Australia

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Couple With Down Syndrome Fighting to Have Kids

Parents of the engaged pair are against it

(Newser) - Michael Cox and Taylor Anderton just want to tie the knot, have four kids, and enjoy the rest of their lives together, but their families are balking at the second part of the young Australian couple's plan. Not because they're in a Montague-and-Capulet-style feud, but because they worry...

Find a Random USB? Don&#39;t Plug It In
Find a Random USB?
Don't Plug It In
Sep 23, 2016 9:31 AM CDT

Find a Random USB? Don't Plug It In

'Harmful' drives found in mailboxes in Australia

(Newser) - If you happen to find a USB drive in your mailbox, don't insert it into your computer. That's the message from Australian police who say unmarked USB sticks "believed to be extremely harmful" have turned up in mailboxes in a suburb of Melbourne. When plugged in, the...

Scientists Find Earth&#39;s Oldest Civilization
Scientists Find
Earth's Oldest
Civilization
study says
Sep 22, 2016 2:15 PM CDT

Scientists Find Earth's Oldest Civilization

Indigenous Australians, Papuans can trace DNA back 50K years

(Newser) - New research suggests that the title of world's oldest civilization goes to the indigenous populations of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Scientists say the DNA of these people can be traced back to an original wave of settlers from Africa more than 50,000 years ago, reports the Guardian ...

Aussies Want 'All-Time Greatest Bloke' on Currency

That would be the late Steve Irwin

(Newser) - More than 25,000 people have signed a Change.org petition that aims to put the "all time greatest Australian bloke" on the country's currency, the BBC reports. That bloke is the late conservationist Steve Irwin, who died 10 years ago this month. "With a list a...

This Might Be the Most Potent Cup of Coffee You Can Buy

'Asskicker' delivers 80 times the punch of a typical espresso

(Newser) - One cafe owner in Adelaide, Australia, is playing around with the world's most popular drug, and experts aren't feeling terribly perky about it. Steve Benington, owner of Viscous Coffee, has created the Asskicker, a drink consisting of four shots of espresso, four 48-hour brewer cold drip ice cubes...

Strange Family Road Trip Ends in Arrests, Hospitalizations

'I hope that we will begin to make sense of our ordeal'

(Newser) - The story of an Australian family on a five-day, 930-mile road trip that ended with most of them being either arrested or hospitalized one at a time is one of the strangest things you'll read this week. The Guardian reports it started Aug. 29 when Mark and Jacoba Tromp...

Huge Reef Discovered Hiding Behind Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef just got greater

(Newser) - So, do we have to call it the Even Greater Barrier Reef now? In a study published last month in Coral Reefs , researchers announced the discovery of a massive 2,353-square-mile reef just north of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Scientists used LIDAR data from the Australian Navy to create...

Ex-Judge Offers 'Body Swap' With Detained Refugee

He denounces Australia's 'utterly immoral' system

(Newser) - Retired Australian judge Jim Macken thinks his county's system of offshore refugee detention is shameful—and he has offered to trade places with somebody ensnared in it. Macken, 88, says he has written to immigration minister Peter Dutton and offered a "body swap" with somebody in a camp...

Cops: Trio Brought $23M in Cocaine on Cruise

3 Canadians could face life in prison

(Newser) - Australia has made one of its largest drug busts ever … on a cruise ship. With help from Canadian and US authorities, police searched the Sea Princess after it docked in Sydney on Sunday and uncovered 210 pounds of cocaine, worth about $23 million, in two cabins, reports La Presse...

Prospector Strikes Gold: a $190K Chunk of It

'I thought it was rubbish at first,' he says of 9-pound Aussie discovery

(Newser) - Wednesday saw what could be the world's largest-ever pearl ; Thursday, a massive gold nugget weighing in at around 9 pounds. Found in central Victoria's Golden Triangle in Australia by an explorer who wishes to stay anonymous, per ABC.net.au , the gleaming chunk of precious metal, estimated to...

