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There is rising criticism that the Machang Bridge, which opened in July at the cost of millions of won, is only enriching speculative capitalists with tax money. They say that throughout the country, roads built through private investment are becoming white elephants where investors eat tax money via rough traffic predictions and contracts with excessive profit guarantees. The province of South Gyeongsang spent 380 billion won (US$337 million) in budget outlays and 190 million won in private capital to build the Machang Bridge linking Changwon and Masan. For the next 30 years, the earnings from the bridge tolls will be...

Queensland, Australia (AHN) - The mayor of a small Australian mining town received negative feedback when he said that unattractive women could find a partner in his locality because men outnumbered women, five-to-one, in the country's northwest mining center. Mount Isa's Mayor John Molony said, "five blokes to every girl, may I suggest that beauty-disadvantaged women should proceed to Mount Isa." He also said, "not so attractive women appeared happy with the five-to-one gender imbalance." Women were angered by Molony's 'not-so-beautiful' comment and since then he has received complaints from both genders. But the mayor refused to apologize, even if...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Thursday told a huge gathering of young people that they were inheriting a planet whose resources had been scarred and squandered to fuel insatiable consumption. His latest appeal to save the planet for future generations came in a address to some 150,000 youths in Sydney after he rode through the city's harbor standing on the outdoor deck of a white ferry as dozens of boats blew their horns. "Reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth, erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world's mineral and...

Sydney, July 16 (ANI): A University of New South Wales study has opined that Aussies are more likely to shoot at Muslims, especially if they”re in a good mood. The researchers say that Australians perceive Muslim-style headgear as a threat. The study, published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, involved 66 students playing a computer game in which different male and female figures appeared on a balcony. Some figures were wearing Muslim-style turbans or hijabs while others were bare headed. Participants were asked to shoot at the targets carrying guns and spare those who were unarmed. Researchers found that...

It's important for Muslims to keep reminding us that there is absolutely, positively no relationship between Islam and violence. Otherwise it's easy to forget. The latest excuse for Islamic bonhomie is the documentary "Fitna" by Geert Wilders. In the 15-minute film, showing on YouTube and other Internet sites, the Dutch MP says that far from getting Islam wrong, terrorists understand their religion only too well. "Fitna" (Arabic for "upheaval" or "ordeal") has verses from the Koran -- which Wilders calls a "fascist book" -- artfully interspersed with scenes of carnage from 9/11 and the March, 2004 Madrid train bombing, as...

WOULD a Barack Obama ascendancy in the US presidential election lead to a new war in the Middle East? There's quite a respectable case for thinking it might. Would it also lead to catastrophe in Iraq? And what would it mean for Australia? In terms of who would be best for Australia, there is a respectable case to be made for each remaining US presidential candidate: Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. The case for Obama rests on the fact that greater US power and prestige directly benefits Australia. Certainly the Rudd Government believes this. The case for Obama is...

THE boy from the bush is back in town, with country music star Lee Kernaghan tonight named Australian of the Year for 2008. A proud Kernaghan, 43, admitted he was surprised at the honour but said he would use his new role to help farmers battling the drought. The Victorian-born singer and songwriter was anointed successor to climate change crusader Tim Flannery at a ceremony outside Parliament House in Canberra tonight. Naming him Australian of the Year, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: "Lee Kernaghan's music resonates with every Australian by connecting us all to the spirit of the bush, but...

"Paulo Melo, 29, has been in a coma at the Royal Darwin Hospital for two weeks, after severing his spinal cord in a car crash." - read more below: doctor requested, family objected, court granted

Pig heads at Islamic school site Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 November 2007 Two pig heads have been stuck on metal stakes outside the site of a planned Islamic school in Australia's largest city. A passer-by reported that the heads had been placed near an Australian flag at an empty site in Camden, a suburb of Sydney. Pigs are considered unclean by Muslims and the act was described as a "display of hatred". Detective Inspector Paul Albury said police were seeking information about a person who used a citizen's band radio to claim responsibility for the pig heads. More News Bush...

