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Strong winds blowing in from the north-west have blanketed Sydney and much of NSW in high levels of dust. ... read more Sydneysiders awoke to discover the sky was turned a hellish red in the extremely rare weather event. Ferries have been cancelled and flights to Sydney airport have been diverted as visibility has been severely reduced. Motorists have been urged to drive with their lights on and to adjust to the conditions as several roads, including Sydney Harbour Tunnel were closed

My Op-ed in The Australian By Leah Farrall, Australia I have an op-ed piece out in today’s edition of The Australian called “Detentions come back to bite” It’s about Guantanamo blowback now having very real strategic consequences: the formation of a new strategy to kidnap civilians in Afghanistan in order to secure the release of prisoners taken by America. Sally Neighbour has a front page piece derived from my op-ed here “Afghan foreigner kidnap order by al Qaeda leader Mustafa Hamid”. I haven’t seen the broadsheet yet, so I’m not sure if the photos I provided of Hamid are on...

THE Rudd government should be wary about using high levels of immigration in coming decades as a means to counteract the decline in productivity resulting from an ageing population because more over-55s are staying on in their jobs, a population expert warns. Monash University demographer Bob Birrell said Treasury's new population estimate for Australia -- 35 million by 2050 -- was based on immigration levels of about 180,000 a year, a rate that may not be necessary to keep the economy running and will be difficult to provide for in terms of urban infrastructure and services. "The government seems to...

THE hit series Underbelly is among shows under fire from a major Christian group demanding tougher rules on sex and violence on TV. With standards governing on-screen content being reviewed for the first time in six years, the Australian Christian Lobby launched the "Tame the Tube" campaign to combat what it says are industry attempts to weaken TV standards. "Sex, violence and foul language are normal fare these days as TV networks push the boundaries," ACL managing director Jim Wallace said. ACL said it had about 10,000 registered supporters, mainly from orthodox and evangelical churches. As well as wanting less...

SICK of vandalism and violence in his home town, John Genetzakis waged a one-man war to wipe out the thugs. Now the business owner has paid the price, losing his house and everything in it in a frightening arson attack. Mr Genetzakis, 37, who lives in the Hunter Valley town of Cessnock, said yesterday he had no doubt the blaze was started by youths seeking retribution. For more than two years he has called for a police crackdown on youth gangs who smash shop windows, wreck public spaces with graffiti and harass residents in Cessnock's business centre. Mr Genetzakis' cinema...

GAY rights activists are outraged over a church conference that aims to help people struggling with "unwanted homosexuality". Activists have vowed to protests outside this weekend's Lovelinx conference at Mitcham Baptist Church, the Whitehorse Leader reports. The conference, organised through various Christian ministiries and the Exodus Global Alliance, aims to heal "sexual brokenness" Their website says the event is not homophobic, but offers "hope and practical help to people struggling with sexual struggles or unwanted homosexuality". But gay rights campaigner Tim Wright said the conference was hurtful and encouraged people to repress their sexuality. Start of sidebar. Skip to end...

Report: Man Fathered 4 Kids With Daughter Australian arrested for raping daughter over 30 years, newspaper says MELBOURNE, Australia - An Australian man has been arrested on charges of raping his daughter for 30 years and fathering four children with her, a newspaper reported Thursday. The exclusive report by the Herald Sun newspaper said the man began raping his daughter in the 1970s when she was 11 years old, threatening her with violence against her mother. He was arrested in February after the woman approached police, the report said. Victoria state police would not immediately confirm the newspaper's details, saying...

Killer rabbits attack snakes Sean Muir, TablelanderTuesday, September 15, 2009© The Cairns Post  A PAIR of rabid rabbits has been caught killing a series of snakes near Cairns.For three weeks Armando Del Manso believed his dog was responsible for the dead snakes showing up with teeth marks all over them on his East Barron property’s lawn each morning.But it turns out it was a pair of rampaging rabbits killing the snakes.Pictures: Cairns snakesThe 42-year-old boilermaker first made the discovery Tuesday night when he spotted the two wild rabbits attacking a king brown snake.“The snake was raised up in the air in...

