Australia

Captain Cook relic a rip-off, boomerang expert says

Sydney - A boomerang that international auction house Christie's says was a souvenir taken by Britain's Captain James Cook on his voyage to Australia in 1770 is almost certainly a fake, an expert said Tuesday.

Aborigines in Sydney have urged the Australian government to bid for the boomerang when it goes to auction in London later this month.

There have even been calls for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to talk British Prime Minister Gordon Brown into buying the wooden hunting tool and presenting it to Australia as an act of atonement for colonization.

Dead Indian pilot’s father wishes he never gave his son a chance to fly

Oz couple charged with child neglect for locking 6-week-old, kids on balcony

Melbourne, Sept 1 : An Australian couple has been charged with ‘child neglect’ after their four children, including a six-week-old infant, were found locked out of their unit on a balcony as their parents slept.

The Western Sydney Police were called to the unit block, following reports of the children being on the balcony, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The New South Wales Fire Brigades officers were forced to enter the unit, where another two children, aged just six weeks and 18 months, were inside.

A police spokeswoman said that, the 29-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman were found asleep on a bed, while four of their six kids were locked in the balcony.

Australia questions uranium sales to Russia

Sydney - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir PutinEvents in Georgia show Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin can't be trusted to abide by an undertaking not to use Australia uranium to make nuclear weapons, a Canberra parliamentary committee said Monday.

"I don't know if you've looked on the TV into Vladimir Putin's eyes," Treaties Committee chairman Kelvin Thomson said. "He's one tough son-of-a-gun and I don't think he cares about what we think. Recently he's taken South Ossetia and another province off Georgia, and there's no real come-back over that."

`Dr. Death''to face committal hearing in February 2009

Melbourne, Sep. 1 : Indian-born surgeon Jayant Patel will face court for a committal hearing in February 2009, news. com. au reports.

Patel, 58, is facing 14 charges including manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and fraud, relating to his time as director of surgery at Bundaberg Base Hospital in southern Queensland between 2003 and 2005.

According to news. com. au, during a brief mention of the matter in the Brisbane Magistrates Court this morning, prosecutor David Meredith sought and was granted a three-week block for the committal hearing from February 9 to 27.

The court has set aside an additional two weeks in April to accommodate any overseas or interstate witnesses that cannot attend during the initial hearing.

World’s reefs may be dead within 30 years

AustraliaCanberra, September 1 : A researcher has said that the world’s reefs, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, will be dead within 30 years unless human activity changes quickly.

According to a report in The Australian, the researcher in question is scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.

“Let’s say we delay another 10 years on having stern actions on emissions at a global level, we will not have coral reefs in about 30 to 50 years,” he said.

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