Cops: Assailant in Fatal Hostel Attack Yelled 'Allahu Akbar'

Australian police say it's too early to label it a terror attack

(Newser) - A French man shouting the Arabic phrase "Allahu akbar" stabbed a British woman to death and wounded two men in an attack at a hostel in northeast Australia, police said Wednesday. The 29-year-old suspect did not have any known links to the Islamic State group and appeared to have...

In Hot Weather, Song Can Change an Unborn Finch
In Hot Weather,
Song Can Change
an Unborn Finch
STUDY SAYS
Aug 19, 2016 10:06 AM CDT

In Hot Weather, Song Can Change an Unborn Finch

Chicks who hear it grow smaller, choose warmer nests: study

(Newser) - Several types of birds sing to unhatched eggs so their young will recognize their voices once they've hatched—but what the zebra finch does is something else entirely. In a study called "paradigm-shifting" by one of its authors, researchers at Australia's Deakin University say the birds sing...

This 7-Year-Old 'Squirrel' Is a Surfing Wunderkind

Meet Quincy 'The Flying Squirrel' Symonds

(Newser) - We've all seen squirrels water ski , but have you ever seen a squirrel surf? ABC News reports Australia's Quincy "The Flying Squirrel" Symonds is already carving waves like a pro despite being only 7 years old. "She is definitely special," the World Surf League women'...

At Australia&#39;s Refugee Camp, Chilling Abuse, Rape
At Australia's Refugee Camp, Chilling Abuse, Rape
INVESTIGATION
Aug 10, 2016 10:51 AM CDT

At Australia's Refugee Camp, Chilling Abuse, Rape

Guardian reports on rape, child abuse at Nauru

(Newser) - More than 2,000 leaked incident reports from Australia’s detention camp for asylum seekers on the Pacific island of Nauru reveal what the Guardian describes as "routine dysfunction and cruelty," including assaults, rape, and incidents of self-harm. About half of the incident reports from May 2013 to...

'Piles of Dead Horses' Found on Former Olympian's Property

Bruce Akers was charged with 90 counts of animal cruelty

(Newser) - A former Olympic wrestler was charged with more than 90 counts of animal cruelty after authorities found "piles of dead horses" on his property in Australia, the Age reports. Police discovered the horrible scene at the home of 63-year-old Bruce Akers back in April, but a judge ruled Monday...

Man Ordered to Pay $114K Over Facebook Post

He ruined life of Aussie motel owner

(Newser) - An Australian man has been ordered to pay $114,000 to the motel owner whose life he wrecked with a single post on Facebook. Kenneth Rothe, a 74-year-old motel owner and former deputy school principal, was threatened repeatedly and beaten so badly he spent six months in the hospital after...

Police Looked Into 5 Sexual Assaults, Found 27

New South Wales police ask for public's help

(Newser) - In 2005, Australian police set up a task force to look into five sexual assaults in Sydney's eastern suburbs. They ended up uncovering what could be one of the country's most prolific serial rapists—and they're asking the public to help track him down. Buzzfeed reports a...

Australia Is About 5 Feet From Where We Left It in 1994

And that's a problem for self-driving cars

(Newser) - For the love of GPS, somebody stop Australia from moving. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports the country is located smack dab on top of the fastest moving tectonic plate in the world. That means Australia is approximately 5 feet north of where it was in 1994—the last time the...

Troubling Images Reveal Treatment of Children Detained in Australia

Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched an investigation

(Newser) - The Australian government is investigating its youth justice system after footage made public Monday showed teens being mistreated in ways that brought to mind the abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the Guardian reports. The footage from Don Dale Youth Detention Centre shows a 17-year-old tied to a mechanical...

Australia Team: Olympic Village Unfit for Habitation

The mayor says he'll give them a kangaroo

(Newser) - Australian athletes and coaching staff are in hotels instead of Rio's Olympic Village because the accommodations are in terrible shape, the head of the country's delegation says. Kitty Chiller says the problems include "blocked toilets, leaking pipes, exposed wiring, darkened stairwells where no lighting has been installed,...

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