Australia

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Australia Is So Hot That Bats Are 'Boiling'

Nation's extreme heat taking a toll on flying foxes

(Newser) - This is the other-side-of-the-world counterpoint to the bizarre sight of frozen iguanas in last week's deep freeze in the US: Hundreds of bats in Australia are essentially boiling to death in the nation's extreme heat . A conservation group near Sydney, where temperatures recently reached 117 degrees, says that...

Dying Woman's Advice for Living Touches Thousands

Holly Butcher wanted us to 'enjoy the bloody moment'

(Newser) - They're simple words of advice from a 27-year-old Australian woman, but they've touched thousands around the world. News.com.au reports on an emotional letter penned by Holly Butcher, who died Thursday, months after she was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. The note—which family members were instructed...

Sydney Just Had Its Hottest Day in 80 Years

It reached 117 degrees in Australia

(Newser) - Even as much of the United States remains in a deep freeze, temperatures on the other side of the world are reaching near-record highs. In Sydney, Australia, the thermometer topped out at 117.14 degrees Fahrenheit Sunday, falling just short of the record-setting 118 degrees that struck the city back...

A Mystery Powder Arrived in the Mail. It Almost Killed 9

Backpackers hospitalized Tuesday in Australia in state of 'agitated delirium'

(Newser) - Nine backpackers from four countries were sent to hospitals in Australia this week, including at least three who were on life support Wednesday, after snorting a white powder sent through the mail. Seven men and two women, ages 21 to 25, snorted a white powder they assumed was cocaine around...

7 Have Died in This Plane—in 2 Crashes

1996 incident preceded New Year's Eve crash near Sydney

(Newser) - When a seaplane crashed near Sydney on New Year's Eve, killing the pilot, a British businessman, and his four family members, it was, in a sense, deja vu. According to the Sydney Morning Herald , a pilot died when the same aircraft crashed in 1996 in Armidale, more than 250...

Compass Group CEO Dies in Plane Crash

Richard Cousins and his family were on vacation in Australia

(Newser) - A prominent British businessman and his family have been identified as victims of a seaplane crash in Australia, the AP reports. Officials said Monday that Compass Group CEO Richard Cousins, his fiancée and her daughter, and his two sons were killed. Australian pilot Gareth Morgan from the tour company...

Thousands Flee Australia Fireworks Mishap

Barge carrying pyrotechnics caught fire

(Newser) - New Year's Eve went off with more of a blast than expected for thousands of Australians as a fireworks display went badly wrong. A barge carrying fireworks at Terrigal Beach, New South Wales, caught fire soon after the display began, causing fireworks to go off at random, some of...

Vandals Smash 115M-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprint

Print was in one of the only known polar dinosaur sites

(Newser) - Some 115 million years ago in what is now South Australia, a theropod dinosaur left a footprint that remained through the ages until this month, when somebody deliberately smashed it. Officials say they were "disheartened" to discover the vandalism at the famous Flat Rocks site in Victoria state. "...

Behind California Drug Lord's Downfall: a Beheading Video

Owen Hanson sentenced to 21 years in prison for drug operation

(Newser) - Owen "O-Dog" Hanson played on the same championship-winning USC football team as future NFL stars Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart, but he would ultimately take a very different career path. The 35-year-old California man was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison Friday after pleading guilty to racketeering...

Australian Sub 'on Eternal Patrol Since 1914' Is Found

HMAS AE-1 found off Papua New Guinea's Duke of York Islands

(Newser) - Thirteenth time's the charm. The first Allied submarine lost in World War I, and Australia's first sub lost ever, has finally been found on the 13th search mission for a vessel that vanished more than a century ago. The HMAS AE-1 was spotted by an underwater drone in...

SUV Rams Crowd of Christmas Shoppers, Injures 19

Australian police say it was a deliberate act

(Newser) - In what Australian authorities are calling a deliberate "act of evil," an SUV plowed into Christmas shoppers on one of Melbourne's busiest streets Thursday afternoon, injuring at least 19 people. Authorities say at least a dozen people were hospitalized after the attack outside Flinders Street station, including...

Same-Sex Couples Tie the Knot in Australia

Two couples made history this weekend

(Newser) - Two female couples tied the knot in Australia's first same-sex weddings under new legislation allowing gay marriages, the AP reports. Jan. 9 had been expected to be the first possible date for same-sex weddings due to a four-week waiting period since the landmark law was passed, but the two...

Aussies Charge Guy With Trying to Hawk N. Korean Missile Tech

South Korean-born man was trying to raise cash on behalf of Pyongyang, cops say

(Newser) - Australia on Saturday arrested one of its own citizens and charged him with acting as an economic agent on behalf of North Korea in attempting to sell the Hermit Kingdom's missile technology, reports the New York Times . South Korean-born Chan Han Choi, 59, was "discussing the supply of...

Child Abuse Probe Attacks Catholic Priests' Celibacy

Australian commission slams 'catastrophic failures'

(Newser) - An Australian inquiry into child abuse on Friday recommended that the Catholic Church lift its demand of celibacy from clergy and that priests be prosecuted for failing to report evidence of pedophilia heard in the confessional. Australia's Royal Commission into Institution Responses to Child Sexual Abuse delivered its final...

Australia's Novel Move Against Pedophiles Gets Results

Man arrested at Sydney Airport a day after law went into effect

(Newser) - A law that Australia is hailing as the first of its kind went into effect Wednesday—and was immediately put to use. With an eye on the relative ease with which the country's convicted pedophiles have been able to travel throughout Southeast Asia, where children are typically more vulnerable...

Town Plans Big Celebration for Wrong Year

Aussie town was 3 years too late for 150th shindig

(Newser) - Charleville, Australia, had a huge shindig prepared for the town's 150th anniversary. Then they realized that they were three years too late. Mayor Annie Liston says some locals believed the town of 5,000 people was officially recognized in 1868, but a check of Queensland state records revealed that...

Couple Shirk Their Extreme Pledge Against Gay Marriage

Nick Jensen says original plan to divorce wife upon legalization is 'untenable'

(Newser) - Amid a flurry of weddings expected to follow Australia's legalization of same-sex marriage Wednesday, there was also to be one divorce: Back in June 2015, Nick Jensen wrote an editorial explaining he and his wife of 10 years would dissolve their marriage as a "matter of conscience" if...

Australians Party as Country Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage

'About bloody time,' senator says

(Newser) - The Australian Parliament voted on Thursday to allow same-sex marriage across the nation, following a bitter and divisive debate settled by the government polling voters in a much-criticized ballot survey that strongly endorsed change . The public gallery of the House of Representatives erupted with applause when the bill passed to...

During Debate on Gay Marriage, a Proposal

Australian lawmaker pops the question on House floor

(Newser) - It's not every marriage proposal that gets recorded in an official parliamentary record, but such is the case with one in Australia. During a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives Monday in support of gay marriage, lawmaker Tim Wilson turned to his partner in the public...

30 Years After He Fell to His Death, a Ruling
They Said His 1988 Death Was
Suicide. Now, It's Definitely Not
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dec 3, 2017 5:00 PM CST

They Said His 1988 Death Was Suicide. Now, It's Definitely Not

Australian coroner finds Scott Johnson's death was a hate crime

(Newser) - It's believed that Australia has only twice opened a third coroner's inquest into someone's death: with the infamous case of Azaria Chamberlain , the baby taken by a dingo, and with the 1988 death of a 27-year-old American mathematician. On Thursday, a coroner gave the ruling his brother...

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