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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Australian strippers have won the right to take time off after taking their clothes off. The country's Industrial Relations Commission on Friday approved new workplace rules for members of the strippers union, the Striptease Artists Australia. "We've got rights to have public holiday pay now, which we've never had in our career before," said a union spokeswoman called Mystical Melody. "We've got rosters and set hours. We can't work more than 10 hours a shift."

At least six Australians, including a child, are feared dead after their tour bus crashed outside the Egyptian capital Cairo in bad weather. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said at least 24 people were injured, and it was assumed that those killed and hurt were Australian, or largely Australian. Reuters reported that the fatalities were five males and one woman, and that the injured were taken to Al-Haram hospital. The bus was one of two carrying police officers and their families, from Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, on a goodwill tour. The second bus was not involved in the accident....

Hobbits may be earliest Australians Carmelo Amalfi and Leigh Dayton December 08, 2005 THE tiny hobbit-like humans of Indonesia may have lived in Australia before they became extinct about 11,000 years ago. The startling claim comes from archaeologist Mike Morwood, leader of the team that in 2003 uncovered remains of the 1m-tall hominid at Liang Bua cave on Indonesia's Flores island. They believe the pint-size person - known officially as Homo floresiensis and unofficially as the "Hobbit" - was wiped out by a volcanic eruption that spared their Homo sapiens neighbours. Speaking at a public lecture in Perth, Professor Morwood...

Australians win Nobel for linking bug to ulcers 13:56 03 October 2005 NewScientist.com news service Andy Coghlan Two Australians have won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for establishing that bacteria cause stomach ulcers, it was announced on Monday. Working at the Royal Perth Hospital, Barry Marshall and Robin Warren established beyond all doubt in the 1980s that Helicobacter pylori causes stomach ulcers by infecting and aggravating the gut lining. Moreover, they showed that ulcers could be cured altogether by killing the bacteria with antibiotics. Hitherto, ulcers had been considered uncurable. Instead, patients' symptoms were treated with a...

JUST as the lights came on, the shooting started. Scattered shots rang across the evening desert of southern Iraq, followed by a more prolonged fusillade with tracer rounds arcing across the darkening sky. Members of an Australian army patrolling a few hundred metres away weren't concerned. "It's the wedding party," one explained. "They start up when the electricity comes on." In a country awash with weapons, particularly the ubiquitous AK-47, it's customary for festivities to be marked by firing guns into the air. So long as they don't point them towards Australian soldiers, there's no problem. Far bigger concerns for...

AN assassination squad of Jemaah Islamiah terrorists is believed to have slipped into Indonesia to target Australian diplomats, businesspeople and other Westerners. The move by JI, the group responsible for the Bali bombings, may signal a dramatic shift from general bombings to assassinations. A group of operatives, trained to carry out assassinations, has arrived in Indonesian in recent weeks through East Kalimantan province from Mindanao in the southern Philippines, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. At the top of their target list are the Australian, American and British ambassadors, as well as other senior officials from those...

Australia is to increase its military presence in Iraq, sending 12 sailors to help rebuild the Iraqi Navy. The Australian sailors will be deployed to the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr next month to help establish a coastal defence force. They will work with British and US Navy personnel in training Iraqi sailors and navy personnel in patrol boat and small vessel operations. Defence Minister Robert Hill has also announced that Australian air traffic controllers deployed at Baghdad International Airport in the wake of the Iraq war will now stay until May. But 61 members of the security team that...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. ...................................................................................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel...

Tuesday, 18 February, 2003, 16:57 GMT Date for first Australians The Mungo burials have cast doubt on "Out of Africa" A new analysis of Australia's oldest human remains suggests humans arrived on the continent about 50,000 years ago. The evidence is based on a re-examination of the so-called Mungo Man skeleton, unearthed in New South Wales (NSW) in 1974. Scientists say the individual was probably buried about 40,000 years ago, when humans had been living in the area for some 10,000 years. We find no evidence to support claims for human occupation or burials near 60 kyr ago James Bowler...

PRIME Minister John Howard yesterday experienced his career's most tearful farewell to battle units -- determined to convince voters they had to be deployed. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Howard said Australia might have to join the US in an attack on Baghdad even if the UN failed to ratify a military solution. "I think you could well have a situation where you could read the UN's assessment either way or several ways," the Prime Minister said. He said it was vital to make an example of Iraq to prevent rogue nations feeling they could develop...

AUSTRALIA'S elite forces could be among the first to enter a nightmarish urban warfare campaign if a conflict with Iraq takes place on the streets of Baghdad. Australian Special Forces and their American counterparts have been training in specially built mock-town compounds in the Middle East in preparation for close-combat battles. The war grew closer yesterday with US President George Bush warning he was "sick and tired" of Saddam Hussein's "games and deception" and that the dictator's "time is running out". Experts believe pitched house-to-house battles in congested city areas would be the favoured tactic of Hussein's regime in a...

POLICE fear Islamic terrorists could target a ceremony attended by Australians at the Bali bomb site today. Bali police confirmed yesterday they had received warnings of an attack on a purification ceremony to be attended by more than 30 families of victims of the October 12 bombing. Indonesian chief investigator, Inspector General Made Pastika, confirmed police were hunting six more men connected to the bombing. He said he was "very worried" about being unable to find 900kg of explosives missing from the terrorist's arsenal. Bali police chief Budi Setyawan confirmed he was aware of an intelligence report warning of a...

Thursday, 17 October, 2002, 11:48 GMT 12:48 UK Australians urged to leave Indonesia Australia has urged all its citizens still in Indonesia to leave the country, following "disturbing new threats" in the wake of Saturday's bomb carnage in the holiday resort of Bali. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told parliament the new warning of generic terrorist threats was "based on intelligence material we received a number of hours ago". Our nation has been changed by this event The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, said he was determined to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. "What occurred on Saturday night...

This Bali bomb attack has come as an enormous shock to the Australian public, as friends and relatives of the hundreds of people visiting the Indonesian island anxiously wait for news. Helpline numbers UK Foreign Office: 0207 008 0000 Australian Foreign Affairs Department: 1800 002 214 or +61 2 6261 3305 New Zealand Foreign Ministry: 0800 432 111 Office of US Citizens' Services: (202) 647 5225/5226 Australians are accustomed to viewing themselves as insulated from dangers faced elsewhere in the world by virtue of the country's remoteness. But the Prime Minister John Howard, with his voice close to breaking, has...