Sydney

The alcohol-fuelled office Christmas party is becoming a thing of the past in Australia now that lawyers are willing to start the new year by sending out compensation claims for staff injured during the big night in the office. Bosses are now rather treating their staff to lunches in posh restaurants.

Australian selectors on Tuesday unveiled an unchanged 13-man squad to face England in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide later this week after thrashing the visitors in the opener. With all-rounder Shane Watson ruled out through injury, there was no place for second spinner Stuart MacGill, allowing batsman Michael Clarke to retain his spot.

Elton John’s latest Australian tour got off to an inauspicious start when the British pop superstar had to leave the stage briefly to be sick, local media reported on Monday. John was about to perform Crocodile Rock, one of the most popular songs of his four-decade career, on Sunday when he felt unwell and left the stage in Brisbane for about five minutes.

The Australian state of New South Wales is willing to help South Africa stage the 2010 Soccer World Cup if it is unable to meet its commitments, Premier Morris Iemma said on Wednesday. Iemma told reporters that he was ”salivating at the prospect” of the state acting as emergency host to one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Tributes were flooding in for Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe after he announced his retirement on Tuesday at the age of 24. Political figures, former swimmers, coaches and officials all joined in acknowledging the achievements of a man who won 11 world titles, five Olympic gold medals and set 13 individual long-course world records in a glittering career.

One of Australia’s largest umpiring associations has publicly criticised the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision to sack Darrell Hair from the elite panel of umpires. The New South Wales Cricket Umpires and Scorers Association of which Hair is a life member, ran a full page advertisement in a Sydney newspaper on Saturday, describing the ICC’s decision as a travesty of justice.

Australian paranormal investigators on Thursday claimed an out-of-this-world response to a global ghost hunt to expand an eerie but under-explored body of knowledge. Tapping into an explosion of interest in phenomena that defy scientific explanation, researchers from Australia’s Monash University set up an online survey to assess their impact on individuals and society.

A passenger has described the behaviour of British Test scrumhalf Sean Long as ”objectionable and rowdy” on a flight during the Tri-Nations rugby league series in Australia. Passenger Matthew Russell told the Daily Telegraph the St Helens’ scrumhalf was ”yelling, screaming and carrying on”.

Wild and weird weather has hit Australia, with a combination of drought, storms, bushfires, snow and record low temperatures baffling a population usually heading for the beach at this time of year. Icy winds from the South Pole had Sydney residents shivering on the way to work on Thursday as the city recorded its coldest overnight November temperature in more than a century.

The poor quality of Australia’s forward play will cost them any chance of winning next year’s Rugby World Cup, former captain Nick Farr-Jones said on Wednesday. Farr-Jones said Australia had backline talent to burn, but the weakness of the Wallaby forward pack was too great an obstacle to overcome ahead of the world tournament in France.

England coach Duncan Fletcher said on Wednesday he hoped the Test career of Marcus Trescothick was not finished after the senior opening batsman quit the Ashes tour and flew home with a recurrence of a stress-related illness. Asked whether Trescothick pulling out meant the end of his Test career, Fletcher replied: ”That’s very difficult to say; I hope not.”

England batsman Marcus Trescothick is to return home from the Ashes tour to Australia, the England and Wales Cricket Board said on Tuesday. Trescothick has suffered a recurrence of the stress-related illness that led to him returning home from England’s tour of India earlier this year.

Greg Norman’s first Australian Open appearance since 1999 might also be his last, the golf great said on Tuesday. Norman (51), a five-time champion, could not rule out the possibility the tournament starting at Royal Sydney on Thursday would be his last on home soil. ”It could be. I’m not saying which one is going to be my last,” he said at a news conference.

James Anderson had the first Ashes Test in Australia well off his radar as he spent six weeks in a corset to cradle a stress fracture of the back last English summer. Now the Lancashire paceman is on target to play against the Australians in the opening Ashes Test in Brisbane next week after a strong bowling performance in the drawn three-day tour match against New South Wales.

Johnathan Thurston was on Tuesday reinstated as scrumhalf in the Australian team to face Britain in the Tri-Nations rugby league Test in Brisbane on Saturday. Thurston ousted utility Ben Hornby from the number seven jersey following Australia’s upset 23-12 loss to the Lions in Melbourne on November 4.

Australian scientists have invented a T-shirt that allows air guitarists to play actual music as they strum the air. The T-shirt, created by scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, is called a ”wearable instrument shirt”.

The Wallabies have been heavily criticised by coach John Connolly and sections of the Australian media despite recording their first win on foreign soil this year, 25-18 over Italy in Rome on Saturday. Connolly said his team’s performance was their worst effort since he took charge at the start of this year while Australia’s newspapers described the side’s display as woeful.

England’s fielding horrors returned on Tuesday as their three-day practice match with New South Wales petered out to a tame draw at the Sydney Cricket Ground. NSW batted out their second innings from lunch to an agreed stumps on the final day, yet England blotted their Ashes preparations with a couple of fumbles.

The International Cricket Council rated Australian Darrell Hair the second-best umpire in the world before it sacked him for alleged incompetence. The Daily Telegraph newspaper said it had uncovered a copy of the performance appraisal that Hair received before the ICC’s board of directors sacked him.

Cricket Australia warned fans on Thursday that ”idiots” will not be tolerated at the upcoming Ashes series against England. South African players complained about being racially abused by crowds down under while touring earlier this year, and Cricket Australia wants spectators to be well-behaved during the Ashes.

Australia is already feeling the heat from climate change with a five-year drought devastating rural life, severe early season wildfires and record unseasonal temperatures. Every four days, a farmer commits suicide under the stress of failing crops, dying livestock and debt as the worst drought in 100 years bites deep into the nation’s psyche and erodes economic growth.

New high-tech advances were making internet crimes against children easier for paedophiles to commit and more difficult to detect, experts told a conference in Australia on Monday. Faster broadband, DSL and cable connections have contributed to an increase in paedophile activity on the internet, the 19th Computer Facilitated Crimes Against Children conference heard.

Fida boss Sepp Blatter has apologised to Australian fans — saying the Socceroos should have played in this year’s World Cup quarterfinal instead of eventual champions Italy. Australia’s players and fans were outraged when Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo awarded Italy a penalty in the fifth minute of stoppage time after Lucas Neill had brought down Fabio Grosso.

The Wallabies are set for some revolutionary positional changes on next month’s four-Test European tour as they look ahead to next year’s Rugby World Cup in France. Coach John Connolly is tinkering with a revamp of the backline to maximise Australia’s chances of challenging World Cup favourites New Zealand and France.

Australia on Wednesday announced plans for the world’s biggest solar power plant under a Aus$500-million ($375-million) radical rethink on climate change. The government said it would contribute Aus$75-million towards a Aus$420-million solar-power concentrator in the first of a series of projects aimed at reducing the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

Spin-king Shane Warne on Tuesday defended Australia’s ageing top-order batsmen and the form of fast bowler Glenn McGrath ahead of next month’s Ashes series against England. Australian fast-bowling legend Dennis Lillee said on Monday he feared the age of Australia’s top order batsmen would expose the home side to defeat in the much-anticipated clash.

An airline baggage courier pleaded guilty in Australia on Friday to stealing samples of women’s hair from their lost bags and keeping them on file. Rodney Petersen (30) had faced 110 charges of theft and stalking after taking strands of both head and pubic hair from the luggage of female passengers.

Australians should stop singing and daydreaming in the shower because they are wasting money on hot water, one of the country’s largest power suppliers said on Sunday. Energy Australia has conducted research showing that the average Australian showers for seven minutes, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.