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/ 3 December 2007
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Monday he had ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change in his first official act after being sworn in as leader. ”Today I have signed the instrument of ratification of the Kyoto Protocol,” Rudd said in a statement.
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/ 29 November 2007
The 1 000th whale shark, a rare and threatened species, has been discovered by researchers using a global programme in which eco-tourists and scientists identify new sharks and lodge photographs on an online library. ”It’s a major milestone, for science and for conservation,” said Ecocean project leader Brad Norman in Australia.
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/ 28 November 2007
Resources giant BHP Billiton said on Wednesday it still hoped rival Rio Tinto would warm to its uninvited takeover bid, despite opposition from customers who fear it will lead to a stranglehold on prices. BHP chief executive Marius Kloppers said that its executives had been arguing the "irresistible logic" of the tie-up with customers and investors around the world for two weeks.
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/ 25 November 2007
A veteran drummer kicked out of a well-known Australian rock band for allegedly playing "like a chimpanzee on speed" is suing his former bandmates for unfair dismissal, local media reported on Thursday. David Twohill (51) was dropped from Mental as Anything after 27 years.
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/ 24 November 2007
Australia’s Labour party claimed victory in national elections on Saturday, signalling an end to 11 years of conservative government led by Prime Minister John Howard. "On the numbers we are seeing tonight, Labour is going to form a government," Labour’s deputy leader, Julia Gillard, told Australian television.
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/ 24 November 2007
Australian Prime Minister John Howard cast his ballot in national elections on Saturday, hoping voters would reject a younger opposition leader offering generational change and return him for a fifth straight term. ”I hope we will win. I believe we will win. It is in the hands of my fellow Australians,” Howard told reporters.
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/ 16 November 2007
Rio Tinto is reportedly considering a counter-bid for BHP Billiton as a defence against a Aus-billion takeover proposal from its bigger mining rival, but analysts said such a move was unlikely. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported Rio was considering a broad array of potential options to fight off BHP.
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/ 16 November 2007
International news agencies have ended their boycott of Australian cricket after reaching a deal over media coverage rights. Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse had all been refusing to cover the series between Australia and Sri Lanka in protest at Cricket Australia’s demands.
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/ 16 November 2007
Pink cricket balls will be used in a match for the first time in Australia in January, reports said on Thursday. The match, between the West Australian and Queensland women’s teams, will be a curtain-raiser for a Twenty20 game between Queensland and Tasmania.
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/ 14 November 2007
Former Australian cricket captain Greg Chappell believes he was subjected to a racist attack while coaching India and that the authorities there tried to cover it up. He makes the charge in a documentary about his troubled two-year stint as India coach which is to be shown on national television next week.
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/ 11 November 2007
An Australian state government’s plans to shoot more than 10 000 wild horses to protect the environment were on Sunday attacked by some animal rights activists as inhumane. The Queensland government had attempted to keep the cull of the horses, or brumbies, a secret because of fears of a public outcry.
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/ 9 November 2007
Rio Tinto’s rejection of a -billion all-share offer from BHP Billiton is likely to trigger rival bids from resource companies awash with cash from record commodity and stock prices. A marriage would create the world’s biggest mining force, capable of controlling the global flow of fleet loads of iron ore, copper and coal.
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/ 8 November 2007
Australian scientists studying humpback whales sounds say they have begun to decode the whale’s mysterious communication system, identifying male pick-up lines and motherly warnings. Wops, thwops, grumbles and squeaks are part of the extensive whale repertoire recorded by scientists from the University of Queensland.
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/ 7 November 2007
Australia announced a nationwide ban on Wednesday on about one million Chinese-made toys after investigations showed they contained a chemical that metabolises when swallowed into a date-rape drug. The ban came after three children became severely ill after they swallowed the toy beads called ”Bindeez”.
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/ 7 November 2007
An Australian woman who stole a pet goat and was involved in slaughtering it in a mock Satanic ritual in a church, was ordered by a court on Monday to apologise to the church and the dead goat’s owners. Tracey Arnold (26) was drinking with friends at a Friday the 13th party in 2006 when she decided to steal the pet goat named ”Maddie”.
