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/ 16 October 2007
An Australian man dressed only in his underpants survived a fall from his ninth-storey apartment when an apparent incident of high jinks went badly wrong, police said on Tuesday. The 35-year-old was attempting to build planks across to a neighbour’s flat when he lost his footing and plummeted 30m to the ground, police said.
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/ 13 October 2007
Australian fans starved of horse racing because of an outbreak of equine influenza received bizarre relief when camels took to the track in Sydney. The strictly no-betting, amateur-jockey race meet took place on Friday night at Harold Park Paceway, which is among tracks where racing has been suspended during the disease outbreak.
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/ 10 October 2007
Australian doctors used an intravenous feed of vodka to keep an Italian tourist alive after he consumed large quantities of a poisonous substance. The 24-year-old man, in an apparent bid at self-harm, had swallowed ethylene glycol, found in antifreeze, which can cause death.
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Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has blamed his successor, John Connolly, for Australia’s shock World Cup exit last weekend at the hands of old enemy England. Connolly replaced Jones two years ago and there has been no love lost between the pair, particularly since Jones signed up as an adviser to South Africa for this year’s tournament in France.
New Zealand seam bowler Kyle Mills has been ruled out of next month’s two-Test tour of South Africa because of a calf strain, the country’s cricket board announced on Tuesday. New Zealand Cricket have called up Wellington pace bowler Iain O’Brien to replace the 28-year-old right-armer.
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Australian newspapers on Monday sought to ease the pain of the Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup exit at the hands of England — and the boot of Jonny Wilkinson — by taunting the All Blacks. ”At least we didn’t choke,” Brisbane’s Courier-Mail screamed across its back page.
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New Zealanders were looking for answers on Sunday after their beloved All Blacks once again failed at the Rugby World Cup. France’s stunning 20-18 win over the All Blacks in Cardiff left the nation wondering just how the world’s top-ranked team managed to lose to a French side that had been woefully out of form during the tournament.
An Australian abattoir has beefed up security because thieves in its slaughterhouse were stealing cattle gallstones, which are worth almost their weight in gold, a report said on Friday. The Borthwicks Meatworks in Queensland state will cut the pockets off its employees’ overalls and conduct random searches to protect the gallstones.
Australia has placed a freeze on the settlement of refugees from Africa, but Prime Minister John Howard denied on Wednesday that the decision was a pre-election pitch to immigration-wary voters. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said refugees from Africa were having problems integrating in Australian communities.
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/ 25 September 2007
The wife of former Australian cricket champion Shane Warne says their marriage reconciliation is over after he mistakenly sent her an incriminating SMS. Simone Callahan, who reunited last December with the spin bowler known also for his womanising, told a woman’s magazine she caught Warne cheating on her while he was in London.
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/ 24 September 2007
Australia’s drought could cut the 2008 wine grape vintage by more than half, industry groups said, cutting into a A-billion a year export business. The 2008 vintage is likely to fall to between 800 000 tonnes and 1,3-million tonnes, compared with a normal seasonal crop of about 1,9-million tonnes.
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/ 20 September 2007
It was a stick up of a different kind for one Australian burglar, who broke into a neighbour’s house and played sex games in the bathroom. Jamie Lacey broke into the house in September 2004, scattering pornographic magazines around the bathroom and making a sex toy from a bottle of detergent, a piece of wood and a rubber glove.
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/ 9 September 2007
Asia-Pacific leaders tackled security issues, including food safety, on the last day of their summit on Sunday. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum would turn to ”human security” issues at their retreat in Sydney Opera House.
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/ 8 September 2007
Asia-Pacific nations, including China and the United States, will accept for the first time global goals to reduce emissions, according to a draft statement prepared for an Apec summit on Saturday. The declaration reaffirmed the United Nations climate convention as the primary vehicle for fighting global warming.
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/ 7 September 2007
United States President George Bush, who reportedly once told aides he dislikes the "small talk in big rooms" of summitry, seemed not entirely sure on Friday which world leader gathering was going. Opening the keynote speech of his visit to Sydney, Bush thanked Australian Prime Minister John Howard "for being such a fine host for the Opec summit’.
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/ 7 September 2007
United States President George Bush said on Friday the United States would be willing to consider a peace treaty with North Korea if it gave up its nuclear weapons programme. ”We’re looking forward to the day when we can end the Korean War.” Bush told reporters after meeting South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.