A few days after I watched the Mormons gorging themselves on a giant cheeseburger, Elder Cooper told me that he was being split up from his companion Elder Glover, and being moved to a different area. He was pretty annoyed about it, and told us that he would break protocol by not telling the new missionaries moving in to the area about us, and keeping contact himself. After this, I had no contact with any Mormons for a few weeks before I finally received a call and then a visit from the new missionaries to the area. I had called...

A PAIR of rabid rabbits has been caught killing a series of snakes near Cairns.For three weeks Armando Del Manso believed his dog was responsible for the dead snakes showing up with teeth marks all over them on his East Barron property’s lawn each morning.But it turns out it was a pair of rampaging rabbits killing the snakes.Pictures: Cairns snakesThe 42-year-old boilermaker first made the discovery Tuesday night when he spotted the two wild rabbits attacking a king brown snake.“The snake was raised up in the air in the striking position and the two rabbits worked their way around him and...

A MAN charged over the fatal Black Saturday blaze at Churchill will face a pre-trial hearing next May. Brendan Sokaluk, 39, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court via video link from the Melbourne Assessment Prison today. He is facing 191 charges, including 10 counts of arson causing death as well as intentionally causing a bushfire, criminal damage, recklessly causing injury and possessing child pornography. The court heard there were 610 witnesses in the case.

This is the message that the **Maroochydore High School, Queensland, Australia**, staff voted unanimously to record on their school telephone answering machine. --------------------------------- I'm sure San Francisco schools have similar messages---NOT. MP3 http://files.me.com/cdodsworth/i7qpru.mp3

FOUR would-be petrol thieves were out of luck when busted by army reservists - two of whom were off-duty cops. ...... Three of the men managed to get to their car but one tried his luck at out-running the group of reservists. The fleet-footed fiend didn’t anticipate a barb wire obstacle course the reservists had been using nearby, however, and was cornered when he ran into it.

Recent scandals look to have hurt Kyle and Jackie O's 2DAY FM breakfast radio show, with ratings figures showing a drop in listeners. The latest survey, by Nielsen, shows that the audience dropped 2.2 percentage points from a 12 per cent share to 9.8 per cent in the period from June 28 until September 5. The show remains the top rating Sydney FM breakfast show, but it was the biggest casualty in the early morning slot, losing about 35,000 listeners. Sandilands and co-host Jackie O went off air for two weeks in August following the rape revelation scandal in which...

Search giant Google Australia is continuing to add features to its Google Maps tool, launching a tool that allows users to monitor traffic flows in major cities and uses crowd-sourcing data on which the service relies. Information on Google Maps displays the current traffic status of many motorways, major and minor arterial routes in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and smaller areas like Wollongong, the Central Coast, Geelong, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast. When the "traffic" function is turned on, roads are marked with a coloured line indicating whether traffic flow is fast (a green line), medium (yellow), heavy (red)...

AUSTRALIA prides itself as the land of sand, sea and surf - but was last year home to the highest number of drownings in five years. Figures released yesterday by the Royal Life Saving Society provided an ominous warning for the summer ahead as thousands of people flock to beaches and waterways. There were 302 drowning deaths in 2008-09 - up 41 from the previous year. It comes as an investigation by The Daily Telegraph found thousands of backyard pools across the state had failed to meet basic safety requirements, with lax councils having failed to carry out safety inspections....

MILITARY bases and navy ships will be turned into virtual fortresses under plans to beef-up security in the wake of a major terrorist plot. Taxi drivers and other members of the public will be banned from entering military bases without getting high-level clearance after an urgent review found Australia's frontline defence facilities were among the least protected in the world. The top-secret review also found Australia's top defence brass would be vulnerable to a terrorist strike and recommended their leafy military showpiece, at Duntroon in Canberra, be turned into a secure compound. Among sweeping reforms, the review calls for bases...