AN Australian army officer serving in Iraq says Diggers are disappointed with the media coverage of their positive work in the troubled nation. Major James Kerr said he and the rest of the 550 Australian soldiers in Overwatch Battlegroup West III had completed 34 projects since May, including rebuilding schools and orphanages, and training Iraqi police on how to handle militias. The group, based at the Tallil air base, had also provided irrigation systems and pedestrian bridges to help the Iraqi people. "The boys get disappointed with what they see in the media. There's no focus on what we're achieving...

Toll road contract in Texas allows state to lower speed limits on nearby interstate freeway to avoid paying penalties to a private company. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has agreed to consider lowering the maximum speed limit on a stretch of interstate highway that competes with a planned toll road. Cintra-Zachary, a joint Spanish-US venture, paid TxDOT $1.3 billion for the right to collect tolls on 40-miles of State Highway 130 set for construction beginning in 2009. Although TxDOT suggested that free market competition was part of the goal of using a public-private partnerships to construct and operate roads,...

My six nights up a tree, by Crocodile George By Barbie Dutter in Sydney Last Updated: 11:49am BST 15/08/2007 An Australian cattle rancher has told how he spent seven days up a tree looking down into the jaws of two hungry crocodiles after stumbling into a swamp crawling with the reptiles. 'I knew they were looking' David George, 53, was knocked unconscious after falling from his horse during a bush-burning operation in north Queensland. Dazed and bleeding after coming round, he remounted his horse hoping it would take him home. Instead it took him to a swamp criss-crossed by crocodile...

A man who raped a Muslim woman because she showed an interest in Christianity has been jailed for at least five years by a Sydney court. As Abdul Reda Al-Shawany was sentenced today, the Downing Centre District Court heard a harrowing statement from the victim, revealing that her shame and fear had been compounded by her cultural background. The woman, who cannot be named, arrived in Australia as a refugee from Iraq. But she said that even when she was jailed by dictator Saddam Hussein, she never feared for her life the way she did after the rape. "It is...

Gay Aussie Hotel Wins Right To Ban Heterosexuals, Lesbians May 28 05:00 AM US/Eastern An Australian hotel popular with gay men has won the right to refuse entry to heterosexuals and lesbians, officials and the owner said Monday. The Peel Hotel in Melbourne won an exemption from the Equal Opportunity Act to prevent insults and abuse directed toward gays in its bars and nightclubs, owner Tom McFeely told AFP. "The hotel predominantly markets itself towards homosexual males, towards gay men and we want to protect the integrity of the venue as well as continue to make the men feel comfortable,"...

Robert Poole, a mechanical engineer who has advised the administrations of George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to privatize U.S. highways, estimates that more than $25 billion in Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) highway projects are planned or approved in the United States. Now, a prominent Oklahoma state representative has invited Poole to promote his PPP toll road ideas, a move evidently designed to counter growing citizen opposition. Poole Lobbies for PPP Highways in Oklahoma Oklahoma House Speaker, Republican Lance Cargill, the founder of a group known as The 100 Ideas Initiative, has invited Poole to give a June...

Dress "offensive" to Islam By Ellen Connolly May 20, 2007 12:00 THIS is the outfit that has been labelled "offensive" and "disrespectful" to the Muslim community. Twenty-three-year-old journalist Latika Bourke was verbally attacked bya group of Muslim men outside a Sydney mosque because of her dress. "This young man approached me and said: 'You should be wearing more clothes. You need to cover up, you mutt','' Ms Bourke, who works for 2UE Radio, recounted. Ms Bourke, who was wearing a black trenchcoat, knee-high boots and gloves, said she was shocked and humiliated. "I'm just incredulous as to why they would...

MUSLIMS are outraged that prospective citizens will have to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian tradition as the basis of Australia's values system. Australia's peak Muslim body said the proposed citizenship question -- revealed in the Herald Sun -- was disturbing and potentially divisive. Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Dr Ameer Ali said the "Abrahamic tradition" or "universal values" would be less divisive ways of describing the nation's moral base. Dr Ali said use of the term Judeo-Christian was the result of "WWII guilt", and before 1945 Australia would have been called only Christian. "That question must be rephrased," he said. Dr...

