Australia/Antarctica News

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's dominant airline Qantas is attempting to lure overseas aircraft engineers and former staff back to combat a holiday season strike threat, reports said Monday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Former Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks prefers his prison cell to the prison yard after years of confinement, a report said Monday, just days ahead of the 'Aussie Taliban's' release.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The world's biggest miner BHP Billiton has responded to a deadline from British authorities on its proposed takeover bid for Rio Tinto by saying it is still seeking discussions with its rival.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian civil libertarians were Sunday calling for evidence in the murder trial of British backpacker Peter Falconio to be reexamined following concerns over the DNA testing method used.

BANGALORE, India (AFP) - The family of an Indian doctor arrested in Australia on terrorism charges and later freed expects the government there to compensate for "turning his life upside down," a relative said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Residents and emergency workers in a "lucky" New Zealand city began cleaning up Friday after a powerful earthquake wrecked buildings, burst water and gas pipes and ruined Christmas gifts, but caused only minor injuries.

ADELAIDE, Australia - Former Guantanamo terror prisoner David Hicks is a threat to Australia's national security and has to report regularly to police and stay indoors from midnight to dawn after he is released from prison next week, a magistrate ruled Friday.

MELBOURNE, Australia - A former suspect in failed British terror attacks that gained worldwide attention is free to return to Australia after a court on Friday dismissed the government's bid to cancel his visa.

CANBERRA, Australia - Six former executives of wheat exporter AWB Ltd. are facing civil trial over millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime, the latest round in a scandal surrounding the U.N.'s now discredited oil-for-food program.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The only Guantanamo Bay inmate convicted of terrorism offences, Australian David Hicks, will have to obey a curfew and tough restrictions when he is released from jail next week, an Australian court ruled on Friday.

ADELAIDE, Australia - Former Guantanamo terror prisoner David Hicks once described Osama bin Laden as "lovely" and trained with al-Qaida a month before the Sept. 11 attacks, police said Thursday in a court hearing on his upcoming release from an Australian prison.

SYDNEY, Australia - The great-grandson of late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for his part in a multimillion-dollar Ecstasy racket.

DILI (Reuters) - East Timor's parliament has approved a state budget of nearly $350 million for 2008 that aims to improve security and tackle poverty in Asia's youngest nation.

SYDNEY, Australia - A Pakistani-born man lost an appeal Thursday against his conviction and sentence for plotting a terrorist attack in Australia that police believe could have targeted the national electricity supply grid.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A Pakistan-born architect convicted of plotting a "jihad" or holy war bombing campaign in Australia had his appeal dismissed in a Sydney court Thursday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia on Wednesday urged Japanese whalers and environmental activists heading for a showdown in the Southern Ocean to show restraint, warning deaths could occur if anything went wrong.

DARWIN, Australia - A judge ruled Wednesday that a hospital can remove a car accident victim from life support against his family's wishes, saying the patient was unlikely to recover.

CANBERRA, Australia - Australia will send planes and a ship to conduct surveillance of Japanese whaling ships off Antarctica, the government announced Wednesday.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The remains of an Australian soldier killed during the Vietnam War were returned home to a ceremonial welcome on Wednesday, 36 years after his helicopter was shot down by enemy fire.

SYDNEY, Australia - Australian copper thieves have turned tomb raiders, pilfering plaques and vases from cemeteries to sell the metal for scrap, an official said Tuesday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's new government has warned NATO and its allies they will lose the war against hardline Taliban forces in Afghanistan unless they urgently change tactics, a report said.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The world's third biggest miner Rio Tinto Monday said it would invest 991 million US dollars to boost production at a coal mine in northeastern Australia to meet growing demand from Asia.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Anger over the gang rape of a 10-year-old aboriginal girl has prompted Australia's new Labor government to make indigenous welfare the focus of a summit of national and state leaders this week.

SYDNEY (AFP) - The US is heading for a recession and the rest of the world would be "dead wrong" to think this will not impact on growing Asian economies, Morgan Stanley senior executive Stephen Roach said Sunday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian police Sunday said they had broken up an alleged nationwide child porn ring with the arrest of six men overnight, including a former policeman, a trainee teacher and a swimming instructor.

DILI (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd jetted into East Timor Friday to lend support to the fledgling nation's efforts to stabilise and rebuild after violence last year.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The death toll from a democracy crackdown ordered by Myanmar's ruling junta was much greater than U.N. estimates and scores of people were still missing, activists just back from the reclusive country said on Friday.

DILI (Reuters) - Australia's prime minister and the United Nations chief on Friday pledged continued support for East Timor to ensure peace and stability in the tiny nation.

DILI (AFP) - Australia's newly-elected prime minister Kevin Rudd pledged Friday during a five-hour stop in East Timor to support the fledgling nation's ongoing security needs.