Australia

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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,...

3 Kids Vanished in 1966. Police Still Get Hundreds of Tips

Case of missing Beaumont children rocked Australia

(Newser) - On Jan. 26, 1966, Australian Jane Beaumont, 9, had been tasked with watching her two younger siblings at the Glenelg beach, as she had done on past occasions. Except this time, Jane, 7-year-old Arnna, and 4-year-old Grant never returned to their suburban Adelaide home. Though police had some clues to...

Corpse Spends Weekend at Fast-Food Restaurant

It wasn't discovered for three days

(Newser) - The crew over at Hungry Jack's on Wanneroo Road in Westminster, Western Australia, might want to step up the restroom maintenance. Case in point: A dead man sat in a bathroom at the fast-food restaurant for three days before he was discovered on July 18, the AFP reports. Police...

10 Nations With Highest Percentage of Immigrants

In Saudi Arabia, a third of residents were born elsewhere

(Newser) - The US is a nation of immigrants, but it's not the nation of immigrants. In Priceonomics ' rankings of the most populous countries by percentage of foreign-born residents (it excluded the Vatican, for example, which otherwise would've ranked first), America sits at No. 5. The top 10:

Fury Greets School's Ban on Clapping

Rule put in place for a teacher with a hearing disability

(Newser) - Feel free to "punch the air, pull excited faces, and wriggle about on the spot" at Australia's Elanora Heights Public School—but whatever you do, don't clap. The public primary school in Sydney has gained some unwanted attention after it banned clapping at assemblies in favor of...

That Crazy Viral Video You Saw Was Actually Made by This Firm

Australian company says part of project was publicly funded

(Newser) - The numbers are remarkable, as tallied by the Guardian : Eight viral videos published to YouTube over the past couple years were seen in 180 countries more than 205 million times, totaling 164 years of viewing time on YouTube alone and amassing half a million comments and almost 2 million likes....

Man Pleads Guilty to Rogue Testicle Surgery

He allegedly removed another man's left testicle in an Australian motel room

(Newser) - What are the three most horrifying words in the English language? Wrong. The correct answer is "amateur testicle surgery." The BBC reports 56-year-old Allan Matthews pleaded guilty Wednesday to removing another man's left testicle at an Australian motel despite not being qualified to practice medicine. The unsanctioned...

Video of Woman Birthing Child in Creek Viewed 52M Times

Simone Thurber had long dreamed of giving birth in nature

(Newser) - Simone Thurber gave birth to her fourth daughter in a remote Australian creek—and the birth has been viewed 52 million times. The 23-minute birthing video was posted to YouTube (warning: graphic) in 2013, but is now getting press. Thurber, a birth therapist and trained doula whose three previous births...

Dad Torches Pot Plants, Son Calls Cops on Him

Young man was 'indignant and enraged' over his 'prized cannabis'

(Newser) - A young man from Australia got into it with his dad Tuesday night and ended up placing a phone call that has police shaking their heads, the Guardian reports. When cops showed up at the Humpty Doo home in the Northern Territory, the "indignant and enraged" son threw his...

Scientists: 'Holy Grail' of Stopping Breast Cancer May Be Here

Australian team makes a possible breakthrough

(Newser) - A new study could bring hope to thousands of women who are susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, the Telegraph reports. Analyzing breast tissue prone to cancer, Australian scientists found that a protein that fuels pre-cancerous cells also causes osteoporisis—and can be stymied by a common osteoporosis drug. "...

Aussie Cadets: We Were Forced to Rape Each Other

Public inquiry underway to hear of alleged abuse

(Newser) - Former recruits have emerged with disturbing allegations against Australia's military, claiming that as part of their "initiation," they were raped by staff and also made to rape each other—with some saying they were as young as 15, CNN reports. At a public inquiry that started Tuesday,...

Athletes Are Already Getting Robbed in Rio

Australian Paralympian robbed at gunpoint on Sunday

(Newser) - The Olympics are still six weeks away, yet several athletes have already become victims of crime in Rio. Australian Paralympic sailor Liesl Tesch, 47, says a man with a gun demanded money, then pushed her off her bicycle as she rode in a park on Sunday. A second man stole...

This Might Be the World's Oldest Beer

Researchers say they made it from 220-year-old yeast

(Newser) - One sip of Preservation Ale and you'll be transported to a time long past—kind of. Researchers at an Australian museum have brewed what might be the "world's oldest beer," using yeast salvaged from a bottle that spent nearly two centuries on the seafloor, they say...

This Is Likely the First Mammal Lost to Climate Change

Mosaic-tailed rat has vanished from Bramble Cay off Australia

(Newser) - Way to go, humanity. For the first time in history, human-induced climate change has been found "solely or primarily" responsible for the extinction of a mammal species, according to a new study . The Bramble Cay melomys , or mosaic-tailed rat, was found by Europeans on a tiny coral cay off...

Flying Fox Invasion Drives Town Batty

'The smell is so bad ... we can actually taste it'

(Newser) - Batemans Bay, Australia, is a picturesque coastal town that always leaves the welcome mat out for tourists. But tens of thousands of visitors of another kind have more than outstayed their welcome—large bats. Residents feel trapped in their guano-coated houses, and those who venture outside soon feel a disgusting...

How the World's 'Ugliest Color' Is Being Used to Save Lives

'Opaque couché' was found to remind people of death

(Newser) - In 2012, a marketing research company determined Pantone 448 C (aka "opaque couché") was the world's ugliest color —and it's been used to try to save lives ever since. Per the Guardian , GfK surveyed 1,000 smokers back then to find out which hue...

After Baby Stops Breathing, 'Hey Siri' Comes to Rescue

Aussie mom used voice-activated feature to call ambulance as she performed CPR

(Newser) - An Aussie mom recently penned a heartfelt thank-you note to Apple, and her story of how the company's "Hey Siri" feature helped save her 1-year-old daughter is now making the rounds. Per 9to5mac.com , Stacey Gleeson noticed her daughter, Giana, wasn't breathing back in March, and as...

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