Not Welcome Down Under April 27, 2007 Snoop Dogg has been refused entry into Australia because of his extensive criminal record, the immigration minister said yesterday. Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr., was due to fly into Sydney this week to co-host the MTV Australia Video Music Awards. Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Snoop Dogg's visa was canceled because he had failed to pass the country's strict character test, which takes criminal convictions into account. “He doesn't seem the sort of bloke we want in this country,” Andrews told Sydney's Macquarie Radio. Snoop Dogg has 28...

CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Australian government's plea for couples to have more children, with "one for mum, one for dad and one for the country," has helped slow the aging of the nation's population, Treasurer Peter Costello said on Monday. But Australia still faced slowing economic growth and a significant budget shortfall in 40 years due to the demographic impact of the aging population, Costello said. "Demographic changes are still working against us," Costello said in an address to the National Press Club as he released a government analysis on the impact of an aging population. He said Australia was...

A LEADING Muslim cleric has blamed the devastating drought, climate change and pollution on Australians' lack of faith in Allah. Radical sheik Mohammed Omran told followers at his Brunswick mosque that out-of-control secular scientific values had caused environmental disaster. "The fear of Allah is not there. So we have now a polluted earth, a polluted water, a wasteland," he told a meeting this year. "What are the people now crying for? The prophet told you hundreds of years ago, 'Look after the water'." A Sunday Herald Sun investigation also found clerics railing against "evil" democracy, vilifying Jews and Christians and...

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has sold his consulting firm to the Australian company involved in the 75-year lease of the Indiana Toll Road and the privatization of other U.S. infrastructure. The New York Times reported that Macquarie Bank of Australia – parent company of Macquarie Infrastructure Group – has acquired Giuliani Capital Advisors. Giuliani reportedly profited between $70 million and $90 million from the sale of the consulting and investment company he founded in 2004. A campaign spokeswoman said in a statement that the transaction was part of Giuliani’s plan to focus on his campaign. Meanwhile, Macquarie continues to...

British actor Rupert Everett and 250 men dressed as pop singer Kylie Minogue were among 8,000 revelers who marched through Sydney late Saturday for the 29th annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. The yearly parade began as a street demonstration in 1978, but has since morphed into one of the city's biggest outdoor parties, attracting thousands of spectators from around the world. New South Wales state police said about 350,000 people packed the sidewalks of Oxford street -- the center of Sydney's gay scene -- to catch a glimpse of the colorful floats bearing messages both political and playful. One...

DAVID Hicks has renounced Islam, his American military lawyer confirmed yesterday.Major Michael Mori declined to say why Hicks was no longer a Muslim, saying it was a personal issue for the suspected terrorist. Hicks adopted the name Dawood when he converted to Islam in Adelaide in the late 1990s. He was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 and has spent five years in the high-security US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. A former Guantanamo inmate has claimed Hicks was denounced by Muslim prisoners for his change of faith.

THE Sydney-based Macquarie Infrastructure Group will know tonight if it has garnered an early slice of the vast toll road riches up for grabs in Texas. The announcement by the Texas Department of Transportation of the winning bidder for State Highway 121 - a planned 42km toll road in northern Dallas, one of the fastest growing areas of the US - shapes up as the first big test of MIG's decision to all but jettison its Australian routes for a shot at the far larger but less developed US markets. Texas, which is forecast to double its population to 50...

Freeze jail diet cash, says victim Hedley Thomas February 14, 2007 ONE of the victims of a Brisbane pedophile who was controversially awarded $2000 compensation for being refused fresh halal meat in prison has urged the Queensland Government to freeze the funds and launch an appeal. The woman, now in her late 20s, said she was still receiving counselling to help her cope with severe trauma arising from the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Sharif Mahommed. "He could flush that money down the toilet and it would be better than going into his pocket," she told The...

Surely Fort Worth Weekly publisher Lee Newquist’s phone will be ringing any second now with a call from Australia and an offer of millions of dollars. After all, your favorite alt-weekly criticized the Trans-Texas Corridor in a recent cover story (“Detours on a Super-Highway,” Jan. 10, 2007), and it’s pretty obvious that foreign fat cats who lease U.S. highways and charge tolls to drivers don’t take kindly to criticism. Macquarie Media Group of Australia is set to pay upward of $100 million for American Consolidated Media, which owns small community newspapers across Texas — newspapers that have criticized the proposed...

