Two Pacific island countries have become the global centre of the Internet porn industry, according to a report. The report, by United States-based consultants Secure Computing, said Niue and Tonga provide addresses for almost as many pornographic web pages as the whole of Asia and Latin America. It alleges that Niue hosts 2,9-million pornographic pages.
At the start of the summer season, editors at Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph tabloid dispatched a reporter and a photographer with a long lens in an attempt to catch Sydney’s sneak thieves in the act. After a day of swimming (on the reporter’s part) and snooping (by the photographer), they returned to the office with not a cent missing. The story was spiked. Australian beaches seem as safe as bank vaults.
An Australian court has allowed a 13-year-old girl to have sex-change treatment in a decision that has set the country’s medical and psychiatric professions at odds. The child, who was named as Alex in court documents, wants to take reversible hormone treatment to prevent menstruation before she starts at secondary school. She will not go ahead with sex-change surgery until she is 18.
The government of the Pacific country of Vanuatu is to appeal to Britain and France for compensation for 19th century ”slave voyages” which saw 62 000 Melanesians uprooted to work in the sugarcane fields of Queensland and Fiji. Thousands of Pacific islanders were kidnapped or tricked by European and South American traders in the late 19th century.
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/ 31 October 2003
An eight-year-old Iranian refugee whose plight ignited a bitter immigration row in Australia launched a civil suit this week against the government, claiming that he suffered severe mental health problems caused by his time in detention.
The leaders of Italy, Australia, Britain and Spain are all swimming against the tide of public opinion in their quest against Iraq. The Guardian examines four leaders who have found themselves at odds with the opinion polls, and how they have reacted to their position