wowaustralia.com
Shark horror: snorkeller dead, kayakers menaced
THIS is the horrifying moment when a giant shark menaced kayakers off Sydney yesterday. White pointers caused terror on opposite sides of Australia yesterday, with snorkeller Brian Guest killed as he swam with his son at a beach near Perth. Sydney paddlers Justin Stanger and Steve Kulscar were lucky to survive, with Mr Kulscar falling [...]
Australia to maintain Iraq presence
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Australia says it will maintain its military presence in Iraq until at least the middle of next year. Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says he has welcomed an Iraqi parliamentary resolution authorizing foreign troops to remain in the Gulf nation until the end of July 2009. Fitzgibbon said Wednesday it would be [...]
Josiah wins his third successive race in Australia
KUALA LUMPUR: Josiah Ng chose to race instead of taking a Christmas break and it paid off with a third successive win in the Latrobe Carnival in Tasmania yesterday. Josiah got the better of Australian national team rider Jason Niblett and his Melbourne-based Malaysian team-mate, Azizul Hasni Awang, in the keirin final. Another member of [...]
Clarke proves he has mettle to lead
IF there was ever any doubt that Michael Clarke would be Australia’s next captain, he dispelled it with the most cool and calculating Test innings of his life at the MCG. Clarke has expensive tastes – buying fiancee Lara Bingle a $300,000 Aston Martin for Christmas – but he also has common sense in spades. [...]
Hugh Jackman on Australia, marriage and religion – Times Online
Hugh Jackman has just been punched, squarely, in the nuts. His body crumples inwards, hands instinctively headed southwards to cup his groin from further attack, and his eyes, which for a brief moment cross in pain, begin to water. As he struggles to catch his breath, his face contorted in a grimace, he raises an [...]
Uproar in Australia over plan to block Web sites
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — A proposed Internet filter dubbed the “Great Aussie Firewall” is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries. Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites [...]
Wild Oats XI wins record fourth Sydney-Hobart yachting race
HOBART, Australia (AFP) — Australian maxi yacht Wild Oats XI won the 64th Sydney to Hobart race for a record fourth time Sunday, just narrowly missing out on breaking its own race record time. The 30-metre maxi finished the 628-nautical mile race down the Australian eastern seaboard in one day 20 hours 34 minutes and [...]
Japan whalers out of Australia-claimed area
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has said it achieved its aim of forcing Japan’s whaling fleet out of Antarctic waters claimed by Australia. In a statement on its website (www.seashepherd.org), the U.S.-based group said its ship, the Steve Irwin, had forced the fleet into waters off the Ross Dependency, which is [...]
3-D bowlers put Australia back in the picture
As Chris Read might solemnly swear, cricket is a game of three dimensions. But batting, bowling and fielding do not exist in isolation: rather they seep into each other on an individual and collective level. There is a school of thought, for example, that the highest run-scorers in Australia’s history are Glenn McGrath and Shane [...]
Historic port on the Darling River : Wilcannia
The image of Wilcannia that most travellers along the Barrier Highway have is of a town with a lot of Aborigines standing around in the main street. It is a very racist preconception but one which nearly everyone who has travelled through the town enunciates. Of course the image of the town is unfair and [...]
Brisbane