A RIOT by Muslim youths in Auburn last week was organised via Facebook, police believe. The troublemakers used the social networking site to flash up inflammatory references to police and rally their friends for a confrontation. One update identified police as "non-believers" who were raiding a "brother's home". More than 150 people gathered in Cumberland Rd, Auburn, on Tuesday night, forcing police to call in 100 officers, the riot squad and a helicopter. The tense stand-off came after Middle Eastern organised crime squad police raided four homes. Opposition police spokesman Mike Gallacher's office revealed one of the Facebook updates read:...

AUSTRALIA risked being 'swamped' by asylum-seekers, the Federal Opposition warned, if boat arrivals continued at their current rate, with three arriving this week alone. The interception of a third vessel in a week prompted the coalition to suggest there was a risk up to 10,000 asylum-seekers could start heading to Australia by boat each year. The Australian Greens accused the Opposition of dog-whistle politics. "The unfortunate thing here is the Howard government did make some capital out of dog-whistling on refugees seeking asylum in this country," Greens leader Bob Brown told reporters. "The whistle now has to get a bit...

Sydney - Australia's 250,000 Muslims complained of discrimination Saturday after laws were proposed banning shops from opening at Christmas and Easter to give retail staff more family time. Islamic Friendship Association head Keysar Trad said all religious holidays should be covered not just some of them. 'It does give the impression that we are a solely Christian nation and it raises the issue of other religions too, whether you are Hindu , Buddhist, Muslim,' he said. 'There are only two Muslim public holidays, so it's not a lot to ask.' A spokesman for the New South Wales state government said...

Molecular biologist Michael Behe described a system made of several interacting parts, whereby the removal of one part would disrupt the functioning of the whole, as being irreducibly complex. Both creation scientists and intelligent design proponents highlight examples of irreducible complexity in their studies, because they argue against evolutionary hypotheses. The very structure of these systems—with their interdependent parts working all together or not at all—demands a non-Darwinian, non-chance, non-piecemeal origin. A team of evolutionary molecular biologists thinks it may have refuted this concept of irreducible complexity. In a recent study, the researchers focused on a specific cellular machine involved...

The shadowy internet group known as Anonymous has hacked into the prime minister's website to protest over proposed internet censorship reforms. An Attorney-General's Department spokesperson confirmed to ninemsn the Prime Minister's website was taken down at 7.25pm last night, but said the site was operational again "within minutes". "Visitors to the site received a service unavailable error," the spokesperson said in a statement. "There was no unauthorised access to site infrastructure." The Australian Communications and Media Authority's website was also affected. A message posted on the Inquisitor website by Anonymous stated that the action was in response to a federal...

Indonesian officials believe a new probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five could damage relations between the archipelago nation and Australia. It was announced yesterday that Australian Federal Police would launch a war crimes investigation into the 1975 killing of five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo in East Timor. Television journalists Greg Shackleton and Malcolm Rennie, cameramen Gary Cunningham and Brian Peters and sound recordist Tony Stewart died in October 1975 after trying to film Indonesian troops as they invaded the former Portuguese colony. Robert Connolly's film Balibo released last month, reignited community passion about the tragic episode. The families...

WOMEN should be able to serve in all frontline combat units of the Australian Defence Force, including the SAS and commando units, under a controversial plan that could avert a looming recruitment crisis. The push by Defence Personnel and Science Minister Greg Combet would remove gender as a criterion for selection for specialised categories of military service. The Rudd government wants to lift the proportion of women serving in the defence force from the current level of 13 per cent, as demographic pressures bear down on defence force recruitment over the next decade. Removing any gender discrimination for serving in...

An academic says public education campaigns need a rethink after two girls used Facebook to alert people that they were stuck down a stormwater drain. The 10 and 12-year-old girls updated a Facebook status to say they were lost in an Adelaide drain, and a young friend called for help on their behalf. Glenn Benham from the Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) says it is concerning the girls raised the alert on the social networking site instead of calling 000. "If they were able to access Facebook from their mobile phones they could have called 000, so the point being they...

