background preloader

News

Facebook Twitter

Dad slams inaction after hospital death. Volcanic sunset over Tasmania - ABC Hobart - Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Puyehue volcano began erupting on 4 June, casuing evacuations in Chile and the huge ash cloud from the eruption has made its way across the Pacific Ocean to cause havoc in the Australia and New Zealand skies, as many airlines have decided to cancel flights rather than risk the ash getting into plane engines.

Volcanic sunset over Tasmania - ABC Hobart - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Game over for ban on explicit games. SEXUALLY explicit and violent video and computer games banned in Australia could soon be sold here after all state and federal governments except New South Wales agreed to an R18+ rating for video games.

Game over for ban on explicit games

Australia is the only developed country without an adult classification. The new rating, which received in-principle support and is yet to be drafted, could allow games to imply sexual violence ''if non-interactive and if justified by context''. Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor said it would protect children from violent and sexually exploitative content, while allowing adults to play adult-designed games. He said the average age of an Australian gamer is 30 and the new rating would also see some high-level violence MA15+ games, which are restricted to adults overseas, reclassified to adults-only here.

The draft guidelines say strong and realistic violence ''should not be frequent'', rather than ''should not be very frequent''. Advertisement. Shell drilling permit for Ningaloo Reef approved. AUSTRALIAN activists have expressed outrage at today's government decision to allow energy giant Shell to drill for gas at a pristine reef that was listed as a World Heritage site just two weeks ago.

Shell drilling permit for Ningaloo Reef approved

Western Australia's reef is considered a natural wonder, sprawling some 260km along Australia's west coast and teeming with hundreds of tropical fish and coral species. The UN's cultural body UNESCO listed the remote Ningaloo coast as a World Heritage site late last month due to its reef, sea turtles and white whales. China slaps ban on time travel TV, claiming it's 'absurd' and 'promotes reincarnation' Time travel stories on TV are totally made up, say Chinese officials.

China slaps ban on time travel TV, claiming it's 'absurd' and 'promotes reincarnation'

Picture: Newmarket Films Source: The Times IT'S the basis for some of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time - 'The Terminator', 'Back to the Future', 'Black Knight', just to name a few. But if you ever find yourself in China wanting to check out what Bill and Ted will be up to last week, forget it. Time travelling is banned. In a bogus move by the Cultural Revolution-loving dudes at China's State Administration for Radio, Film and Television, it has been decided that TV shows that deal with changing history "lack positive thoughts and meaning". "The time-travel drama is becoming a hot theme for TV and films," it says. Aussie man gored by bull in Spanish running of the bulls.

A HALF-TONNE fighting bull skewered a "reckless" Australian thrill-seeker in the leg inflicting a grave injury in Spain's San Fermin fiesta, organisers said.

Aussie man gored by bull in Spanish running of the bulls

The bull turned on the tourist after he taunted the beast, goring his right thigh and tossing him across the sand of the bull ring in the final stage of a daily bull-run in Pamplona, northern Spain, yesterday. The horn pierced the victim's right femoral artery. Surgeons operated on him at the bull ring's surgery and he was transfered to hospital, the Navarre regional government said in a statement. His condition was "serious", it said. A HARSH MIRROR ON OUR SOUL – The Tragedy In Norway Does Not Reflect Well On The West And Our Presumption of Greater Tolerance.

There are no defining characteristics to the face of evil What an absolutely grotesque and depressing week for mankind.

A HARSH MIRROR ON OUR SOUL – The Tragedy In Norway Does Not Reflect Well On The West And Our Presumption of Greater Tolerance

Before the blackest of Black Fridays, it would have been a stretch to predict Scandinavia as the venue for a barbarous act of ideological mass-murder but Anders Behring Breivik’s rampage was extremist barbary writ large. However, there is another name that should live in infamy far longer than Breivik will haunt our darkest dreams. It is not an individual name, it is a descriptive term, a shameful label, a damning yet inescapable summation of the collective guilt we should all feel with painful acuity. The western world’s spontaneous reaction to the events in Norway on July 22, 2011 was, distressingly, as shocking as the sheer cold-blooded manner in which Breivik went about his grim business. A noxious label indeed, one that should shame us all and force us to examine our true selves with the most meticulous care.

'A madman's work': 87 dead in Norway attacks. Norway terror: the work of one man?

'A madman's work': 87 dead in Norway attacks

The man arrested following a shooting and bomb blast in Norway is now suspected of carrying out both attacks single-handedly. 23, 2011 32-year-old Norwegian appears to have acted alonePrime Minister declares "national tragedy" A home-grown terrorist set off an explosion that ripped open buildings in the heart of Norway's government, and then went to a summer camp dressed as a police officer and gunned down youths as they ran and even swam for their lives. Greece ‘sold its soul’ on Gaza: Henning Mankell. Swedish bestselling crime author Henning Mankell slams Greece for blocking the aid flotilla to Gaza as some of Sweden’s pro-Palestinian activists returned home AFP , Thursday 7 Jul 2011 Swedish bestselling crime author Henning Mankell slammed Greece for blocking the aid flotilla to Gaza as some of Sweden’s pro-Palestinian activists returned home on Thursday.

Greece ‘sold its soul’ on Gaza: Henning Mankell

“That we were not able to leave (for Gaza) has to do with the fact that the Greek government has sold its soul for a silver coin,” the 63-year-old writer, who was taking part in the flotilla, told reporters at the airport in Sweden’s second-largest city Gothenburg. Greece, he was quoted by the TT news agency as saying, “has given in to Israeli threats, to American threats and didn’t let us leave, which is of course a scandal.” “But we will come back. Www.nyu.edu/econ/user/debraj/Papers/AndersonRay.pdf. Facebook bans Nirvana album cover – then says Nevermind. Scientists find asteroid with potential power of 15 atomic bombs. Heading this way. Tonight. Asteroid 2011GP59 passes just 3,356,000km from the Earth on April 9.

Scientists find asteroid with potential power of 15 atomic bombs. Heading this way. Tonight.

We've circled it for you... Picture: OccultDave/YouTube Source: news.com.au AMATEUR astronomers across the world have fallen for a cheeky asteroid that passed the Earth on Monday night. Asteroid 2011 GP59 was caught winking at our planet from a distance away barely 10 times that of the moon.