the stroller about 130 feet (40 meters) along the tracks before it stopped, but it did not go under the train. The baby, who was strapped into the stroller, received only a bump on the head....

<p>MELBOURNE, Australia — A 6-month-old baby has miraculously survived a train hitting his stroller, which rolled onto the tracks when his mother let go for an instant.</p> <p>The escape was captured on security camera footage that shows the red, three-wheeled stroller plunging off a station platform just as the commuter train pulls in, and the mother's panicked lunge to grab it.</p>

AUSTRALIANS could soon be paid for spotting crimes happening on the other side of the world. British company Internet Eyes will offer a reward of up to $1740 to people who detect shoplifting and other crimes on a network of UK security cameras. Subscribers will watch live footage over the internet on their home computers. The company believes the different time zones made Australia the ideal location for detecting night-time crime in the UK. "I would love people in Australia to be looking at this," managing director Tony Morgan says. The scheme could also be switched so that UK residents...

This was a case like no other. Not only was it the longest criminal trial in Australian legal history, it was conducted under the tightest security and was almost derailed by one young woman. Each morning, the prison van would arrive at the court in a convoy under police escort. A busy Parramatta street was closed for a few minutes while the prison van sped down a steep driveway flanked by Extreme High Security Corrective Services Officers wearing flak jackets and armed with semi-automatic weapons. Inside, there was the usual baggage screening in the foyer, but up on Level Three...

FIVE Sydney men have been found guilty of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack using high-powered guns and homemade bombs designed to cause mass death and destruction on Australian soil. A Supreme Court jury took four weeks and three days to find Mohamed Ali Elomar, 44, Abdul Rakib Hasan, 40, Mohammed Omar Jamal, 25, Moustafa Cheikho, 32, and his uncle Khaled Cheikho, 36, guilty of conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts. The Daily Telegraph reports the men, all from Sydney's south-west, were accused of stockpiling weapons and chemicals for use in the pursuit of...

KEVIN Rudd and the architect of the Howard government's Pacific Solution, Philip Ruddock, yesterday clashed over whose administration was tougher on boatpeople, with Mr Ruddock claiming recent policy changes left Australia exposed to a "pipeline" of 10,000 unauthorised arrivals a year. As Coalition figures lined up yesterday to take advantage of the surge in boatpeople, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett slammed the decision to grant asylum to 42 Afghan men whose boat blew up following an act of sabotage. But the Coalition's criticism drew a counter-attack from the Prime Minister, who said yesterday the Howard government's tough rhetoric on asylum-seekers...

Australia is perhaps best-known for its beer drinkers, barbecues, crocodiles and sheilas, but don't let that fool you into underestimating the business savvy of those Aussies. The island from down under is leading the developed world in economic recovery, and investors are starting to take note. "We're in a much better neighbourhood than Canada," Brian Redican, a senior economist at Macquarie Bank in Sydney, says of Australia's trade relationships with the developing and emerging markets of the Asia-Pacific. Australia's trade with China has been key to keeping the economy growing, but Mr. Redican says quick economic management has also been...

The young woman stood naked in her downtown office building, swaying next to an open window. Her final words were sudden and calm: ''I know I am going to jump.'' Rebekah Lawrence -- so modest and shy she often blushed around others -- burst into song and leaped out the window. Lawrence died that day. But her mind had begun to show cracks a few days before, as she finished an intense self-help seminar called The Turning Point. The course had pledged to change her life. Instead, some say, it led to her death. Lawrence's death was not the first...

A comprehensive study has revealed, for the first time, the impact of swine flu on the health of the general public in Australia and New Zealand. The lessons learned in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) across the two countries on the impact of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus are being shared with countries in the Northern Hemisphere to help them prepare for their upcoming flu season. The three-month study, conducted at the height of the pandemic between June and August, reveals that 722 patients were admitted to ICUs and that at the peak of the epidemic up to 20 per cent...

An Australian variety show has become embroiled in an international racism controversy after airing a skit featuring men dressed as the Jackson 5 – with their faces painted black. The "Jackson Jive" parody, which aired on a reunion episode of the variety show Hey Hey It’s Saturday last night, was deemed offensive by the guest judge, the US singer Harry Connick Jr, who complained on air, saying: “If I knew that was going to be part of the show I definitely wouldn't have done it. “On behalf of my country I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so...

A MALE flight attendant is being investigated by Jetstar over allegations he contacted a teenage girl on Facebook using details from passenger records. The Jetstar attendant sent the 15-year-old girl several messages via the social media website after a flight from the Sunshine Coast to Melbourne last month, reports the ABC. The girl did not give him her name but within hours of the flight landing in Melbourne the man had added her to his Facebook page and sent her several friend requests, the girl's mother says. The woman, who was on the flight with the 15-year-old and another daughter,...

Mon Oct 5, 7:53 am ET PARIS (AFP) – Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens. The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan. -snip- The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland,...