Australia has a health care system which is similar in some aspects to what the Democrats are proposing. There is a public plan which covers about 70% of the country and private insurance which covers the rest. In a short time (the system was set up in 1983) the country became divided into one group that gets good medical care (private insurance) and the group whose insurance is not as good.For example those in the public system have to wait longer for surgery. There are also extensive waiting times for non emergency surgeries at public hospitals. Although waiting lists for...

Poor weather is hampering the search effort in the Victorian alpine region for State Water and Tourism Minister Tim Holding. Mr Holding has not been heard from since Saturday evening when he headed out on a solo trek to Mount Feathertop, north-east of Melbourne. It is Victoria's second highest mountain and the climb is dangerous at the best of times. Police are not confident of finding Mr Holding today because of the weather. There is low cloud cover and constant drizzle, with temperatures hovering around zero degrees Celsius. Helicopters are unable to join the search because of the low cloud...

Thousands of representatives of the world’s religions will convene in Australia for the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions. An estimated 8,000-12,000 people will meet in Melbourne, Australia, Dec. 3-9, 2009, to dialogue, build interfaith relationships, and discuss critical issues facing the global community. Adherents of a wide range of religious traditions will be present including: Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Baha’i Jain, and Zoroastrian. “The Parliament event is a place where people come together to encounter ‘the other,’” organizers state in the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) website. “This encounter can lead to a...

A FOLLOWER of a radical Islamic movement that seeks to introduce sharia law and has been linked to terrorist groups is being granted asylum in Australia. The Refugee Review Tribunal has recommended a protection visa for an Egyptian man, who is a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political group with links to al-Qaida. The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed in several countries, including Egypt. It seeks to establish a pan-Islamic state ruled by sharia law and is committed to the destruction of Israel.

THE swine flu epidemic almost brought the NSW hospital system to its knees, wiping out 5000 surgical procedures, taking up a third of intensive care beds and forcing up sick leave among hospital staff by more than 50 per cent.

SYDNEY — Australian police and civic leaders on Monday appealed for help catching pranksters who glued a man to a public toilet seat, forcing an embarrassing rescue by ambulance officers. A 58-year-old was taken to hospital with the toilet seat still attached to his behind after he used a booby-trapped convenience in a shopping centre in the northeastern resort city of Cairns on Saturday. . . . Police said hospital staff removed the toilet seat from the humiliated victim's behind using industrial strength solvents.

SERIOUS splits have emerged within the Coalition on nuclear power, with outspoken Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce yesterday calling for a referendum on the issue, while Liberal senate leader Nick Minchin declared any discussion "utterly futile". Senator Joyce demanded Australia abandon its Cold War mindset and end its ban on nuclear power, telling the Nationals federal council meeting it made no sense to continue to take the "peculiar" position of selling uranium overseas, while pretending domestic nuclear energy generation was immoral. "We either say it's immoral and we won't use it at all or, quite obviously, we should be trying to...

KEVIN Rudd has decreed his government will never "get a permit slip from another country" before deciding who should receive a visa to enter Australia, as the Coalition made contradictory statements about whether it agreed a visit by Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer should have been allowed. In a statement reminiscent of John Howard's "I will determine who comes to this country" pledge on asylum seekers, Mr Rudd said yesterday: "The government I lead is one where Australia makes decisions on who it issues visas to or not. The Liberal Party is now saying that when it comes to Australia's visa...

Wind farms and solar panels are set to take over Australia after politicians agreed on a historic deal to boost clean energy. Labor and the coalition struck the deal in a rare moment of cooperation that has sparked hopes they can agree on another controversial environmental issue - emissions trading. The surprise love-in on renewable energy led to an unusual day in parliament, with the major parties being nice to each other. The federal government's key election promise to have 20 per cent of electricity come from renewable sources by 2020 is now a done deal. Called the Renewable Energy...

