Australia

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Top 10 Most Livable Cities
 Top 10 Most Livable Cities 

Top 10 Most Livable Cities

Melbourne is No. 1, again

(Newser) - Need a new hometown? Pack your stuff and head to Melbourne. The Australian metropolis offers a prosperous economy, a hugely successful culinary scene, and access to top-notch sporting events. It ranked No. 1 (for the second year in a row) as the most livable city in the world in the...

Aussie Cigarette Packaging to Turn Generic, Gross
Aussie Cigarette Packaging
to Turn Generic, Gross
court ruling

Aussie Cigarette Packaging to Turn Generic, Gross

Ruling a major defeat for tobacco firms

(Newser) - Australia's first-of-its-kind generic cigarette packaging law has been upheld by the country's highest court in a huge defeat for tobacco companies. Today's decision means that starting Dec. 1, cigarettes will all come in olive green packages dominated by graphic health warnings with images like blinded eyeballs and...

Anonymous: We Hacked Australian Intelligence

ASIO says website lacks sensitive info

(Newser) - Anonymous claims its latest hacking target was Australia's domestic intelligence agency, known as ASIO. Australian news reported the site was down for a half hour this morning, and the agency says there were technical problems—but it adds that the public site doesn't host any classified information. Thus...

Prostitute Wins Right to Service Clients at Hotel

Australian court rules owner must rent her a room

(Newser) - Today, in really unusual court cases: Prostitutes have the right to work from motel rooms in an Australian state, a court said after finding the owner's refusal to rent to a sex worker was discriminatory. The ruling in the northeastern state of Queensland has stunned hotel and motel owners,...

Qantas Puts Caller on Hold ... All Night

Says he waited 15 hours for response

(Newser) - When an Australian businessman called up his national airline at 7:22pm on Wednesday, an automated message told him an operator would be with him "as soon as possible." But no one ever picked up; instead, he stayed on the line until 11:01am the next morning and...

Outlaw Ned Kelly's Family Finally Gets His Remains

Except for his missing head

(Newser) - Australia's best-known outlaw was hanged more than 130 years ago. Now his family is finally getting his remains, minus one important piece: his head. The remains were buried in a mass grave and finally identified in DNA tests last November. The grave was outside a former prison whose bosses...

Skin Cancer Rampant Among Australia&#39;s Trout
Skin Cancer Rampant
Among Australia's Trout
STUDY SAYS

Skin Cancer Rampant Among Australia's Trout

Great Barrier Reef sits under large ozone hole

(Newser) - Look out, Snooki, sun tans are dangerous—even for fish. Scientists in Australia have discovered that 15% of coral trout in the Great Barrier Reef have gotten skin cancer from ultraviolet radiation. The Land Down Under, the LA Times notes, lies under the Earth's biggest hole in the ozone...

Scary New Text Scam: Pay or Die

Don't panic, delete texts, urge Aussie cops

(Newser) - Get ready for a massive new wrinkle in texting scams: death threats. Australian authorities are hunting for crooks who are ordering victims via text to "pay up or die." The texts talk of a contract to kill the textee, who can undo the hit by paying $5,000...

130 Saved in Another Christmas Island Sinking

Tragedy marks 2nd capsizing in one week

(Newser) - For the second time in a week, a boat crowded with asylum seekers sank off Christmas Island—but this time, at least 130 of the estimated 150 on board have been rescued, the AP reports. In Thursday's capsizing , which happened in the same area—a popular destination for refugees...

Scores of Asylum Seekers Feared Drowned off Indonesia

Australian, Indonesian navies search for survivors of capsized boat

(Newser) - Indonesian and Australian navies launched a rescue for about 200 people on a boat that capsized earlier today south of Indonesia in an apparent attempt to reach Australia to seek asylum. Scores of people were feared drowned. The boat capsized about 120 miles north of the Australian territory of Christmas...

'Mega-Brothel' Coming to Sydney

Site gets approval for multi-million-dollar expansion

(Newser) - A brothel in Sydney, Australia, will spend millions expanding into the continent's largest sex venue after government officials gave the go-ahead. The Stiletto mega-brothel will double its rooms to 40 with the $12.2 million renovation. Some of the new rooms will feature multiple beds and pool tables, reports...

Coroner: Dingo Did Take Baby 32 Years Ago

New inquest clears Azaria Chamberlain's parents

(Newser) - The parents of Azaria Chamberlain have finally been exonerated 32 years after their 9-week-old baby vanished from a campsite in the Outback, sparking one of the most controversial investigations in Australian history. The evidence shows that a "dingo or dingoes entered the tent, attacked Azaria, and dragged or carried...

Boozy Granny Slugs Guy on Plane

Frances Macaskill allegedly lost it on Qantas flight

(Newser) - A boozing, out-of-control granny has pleaded guilty to slugging a male passenger on a flight out of Melbourne, the Herald Sun reports. Frances Macaskill, 58, yelled "profanities at other passengers and air crew and violently punched several seats," a prosecutor said. "A short time later the accused...

Man Accused of Raping Wife 49 Years Ago Faces Trial

Marital rape wasn't legal in 1963, Australia's highest court decides

(Newser) - Australia's highest court has decided that an elderly man should stand trial for allegedly raping his then-wife nearly 50 years ago. Lawyers for the man, who is now 81, unsuccessfully argued that marital rape was legal at the time of the alleged offense in 1963, saying that at the...

For a Better Life, Move to...
 For a Better Life, Move to... 
in case you missed it

For a Better Life, Move to...

...Australia, according to annual survey

(Newser) - Want a "better life"? Head to Australia. That country ranks highest on the annual Better Life Index, a well-being survey that measures everything from income to air pollution in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's 34 member countries plus Russia and Brazil. The OECD doesn't...

'Psychopathic' Doctor Accused of Killing Patients

Australian doctor allegedly had to be restrained

(Newser) - An allegedly psychopathic doctor who tried to kill his own patients may finally lose his job in Australia after four years of complaints, the Courier & Mail reports. The doctor, whose name hasn't been released, killed at least two elderly patients by unplugging them in a hospital and had...

Is Australia Sick of Vegemite?

Kraft struggles to market iconic spread

(Newser) - Say it ain't so: Australians seem to be tiring of a national culinary icon. Vegemite, a spread made from yeast extract, has been beloved since 1923. But lately, owner Kraft has had trouble getting young people hooked on the stuff, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company has tried...

KFC Ordered to Pay $8.3M to Poisoned Girl

Monika Samaan got salmonella after meal

(Newser) - A judge has ordered KFC to pay an Australian family $8.3 million after their daughter was poisoned and suffered brain damage after eating at the fast-food chain. Her lawyer says Monika Samaan contracted salmonella in 2005 after eating a Twister chicken wrap and fell into a six-month coma; she...

Cher Sells Key to Adelaide, Aussies Stunned

'Peeps upset,' tweets singer about $100K eBay sale

(Newser) - Cher must be getting a little hard up because she sold the symbolic "key" to the city of Adelaide on eBay—and Aussies are flabbergasted. "I am exceptionally disappointed," huffed current Adelaide Mayor Stephen Yarwood . "It's more a reflection on Cher than the city of...

Guys Break Into Sea World, Steal Penguin

Then release it in shark-infested waters

(Newser) - Usually, we mock criminals when they brag about their crimes on Facebook . But if your crime was breaking into a Sea World, swimming with the dolphins, and making off with a 7-year-old fairy penguin, we understand the urge to share. Three Queensland, Australia men, aged 18, 20, and 21, have...

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