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/ 6 September 2007
Australian paceman Brett Lee, who missed the one-day World Cup with an ankle injury, is ready to make up for lost time at the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa. ”We aren’t the most experienced team and there will be a bit of pressure on us,” Lee said.
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/ 5 September 2007
United States President George Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard cemented a strong alliance on Wednesday as Asia-Pacific ministers began talks ranging from human security and climate change to trade and economic reform. Howard promised Australian soldiers would stay alongside US troops in Iraq following a meeting between the close friends.
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/ 3 September 2007
Captain Ricky Ponting was absent from the Australia squad that headed to South Africa for the Twenty20 World Cup on Monday, with Cricket Australia (CA) citing ”family reasons” for his absence. CA chief executive James Sutherland said ”a private family issue” had arisen at the weekend for the 32-year-old skipper.
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/ 3 September 2007
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The great debate: Is this the Wallabies’ A team? Or merely the Wallabies’ A-frame team? That’s the question controversial Australian rugby columnist Greg Growden ask in his Monday Maul. It is impossible to avoid the fact that the Australian World Cup campaign revolves around those on their last Test legs, rather than those at the peak of their careers.
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/ 3 September 2007
Sydney’s brothels are preparing for a boom as thousands of delegates and journalists descend on the city for a major Asia-Pacific summit this week. A former tax office auditor turned legal brothel industry lobbyist, Chris Seage, wrote that Sydney’s brothels had been fielding phone calls from overseas for the past two weeks.
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/ 3 September 2007
Australian Prime Minister John Howard used YouTube on Monday to sell an Asia-Pacific leaders summit in Sydney this week, ahead of expected protests against global warming and the Iraq war. Organisers anticipate violent demonstrations at the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit, which will be attended by 21 leaders including United States President George Bush.
Surging demand from Asia and booming commodities prices have pushed BHP Billiton’s annual net profit up 28,4% to an all-time high of ,416-billion, the company announced on Wednesday. Underlying profit, the measure watched by analysts, rose by 35% to ,68-billion, just above the market consensus of ,5-billion.
Australia have fired the first shot in a psychological war of words with New Zealand, claiming the All Blacks have passed their peak before the World Cup has even begun. New Zealand are strong favourites to win the tournament starting next month in France, but the Australians suspect the All Blacks have misjudged their timing.
An Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present after the animal apparently tried to have sex with her, police said on Sunday. The 10-month-old male camel knocked the woman to the ground, lay on top of her and exhibited what police suspect was mating behaviour.
Wallabies Lote Tuqiri and Matt Dunning have been slapped with a midnight curfew for Australia’s Rugby World Cup campaign after a controversial late-night drinking session, officials said on Tuesday. Australian Rugby Union boss John O’Neill said both players, who had a prior history of drink-related incidents, had also received a formal warning about their conduct.
An Australian farmer who was kidnapped and beaten in Mali after walking into an internet bride scam has pleaded with people to be careful looking for online love. South Australian farmer Des Gregor (56) returned to Australia on Sunday night after being held hostage by machete-armed bandits in Africa for 12 days.
New Zealand Test captain Stephen Fleming has been left out of the Kiwi squad for next month’s inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa after the selectors confirmed Daniel Vettori as the new skipper. Vettori was the obvious choice to succeed Fleming as skipper after he quit the one-day captaincy following this year’s World Cup in the Caribbean.
The Sudanese government must hand over for trial the man accused of masterminding the Darfur massacre or risk becoming a pariah nation, the International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor said on Tuesday. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said any peace deal would have to respect international law and warrants for the arrest of Sudanese Minister Ahmad Harun.
By the time the Wallabies get to France for next month’s Rugby World Cup, training and match days will look easy after their commando-style ”boot camp”. On their first night on Sunday, the players were woken at 10pm, forced to leave camp and taken on a 3km march before swimming 300m across a lake.
A 94-year-old Australian great-great-grandmother has become the oldest person in the world to earn a master’s degree, local media reported on Thursday. Phyliss Turner, described by one of her sons as having "an amazing brain," took her master’s in medical science at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.
Wallaby coach John Connolly has dismissed suggestions that a rift in the coaching staff threatens to ruin the team’s chances at the Rugby World Cup in France, which starts in September. A report has claimed that the relationship of the four-man coaching staff of Connolly, Michael Foley, Scott Johnson and John Muggleton was ”edgy” and there were intense divisions within the camp.