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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.
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.
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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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/ 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
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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
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones’s defection to the Springboks has upset his former protégés but they remain upbeat about their prospects for the World Cup, coach John Connolly said on Tuesday. Connolly and new captain Stirling Mortlock admitted that seeing Jones in a South African tracksuit was an unpleasant surprise.
Australian scientists said on Tuesday they had isolated the substance that gives red wine its peppery aroma, allowing them to modulate the bouquet of one of the country’s most popular varieties. The Australian Wine Research Institute said its scientists spent five years trying to find out what gave Shiraz wine its destinctive black pepper fragrance.
The Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup campaign is under threat of being derailed because of a major rift involving the coaching staff, which has prompted the intervention of Australian Rugby Union officials. Also, many senior players have lost confidence in several members of the Australian team management, writes a columnist in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The world’s biggest Aids conference closed on Wednesday with a call for the development of child-specific drugs to ensure millions of HIV-infected children not only survive to adulthood, but also live without damaging side effects from their treatment.
The Wallabies have been promised a cash bonus of Aus 000 ( 000) per player if they win this year’s World Cup, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announced on Wednesday. Each of the 30 members of the squad will be given Aus 000 if they make the semifinals.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard had a bad trip on the campaign trail on Tuesday, falling to his hands and knees in front of television cameras shortly after an opinion poll predicted his ouster. Howard, who turns 68 on Thursday, stumbled as he swept into a radio station in the western city of Perth.
A planned -million World Bank fund to encourage developing countries to stop deforestation in return for access to carbon credits has attracted strong international support, a senior official said on Tuesday. Forests are not included under the existing emissions reduction framework, the Kyoto Protocol.
HIV-infected babies have a greater chance of survival if they receive treatment before they show signs of illness or a weakened immune system, the International Aids Society was told on Tuesday. A study in Cape Town and Soweto found that 96% of infants given immediate drug treatment were still alive two years later.
Oil prices fell on Monday, on expectations of higher United States refinery production and after remarks by Opec that it is ready to pump more oil if needed. London Brent crude, currently seen as more representative of the world market, slid 36 cents to ,28 a barrel by 4.44am GMT, after easing three cents on Friday.
The biggest challenge in the global fight against HIV/Aids is no longer money for drug research and treatment but the lack of local health services in nations worst-hit by the disease, the World Bank said on Monday. While about two million people were now receiving treatment for HIV/Aids, the lack of health services in many African and Asian nations was adversely affecting treatment programmes.
Australian coach John Connolly on Wednesday defended rushing fullback Chris Latham back from injury for Saturday’s crunch Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup decider against New Zealand. Wallaby legend Tim Horan has slammed the decision to put Latham on the bench, saying he is not ready to return to Test rugby.
A man who drove a restored army tank on a rampage against cellphone towers in Australia’s biggest city believed radio waves had ”harmed his head”, the tank’s owner said on Sunday. The 1967 British tank was spotted by police as it attacked an electricity sub-station in Sydney and was pursued as it went on to flatten seven cellphone towers.
The question of who smoked what and with whom is making Australian politicians dizzy after a rock singer said he had shared marijuana joints with an MP and visiting U2 star Bono. Silverchair singer Daniel Johns said in a radio interview this week that he had been invited with his actress wife, Natalie Imbruglia, and MP Peter Garrett to a house rented by Bono in Sydney last November.
Little by little, the All Blacks are deteriorating as the world’s rugby superpower, according to World Cup-winning former Wallaby coach Bob Dwyer. While he declined to nominate the areas in which New Zealand’s game has fallen away, it is apparent to him the All Blacks are not the side they were a relatively short time ago.