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/ 2 November 2007
Broadcaster Alan Jones has applied for the job of Wallabies coach and said he wants to be an agent of change. Jones, who coached the Wallabies from 1984 to 1988, said he did not expect to take the team through to the next World Cup in 2011 but wanted to introduce a more attacking style of play.
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/ 1 November 2007
Oil leaped more than 1% on Thursday, briefly topping for the first time and extending the previous day’s 5% jump after an unexpected sharp fall in United States crude stocks and data showing strong economic growth. The rise toward oil’s inflation-adjusted peak of ,70 from April 1980 was also supported by US dollar weakness after a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.
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/ 30 October 2007
South Africa’s World Cup-winning coach Jake White has shown interest in the vacant Wallabies post via his agent, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said on Tuesday. ARU high-performance manager Pat Howard confirmed that agent Craig Livingstone contacted him on White’s behalf last week, but he had heard nothing further.
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/ 29 October 2007
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South Africa’s raw power was the key factor which enabled them to win the World Cup final, England scrumhalf Andy Gomarsall said on Monday. ”In the end South Africa’s physicality was the difference,” Gomarsall told Reuters in Sydney where he is on holiday.
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/ 29 October 2007
Australian cricket umpire Simon Taufel says that when on-field sledging becomes personal, he’ll step in to ensure the situation doesn’t escalate. Otherwise, don’t bore him with the same old comments. Taufel, voted cricket’s best international umpire for the past four years, will officiate in the Pakistan-India series next month.
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/ 26 October 2007
Grumpy Australian coal miners are getting lessons on "exploring their wives" to revive their sex lives and boost production at work. Men working at the Bulga mine near Sydney attend classes on issues such as menopause and foreplay because, a manager told the <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i>, a miner not having sex at home "can get mighty grumpy at work".
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/ 24 October 2007
All 54 miners trapped by fire underground at a gold mine in Western Australia have been rescued, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Wednesday. The ABC’s website said all 54 had been recovered and local authorities had begun an investigation into the incident.
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/ 24 October 2007
Thirty-seven of 54 miners trapped by fire underground at an Australian gold mine have been rescued, local media reported on Wednesday. There were no injuries and the mine’s rescue team were expected to have the remaining workers back up to the surface within hours.
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/ 24 October 2007
Former Wallabies coach and Springbok consultant Eddie Jones on Wednesday dismissed calls for changes to rugby union’s rules after a drab World Cup final that featured no tries. Jones, who helped South Africa to their win in Paris, said the demand for change was ”Australia-centric” as the calls in that country have grown since the Wallabies’ defeat by a defensive England side.
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/ 24 October 2007
A total of 54 miners were sheltering in emergency chambers underground after a fire broke out at an Australian gold mine on Wednesday. There were no reported injuries and mine officials said they were working to bring the miners to the surface.
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/ 24 October 2007
Ian Chappell has come out swinging over England legend Ian Botham’s claim that he decked the former Australian captain in a bar room brawl 30 years ago. Chappell disputed an anecdote in Botham’s autobiography Head On in which the former England all-rounder says he ”flattened” the Australian.
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/ 24 October 2007
Australian Rugby Union (ARU) chairperson Peter McGrath said on Wednesday he was determined to clear his name following allegations he was drunk at an official function during the World Cup. Speaking on his arrival in Sydney after the World Cup, McGrath said he would be ”defending his reputation vigorously”.
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/ 23 October 2007
A looming election has turned Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s traditional morning stroll into a walk on the wild side. Television satirists have popped up in his path dressed as rabbits and worms — both well-known political creatures here — while ordinary passers-by have taken to hurling insults at him.
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/ 21 October 2007
Sudanese refugee Ajang Deng was riding his bike home when a group of white men attacked him with a beer bottle in the latest in a spate of racist attacks that could play a role in Australia’s looming election. The attacks followed a controversial statement by Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, who last month blamed African refugees for gang violence.
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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.