AN obscure, desolate plateau on the southwestern shores of Greenland could transform the future of consumer technology and shift the balance of power in the global supply of rare earth metals. ...beneath the rocks and ice of the Ilimaussaq Intrusion represents the world's largest known reserve of rare earth metals, the "technology" group of lanthanide elements used in products from mobile phones and low-energy light bulbs to hybrid cars and missile guidance systems. ...potential ...to severely dent China's global monopoly over rare earth production, a 95 per cent dominance of total worldwide output that Beijing has strategically nurtured for 15...

A POLICE sniffer dog helped track down five teenagers who have been arrested over a rock-throwing incident in Melbourne's north-east overnight. It's claimed the five threw concrete and masonry at cars driving along St Georges Road in Northcote, including a taxi at about 3.15am. The taxi driver contacted police, who dispatched a canine unit to the area. Nat the Rottweiler sniffed out one offender hiding in a creek bed and the remaining four under a building at a local school. The group was taken to the Northcote police station for questioning. Police have called for any witnesses to come forward.

Clearing out your home can uncover all sorts of trinkets long forgotten, but for one resident of the Yorkshire Dales it led to the discovery of six genuine treasures he never knew he had. And now the rare Australian banknotes hiding under the lining paper of his chest of drawers have fetched a staggering £410,490 at auction. The elderly owner in his 80s, who wants to remain anonymous, was due to move into a retirement home and called in his local auctioneers to go through the house and see what they could sell for him. Rodney Tennant, of Tennant's Auctioneers,...

CONVICTED criminals are being employed as telemarketers to cold-call people as part of a radical new prison employment program. But those called will have no idea they are talking to an inmate and the State Government will not say which organisations are using the convicts as part of a confidentiality deal. The program is designed to prepare women prisoners from Windsor's low and medium-security Dillwynia Correctional Centre for life on the outside, training them for work and stopping them from reoffending. However it is also being used as a low-cost way for companies to get cheap telemarketing work and for...

An Australian naval ship has thwarted an attack on a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen, by suspected Somali pirates armed with a rocket propelled grenade launcher. The HMAS Toowoomba answered an emergency call from merchant vessel BBC Portugal after it sighted an armed boat approaching on Sept. 20, Australia's Department of Defence said today in a faxed statement. Along with the grenade launcher, staff from the Toowoomba found six AK47 assault rifles, a G3 assault rifle and a large quantity of ammunition. Somali pirates venturing out to sea as monsoon winds abate are...

Sydney, September 21 (ANI): A scientist has said that a volcanic eruption is “well overdue” in Australia from the past 3,000 years and there are hundreds of volcanoes that could cause trouble, from South Australia and Victoria through to Queensland. According to a report by Fairfax Digital Network, Melbourne geologist Bernie Joyce has made the warning. He said that there are 400 volcanoes in Victoria and South Australia, and almost as many in Queensland. “A significant eruption seems well overdue,” said Professor Joyce, who has been associated with the University of Melbourne. “We can’t say with 100 per cent certainty...

SIX months after her husband was killed fighting in Afghanistan, Breeanna Till is broke - let down by the government that promised solemnly to look after her. Heavily pregnant with the child Sergeant Brett Till will never know, the Sydney widow fears becoming like "a single mum on the dole" when she gives birth in a few weeks. The $905 weekly pay her husband brought home lasted just a fortnight after he died in a roadside bomb explosion. In its place, the military gave Mrs Till a compensation payment of just $305 a week. Sgt Till, 31, was a much-respected...

Australia wants 15 pct cap on foreign investment-paper Article layout: raw SYDNEY, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Australia wants to limit foreign investment in its major mining companies to 15 percent under guidelines spelled out by its Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), the Australian Financial Review reported on Friday. The general manager of the FIRB, Patrick Colmer, also warned foreign investors to keep their businesses listed in Australia and not allow their lawyers to use complex legal arguments in approval applications, the paper said. For start up mining projects, the FIRB wants foreign investment to stay below 50 percent, according to...

The people-smuggling masterminds behind the upsurge in illegal boat arrivals to Australia often carry out their illicit activities unchecked because of loopholes in Indonesia's criminal code, experts say. Few high-level people-smugglers are arrested on Indonesian soil and fewer still ever face an Australian courtroom, with the majority of prosecutions over here netting poor Indonesian villagers enlisted only to crew refugee boats into Australian waters, sometimes for as little as $50. The federal government recently pledged $654 million over the next six years to combat the rise in maritime people smuggling and improve border protection, with $48 million going to the...

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's biggest city was shrouded in an eerie blanket of red dust on Wednesday as bushfires, earthquakes, wild winds and massive hail stones caused havoc in the country. Sydney's cars and buildings turned orange as strong winds blew desert dust across the city, snarling commuter and air transport and prompting a warning for children and the elderly to stay indoors. Residents wore face masks and covered their mouths with scarves as they travelled to work under red skies, while long delays were expected at Sydney airport after several international flights were diverted. Elsewhere in New South Wales,...