Wildfire Smoke & Haze Make Sydney Virtually Unlivable
Wildfires engulfed Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday in haze so thick in some places it was 11 times worse than the level considered “hazardous,” and was apt to trigger fire alarms.
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Australia
Jay-Z Lawsuit Gives Australian Retailer 99 Problems
Hip-hop superstar Jay-Z is suing a small online Australian retailer for profiting from the use of his name and hit song “99 Problems” in books that teach children the alphabet.
Read moreRefugee Freed After 6 Years in Australian Prison Camp
An Iranian asylum seeker and award-winning author held in an offshore Australian detention camp for more than six years said Thursday he had arrived in New Zealand, and was celebrating freedom.
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Australia’s Highest Court Will Hear Cardinal Pell’s Appeal
Australia’s highest court agreed Wednesday to hear an appeal from the most senior Catholic to be found guilty of sexually abusing children, giving Cardinal George Pell his last chance at getting his convictions overturned.
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Raging Australian Bushfires Hit Sydney Suburbs
Bushfires raging across eastern Australia singed Sydney’s suburbs on Tuesday, with firefighters scrambling planes and helicopters to douse a built-up neighbourhood with water and red retardant.
Read moreLost Pup Turns Out to Be a Rare Purebred Dingo
He’s furry, playful, and has puppy eyes. It’s little wonder Wandi was mistaken for a dog when he was found in an Australian backyard — but DNA testing has confirmed he’s a rare 100% dingo.
Read moreAussie Researchers Mount Rescue Bid for Endangered Pygmy Possum
Climate change is threatening to wipe out Australia’s critically endangered mountain pygmy possum, but researchers are hoping to save the hibernating species by relocating the last remaining mammals to cooler lowlands.
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Hundreds of Koalas Feared Dead in Australian Wildfires
Conservationists fear hundreds of koalas have perished in wildfires that have razed prime habitat on Australia’s east coast.
Read moreAustralia’s ‘Backpacker Tax’ Illegally Targets Foreigners, Court Rules
Australia’s “backpacker tax” illegally targeted some foreign workers, a court ruled Wednesday, leaving people who spent time in the country on holiday working visas in line for tax rebates.
Read moreAussie Consumer Watchdog Sues Google Over Location Data Use
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) claims Google collected, kept and used “highly sensitive and valuable personal information” of Android phone and tablet users without giving them an informed choice.
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Aborigines Win a Rare Victory in Australia
Nature seemed to be siding with indigenous Australians’ demand for the giant rock Uluru to be respected as a sacred site on Friday when high winds threatened to prematurely end the generations-old tradition of climbing the sandstone monolith.
Read moreDoubt Over Future of Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary Plans
A push by Australia and France to create a massive ocean sanctuary in east Antarctica is in doubt as nations meet in Hobart to discuss the plans, with China and Russia opposing.
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Climate Activists Block Roads in Global Protests
Activists blocked major roads and demonstrated in Australian cities Tuesday in a second day of global protests by the Extinction Rebellion movement demanding more urgent actions to counter climate change.
Read moreTrump Sought Australia’s Help on Russia Probe Origins
President Donald Trump recently asked the Australian prime minister and other foreign leaders to help Attorney General William Barr with an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe that shadowed his administration for more than two years, the Justice Department said Monday.
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Ecological Changes to Great Barrier Reef Revealed in 90-Year Study
In oceans across the globe, coral reefs have acted as a living record of changes to the environment, and nowhere in the world is that unique relationship more on display than in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Read moreClimate Protesters Hit the Streets Around the World
Hundreds of thousands of protesters in Australia, many of them children who skipped school, kicked off a day of demonstrations around the world against climate change in the run-up to a U.N. summit in New York.
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New Aussie Law Aims to Help Save Great Barrier Reef
Australia introduced stricter new laws to limit agricultural run-off into the waters surrounding the Great Barrier Reef Thursday, in an attempt to save the reef and keep its prized world heritage status.
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Secrets of the 2,200-Pound Australian Marsupial Giant Revealed
A new study paints the picture of an extinct 2,200-pound marsupial tapir that roamed the Australian continent for the last 25 million years and was unlike any living mammal previously studied.
Read moreCourt Blocks Australia From Deporting Tamil Toddlers
A dramatic late-night call from an Australian judge to a plane bound for Sri Lanka has temporarily spared a family of four — including two Aussie-born toddlers — from deportation and fueled a political firestorm Down Under.
Read moreAustralia Brands Outlook at Great Barrier Reef as ‘Very Poor’
Climate change is devastating Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, one of the world’s natural wonders, and a report Friday from Australian officials says warm waters and species competition in the whitening coral seascape could deteriorate conditions further.
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