Canberra

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.

An Indian doctor was detained in Australia for questioning in connection with a suspected al-Qaeda plot to detonate car bombs in London and Scotland as he tried to leave the country. The detention of the hospital registrar at Brisbane airport widened the international dimension of the investigation.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard called on Friday for international cricket authorities to take a stand against Zimbabwe as he compared the tactics of President Robert Mugabe to those of the World War II Nazis. The Australian government is considering legal action to prevent the country’s world champion cricket team from touring Zimbabwe in September.

A tour of Zimbabwe by Australia’s World Cup-winning cricketers would be a propaganda coup for President Robert Mugabe and the team should not go, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Monday. Western governments have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe to protest Mugabe’s human rights record.

The ACT Brumbies kept their slim Super 14 semifinal hopes alive and prevented defending champions Canterbury Crusaders from booking a home play-off match with a 15-6 win on Saturday. Wallabies flyhalf Stephen Larkham kicked a dropped goal with three minutes left to clinch the Brumbies’ fourth straight win.

The ACT Brumbies kept their Super 14 hopes alive with a last-minute penalty from winger Mark Gerrard to sneak past Perth-based Western Force 14-12 on Friday. The win, their fourth in a row, moves the Brumbies into fourth place on the Super 14 table.

Skipper Stirling Mortlock inspired the ACT Brumbies to a much-improved 26-13 Super 14 rugby win over South Africa’s Western Stormers in Canberra on Friday. Mortlock, returning to the game after a succession of head knocks, contributed 16 points as the Brumbies won their first home match of the season by three tries to one.

A fisherman fuelled by vodka caught a 1,3m shark and wrestled it onto a jetty on Australia’s south coast, suffering only small tear marks in his trousers, media reports said on Friday. Phillip Kerkhof (41) caught the bronze whaler shark by hand on Monday after he spotted it chasing squid lures near the jetty at the tiny seaside town of Louth Bay in the South Australia state.

Defending champions Canterbury Crusaders returned to familiar form on Saturday, beating the Queensland Reds 33-22 in a Super 14 rugby match. In South Africa, the Bulls beat the Cheetahs 24-20 in Pretoria and the Lions downed New Zealand side Otago Highlanders 11-6 in Johannesburg.

Australians love their muffin tops — but not the kind you buy from a bakery. The arbiter of Australian English, the Macquarie Dictionary, has declared ”muffin top” the word of the year for 2006 — even though it is two words — defeating ”affluenza”, a noun that describes dissatisfaction with consumerism.

Australia’s south-west was bracing on Thursday for a destructive weather front that could link with remnants of a tropical cyclone to create a ”perfect storm”. Military and emergency teams on standby in Western Australia state expected a deep low-pressure system to cross the coast mid-afternoon, bringing 120kph winds and heavy rain.

A 150-year old Australian public library has a new true-romance section after introducing speed-dating nights for lovers of classic texts. The state library of Victoria in Melbourne introduced dating with a literary twist after the idea was raised at a staff party.

Australia and New Zealand have been urged to put national rivalries aside and do what many say is unthinkable — merge to form a single nation. A committee of Australian lawmakers said in a report that the Tasman Sea neighbours should consider legal and monetary union with a view to eventually becoming one country.

A bus driver who was 13 times over the legal alcohol limit while driving a bus load of schoolchildren had a simple request for police who arrested him for drunken driving, an Australian court heard on Wednesday. ”Can I finish my run, at least to drop these kids off?”

Wallaby captain George Gregan will miss the ACT Brumbies’ final Super 14 round-robin match after being suspended on Monday for a dangerous tackle. Gregan was suspended following a hearing by a three-man Sanzar panel for his tackle on Otago Highlanders winger Richard Kahui in Saturday’s 28-26 Brumbies’ loss at Canberra Stadium.

The ACT Brumbies overwhelmed the Queensland Reds 36-0 on Saturday in Canberra, Australia, all but clinching a semifinal berth in rugby’s Super 14 competition. All Blacks hooker Andrew Hore scored three tries for the Wellington Hurricanes’ 35-10 win over the Waikato Chiefs in Wellington, New Zealand.

The ACT Brumbies consolidated their semifinal play-off chances in rugby’s Super 14 competition on Saturday, beating the third-place Wellington Hurricanes 21-16. The win left the Brumbies with 32 points in fourth place, two behind the Hurricanes. The Canterbury Crusaders lead the competition with 42 points.

A new study shows there is no justification for scientific whaling programmes under which thousands of the mammals have been killed in the name of research, Australia’s environment minister said on Tuesday. Ian Campbell said he would take the results of a 10-year research project in the oceans around Australia’s Antarctic Territory to the next International Whaling Commission meeting in June.

The Australian government has received specific information about a terrorist threat on its soil and will rush an urgent amendment to anti-terrorism laws through Parliament to help counter it, Prime Minister John Howard said on Wednesday. He refused to give any details about the information.

The Papua New Guinea government has yet to receive reports of any damage from a massive undersea earthquake on Friday but cannot yet rule out loss of life in remote outlying villages, an official said on Saturday. The magnitude-7,3 earthquake was centred 96km under the seabed in the island province of New Ireland.

It is guaranteed to raise a cheer among those who enjoy a tipple: moderate drinkers are better thinkers than teetotallers or those who overindulge. Research by the Australian National University in Canberra suggests drinking in moderation boost your brainpower. But none at all, or too much, can make you a dullard.

New Zealand sides Canterbury and Wellington joined New South Wales in the Super 12 rugby semifinals on Saturday, and South Africa’s Bulls moved into fourth place with destiny in their hands. The Sharks dominated up front at home in the first half, but the Bulls lifted their game after the break and scored a 60th-minute try through lock Victor Matfield.