The Federal Government has unveiled plans to toughen its counter-terrorism laws, including a change to allow police to break into a suspect's home without getting approval from a judge. It also wants to make it easier to stop suspects getting out of jail on bail. But the Government is planning to put a cap on the amount of time suspects can be held without charge. Attorney-General Robert McClelland says the tougher laws would protect Australians. "The Government is committed to ensuring the focus of Australia's national security and counter-terrorism laws remains on preventing a terrorist attack from occurring in the...

Australia has begun drawing up plans to cull hundreds of thousands of wild camels amid concerns that marauding herds are tearing up the environment and depleting valuable supplies of water. One-humped dromedaries were imported into Australia after 1840 to help colonial settlers conquer the arid continent’s inhospitable interior. A century later, the robust pack animals were no longer needed, superseded by trucks and trains. While some were slaughtered, many others were released into the desert where they have thrived. Apart from wild dogs, Australia’s camels have had little to fear until now. Deploying marksmen in helicopters is part of an...

PITY the poor inhabitants of Gliese 581d; some day in 20 years' time, the planet -- which was discovered in 2007 and is theoretically inhabitable (a bit like Los Angeles) -- is going to be hit by a tsunami of spam. Our pollies have been among eager earthlings who've signed up at HelloFromEarth.net to have a message beamed at the planet. Science Minister Kim Carr did his bit to set the tone with this sentiment: "Hello from Australia on the planet we call Earth. These messages express our people's dreams for the future. We want to share these dreams with...

When ET phoned home in 1982, a whole generation dreamed of finding extra-terrestrial life. One inspired moviegoer was Australia’s eccentric science minister Kim Carr. Today he launched a bizarre scheme encouraging citizens to send messages into outer space with the hope of discovering other beings. And, by logging on to a website, hundreds have already sent missives to Gliese 581d, the only know planet that - since it resembles Earth – could support life. Some have asked aliens to help find lost socks, while others invited non-earthlings from planet Gliese 581d over for a cup of tea. In what is...

Sanity wins Down Under. The warmist fantasy embraced by Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had led to what Reuters correspondent Rob Taylor earlier called a "day of reckoning." The BBC reports: The Australian parliament has rejected government plans to introduce an ambitious carbon trading scheme to tackle global warming. The measure was the centrepiece of the government's environment plans, and would have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5% over the next 10 years. But opposition senators who control the upper house feared the legislation would harm the country's mining sector. The battle is not yet over, however. Bloomberg reports: Rudd,...

When 10 members of Congress wanted to study climate change, they did more than just dip their toes into the subject,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “They went diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. They also rode a cable car through the Australian rain forest, visited a penguin rookery and flew to the South Pole. “The 11-day trip — with six spouses traveling along as well — took place over New Year’s 2008,” the paper says. Cost: About half-a-million dollars. Some went scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef; Sanchez preferred to snorkel, the Journal said. Global warming?...

Australia emissions plan rejectedPage last updated at 02:08 GMT, Thursday, 13 August 2009 03:08 UK The Australian parliament has rejected government plans to introduce an ambitious carbon trading scheme to tackle global warming. The measure was the centrepiece of the government's environment plans, and would have cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5% over the next 10 years. But opposition senators who control the upper house feared the legislation would harm the country's mining sector. The government can re-introduce the legislation after three months. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong confirmed after the Senate defeat by 42 votes to 30 that the...

The Australian cruiser met the disguised German vessel in the waters off western Australia two years after the two became enemies in World War II. The Australian ship approached, trying to determine whether the vessel was friendly. It wasn't. What resulted was Australia's worst naval disaster: the sinking of the Australian ship and the loss of its entire crew of 645. The wreckage wasn't found until last year, leading to decades of conspiracy theories about what actually happened. On Wednesday a long-awaited report on the sinking of the Sydney II ended the mystery that began when it met its fate,...

