Wow Australia

Australia, N.Z. Dollars Fall With Equities on Recession Concern

The Australian and New Zealand dollars declined as Asian stocks fell for a fourth day, damping demand for higher-yielding assets. The currencies weakened as reports showed U.S. home prices plunged at the fastest pace in at least four decades and confidence among Japanese manufacturers declined the most on record. A deepening global recession may lead to interest-rate cuts in Australia and New Zealand, eroding their appeal as a destination for funds borrowed in nations such as Japan that have ...

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 up to Iraq to decide if Australian forces remain beyond that deadline. American troops can stay until the end of 2011 under a separate security agreement....

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 outstretched palm to surrender. The great Aussie action hero has been vanquished, felled by something close to the wince-inducing blow that Jackman’s Wolverine delivered to the crot...

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 prohibited by the government — mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use...

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 14 seconds. Wild Oats XI holds the race record of one day 18 hours 40 minutes 10 seconds set in its 2005 win. The record was under threat up until early Sunday when the pr...

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 a New Zealand possession. Australia has declared an 'economic exclusion zone', known by the letters "EEZ," in waters off the coast of its Ant...

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 Warne, while on the second day at the MCG the reverse was true: as Australia took a firm grip on the second Test against South Africa, their greatest wicket-takers were ...