Australia

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Man, 91, May Have Become an Unwitting Drug Mule

Online 'friends' gave him soap filled with drugs before flight, say police

(Newser) - A 91-year-old retired surgeon has been charged with importing cocaine hidden in soap into Australia, prompting police to warn travelers to beware they are not tricked into becoming drug mules. Victor Twartz of Sydney was released on bail when he appeared in Sydney's Downing Center Local Court, charged with...

'Precursor to Misery:' Aussie Pol Wants Vegemite Crackdown

Minister says Vegemite is being used to make moonshine in some communities

(Newser) - In news that may prompt reanalysis of Men at Work lyrics , an Australian politician is trying to crack down on Vegemite, which the Washington Post calls "the beloved breakfast spread with an aftertaste of sadness." Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion wants to restrict access to Vegemite because aboriginal...

France Clashes With Malaysia: What New Plane Debris?

Conflicting information from France, Malaysia, Australia brings confusion

(Newser) - France and Malaysia are butting heads over the Reunion Island debris thought to be linked to MH370 as the French government kicks off a new search for items using a military plane, helicopter, boats, and people on the ground. In addition to a wing piece Malaysia says is definitely from...

Cops Hunt Runaway Groom Who Skipped Bail

Man becomes husband and fugitive in same weekend

(Newser) - Police, and likely an angry wife, are looking for an Australian man who jumped bail last week. Murat Shomshe was released from Port Phillip Prison in Victoria to attend his wedding July 25, then sneaked out of his house two days later, reports the Herald Sun . The 33-year-old was incarcerated...

Bones Found in Australia Not Madeleine McCann's

She has been 'totally excluded as a potential victim'

(Newser) - Australian authorities had set expectations low regarding the possibility that bones recently found in South Australia belonged to Madeleine McCann. They're now at zero. "Madeleine McCann has been totally excluded as a potential victim," said Detective Superintendent Des Bray today, per NBC News . The BBC reports police...

Madeleine McCann Detectives Ask About Australian Bones

Remains found in suitcase this month could be from girl missing since 2007

(Newser) - First, the words of caution: "There is absolutely no evidence at this point in time that the child is Madeleine McCann," says an Australian police commissioner. But the body of a child, found near the South Australia town of Wynarka and thus far unidentified, has led the detectives...

Diver Returns to Water, Sees Shark Kill Her Father

Attack occurs off coast of Australia

(Newser) - A woman watched her father being mauled to death by a large shark today while the pair were diving off the Australian island state of Tasmania, police said. The adult woman had returned to their boat with scallops that the pair had collected, then became concerned that her father, in...

Teacher Wins $20K, Plans Gift for Students

Bri Dredge got a little help winning Millionaire Hot Seat

(Newser) - An Australian teacher who won $20,000 on a game show (with a little help from the sympathetic host) plans to buy a gift for each 8th-grade kid at her school: a new pair of shoes, the Herald Sun reports. As a guest on Millionaire Hot Seat, Bri Dredge was...

Australia Wants to Kill 2M Cats

The feral version, and only to save many other endangered species

(Newser) - Australia is trying to save the mountain pygmy-possum, the brush-tailed rabbit-rat, and nearly 40 other mammal and bird species, but to do so, it wants to exterminate about 2 million cats—the feral variety. Feral cats are in the Aussie government's sights under its "Threatened Species Strategy,"...

In Search of Lobsters, Scientists Find Volcanoes

New research boat spots 4 calderas off Australia's east coast

(Newser) - Researchers on the last night of a voyage to find lobster larvae instead uncovered four extinct, undiscovered volcanoes some 155 miles off Australia's east coast. "My jaw just dropped," voyage leader Iain Suthers tells the Guardian . Though he says researchers believed the ocean floor in the area...

Guy Snaps Crazy Photo of Space Station Flyby

ISS was only visible for third of a second in front of Aussie's lens

(Newser) - All it took for Dylan O'Donnell to capture this image from his perch in southeastern Australia of the International Space Station (visible in the upper-right part of the frame) passing in front of the moon: a Canon camera set to burst mode, a Celestron telescope, and a quick eye,...

How This Bird Communicates Like Humans

Its calls show 'a very basic form of word generation': researcher

(Newser) - Scientists have discovered a talent never seen outside of humans in a small Australian bird: the ability to string sounds together to convey different meanings. Essentially, "it's a very basic form of word generation," researcher Andy Russell tells the BBC . The team started out by listening to...

'Missing' American Faked His Disappearance: Aussies

Kenneth Rodman found near Cairns, Australia, almost 5 years later

(Newser) - American Kenneth Rodman was 55 when he vanished in Australia in 2010 while traveling the country on a tourist visa. He was reported missing by a friend who'd last seen him on Dec. 21 near Port Douglas, heading for a beach with his green kayak. He was later spotted...

One of the Largest Properties on Earth Is for Sale

The highest bidder will be a land baron in Australia

(Newser) - Have you always dreamed of raising cattle on a vast swath of land in Australia? If you have at least $325 million to spare, you'd better enter your bid pronto. What Quartz calls the "largest stretch of private real estate on Earth" is now on the market, and...

Car Crash Solves 40-Year-Old Mystery 10K Miles Away

 Car Crash Solves 
 40-Year-Old Mystery 
 10K Miles Away 
in case you missed it
Jun 27, 2015 8:29 AM CDT

Car Crash Solves 40-Year-Old Mystery 10K Miles Away

Raymond Grady Stansel Jr. disappeared in 1974 right before drug-smuggling trial

(Newser) - When an elderly man in north Queensland, Australia, died in a car crash in May, the local paper ran a story that described an "outpouring of grief" in the town where he ran his crocodile-cruise company for almost 30 years. But as the Tampa Bay Times details in a...

Is This the 20th Century's Most Baffling Cold Case?

We don't know who the Somerton Man was, or how he died

(Newser) - It’s a mystery as maddening as it is intriguing: Who was the still-unidentified Somerton Man, a suit-clad, 40-something man who was found dead on an Australian beach near Adelaide—possibly by poison—on the morning of Dec. 1, 1948? Graeme Wood boils 66 years of sleuthing, developments, twists, and...

Christian Couple Decides to Divorce If Gays Can Marry

But they'd still be 'husband' and 'wife'

(Newser) - Couples have been known to hold off on tying the knot until gay marriage is legal. A Christian couple in Australia, however, says they will divorce if gay marriage is allowed. "My wife and I just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. But later this year, we may be getting a...

New Marsupial Mates to the Point of Death
 This Animal Mates 
 to the Point of Death 
in case you missed it
Jun 6, 2015 7:00 PM CDT

This Animal Mates to the Point of Death

It's actually a real threat to the species

(Newser) - The good news: Scientists have discovered two new species of dusky antechinus to add to the three others found in the last few years for a 50% boost in diversity among the Australian mammals. The bad news: Three of the new species are already threatened by climate change, feral animals,...

Invasive 'Walking' Fish Headed to Australia

'Aggressive' climbing perch can crawl and breathe on land, suffocate native species

(Newser) - Ecologists from Down Under are keeping a wary eye on ocean waters as an "aggressive" fish migrates south from Papua New Guinea toward the Aussie mainland. What makes Anabas testudineus, or the climbing perch, so frightening that one scientist tells the Guardian it would be a "major disaster"...

Bizarre Theft: Cow Gallstones

They're used in alternative medicine

(Newser) - Do a quick scan for "cow gallstones" on the Alibaba website and you'll see that they're quite in demand, whether you want to buy them by the gram, kilogram, or ton. So a 38-year-old Australian man accused of stealing a whole bunch of them must have thought...

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