AUSTRALIA'S most loved koala will be stuffed and displayed in the Melbourne Museum following her death during surgery. The image of Sam the koala holding hands with Country Fire Authority (CFA) firefighter David Tree and sipping from his water bottle in the aftermath of the Black Saturday bushfires was beamed around the world as a symbol of hope in the days following the disaster. Sam's bushfire injuries had healed but the four-year-old animal was put down on Thursday during major surgery to remove cysts associated with chlamydia, a life-threatening disease that causes cervical infection and has ravaged Victoria's koala population....

AFTER two days of intense preparation in searing 45-degree desert heat, Australia's newest band of brothers went to war under the command of 22-year-old Lieutenant Todd O'Callaghan. The troops from the Townsville-based 1st Battalion's Pioneer Platoon will face the most intense enemy threat of the seven-year campaign just 10 days out from crucial national elections. The Taliban launched four roadside bomb attacks against Diggers from the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force in Oruzgan Province over just 24 hours, wounding two men and damaging two armoured vehicles. The threat from the insidious weapons, known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), has featured...

THE abortion pill RU486 will become more widely available in Australia after a not-for-profit sexual health group was approved to use the drug in its clinics. Fourteen doctors at nine Marie Stopes International Centres in Victoria, NSW, the ACT, Queensland and Western Australia will offer the drug, also known as mifepristone, as an alternative to surgical abortions. The Therapeutic Goods Administration will allow the drug's use of up to nine week's gestation under relaxed importing and prescribing rules, Fairfax reports.

  Koda, the smallest horse in Australia, is smaller than most dogs and not much bigger than a cat   He weighs only 35 kg (five-and-a-half stone) and stands at 59cm (less than two feet tall)   American miniature Koda was never going to be large, but he's small even for his breed...   ...and was diagnosed a dwarf soon after his birth   In fact, he's so small, people are often mistaking him for a battery-operated soft toy

BOOK REVIEW The Mother of Mohammed by Sally Neighbour Reviewed by David Wilson What drives a blonde Australian beach bunny to go on jihad? That extraordinary question serves as the premise for one of the most absorbing non-fiction titles to surface this year. The Mother of Mohammed (MUP) by Australian journalist Sally Neighbour, 48, digs into the background of the beach bunny in question, Rabiah - born Robyn - Hutchinson, with flair, wit and candor. This book pulls no punches. "She was a scrawny, pale-skinned runt, with a shock of frizzy white-blonde hair and an eye-patch she wore from the...

F-111 - the RAAF's white elephant in the sky By Ian McPhedran From: The Daily Telegraph THE RAAF's venerated F-111 strike aircraft, known fondly as the "Pig", has become the world's most maintenance-intensive war plane. By the time the remaining 18 F-111s retire late next year, taxpayers will have forked out hundreds of millions of dollars just to keep the 1960s jets in the air. It takes maintenance crews 180 hours work for every hour that an F-111 jet stays aloft. By comparison, support crews require only 30 hours for every hour that the world's most expensive fighter plane -...

Hundreds of police swooped on suspected terrorists in Melbourne early today amid fears suicide attacks were about to be launched on army bases in Australia. Police from around the country were quietly moved to Melbourne before launching their raids on homes in at least seven suburbs. Several men of Somali and Lebanese backgrounds were arrested and were expected to appear in court later on terrorism-related charges. Plot uncovered: A hooded terror suspect is driven to Melbourne police headquarters this morning Police sources said it would be claimed the men were planning to attack a barracks in western Sydney and other...

Several Australian men have been arrested in a series of counter-terrorism raids across Melbourne after police uncovered a plot by Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaeda to mount a suicide attack on an Army base. Four men were under arrest this morning and several others were assisting police with inquiries after 400 police officers and members of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) swooped on 19 properties shortly before dawn. Authorities believe the group, of Somalian and Lebanese background, was at an advanced stage of preparing to storm an Army barracks in retaliation for Australia’s military involvement in Muslim countries. Members...