The New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister has taken a swipe at critics of Australia and the United States. Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand's media has turned Australian and American-bashing into a national sport. Mr Peters says New Zealanders who continually take "cheap shots" at Australians and Americans fail to appreciate the valuable work they do in the Pacific. Not for the first time, he pointed the finger of blame squarely at the media. "It's the kind of thing that you see in too many commentators and particularly some papers allowing all sorts of outrageous cartoons which are an insult,...

Critics charge that the Macquarie purchase of American Consolidated Media is designed to silence critics of a Texas toll road project. Australian toll road giant Macquarie agreed Wednesday to purchase forty local newspapers, primarily in Texas and Oklahoma, for $80 million. Macquarie Bank is Australia's largest capital raising firm and has invested billions in purchasing roads in the US, Canada and UK. Most recently the company joined with Cintra Concesiones of Spain in a controversial 75-year lease of the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road. Sal Costello, the leading opponent of toll road projects as head of the Texas Toll Party, says...

President Bush has announced that he intends to appoint an official with toll-road investor Macquarie to be the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation. David James Gribbin, IV, of Virginia is currently the division director for Macquarie Holdings, a Washington, DC, company under the umbrella of the toll-road investor Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia. Before that private sector job, Gribbin was chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration. Current Transportation Secretary Mary Peters also worked at FHWA at that time. Bush’s announcement may draw anti-privatization sentiment from U.S. senators during the confirmation process, according to Toll Road News,...

N.Z. Students Can Use Txt Speak on Tests WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - New Zealand's high school students will be able to use "text-speak" - the mobile phone text message language beloved of teenagers - in national exams this year, officials said. Text-speak, a second language for thousands of teens, uses abbreviated words and phrases such as "txt" for "text", "lol" for "laughing out loud" or "lots of love," and "CU" for "see you." The move has already divided students and educators who fear it could damage the English language. New Zealand's Qualifications Authority said Friday that it still strongly...

SYDNEY, Australia - Hotter temperatures and higher sea levels could devastate Asian economies, displace millions of people and put millions more at risk from infectious disease, according to a climate change report released Monday. Global temperatures will rise by up to 4 degrees by 2030, particularly in the arid regions of northern Pakistan, India and China, predicted the report, conducted by Australia's main research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. It said there is "little room for optimism" about the effects of climate change in the Asia-Pacific region unless governments take immediate action to curb carbon dioxide emissions....

Fruity headache for cafe ownersBy Samantha Williams and Karina Dunger 03jul06 Cafe workers ... Julie Hanssens and Jodie Lee / Troy Bendeich BAD weather is set to affect the price of oranges after already crippling Australia's banana industry. The worst frost in 24 years has destroyed 40,000 tonnes - about 25 per cent - of the citrus fruit produced in southern Australia. "They won't hit skyrocketing prices of bananas but there will be some price hike due to the reduction of fruit on the market," Riverina Citrus CEO Peter Morrish said. Oranges currently sell for $2.50kg, with experts predicting rises...

BRACE yourself boys: you will cringe. Police Constable Anthony Jennings certainly did when he felt a "crushing sensation" in the groin. "Excruciating pain" were the words he used to describe the moment Maria Klaus allegedly "chomped" on his penis after a domestic violence incident in Maroochydore a year ago. The softly spoken Const Jennings, 43, had to share possibly his worst day on the job in the Maroochydore District Court in front a jury and the woman accused of seriously assaulting him twice. Const Jennings and Constable Leonie Scott were called to Ms Klaus' unit in Beach Parade at 5.30pm...

BOOKS of hate promoting suicide bombings, anti-Australian conspiracies and racism can be freely sold in the Muslim community after a ruling that they don't breach sedition laws. The material, found by The Daily Telegraph in bookstores in the Sydney suburbs of Lakemba and Auburn last year, was judged by federal authorities not to incite violence in the first known test of anti-terrorism laws. Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said last night he felt uneasy about the continuing threat posed by such material remaining on the streets. But he said NSW Police would abide by the "qualified and considered legal opinion" offered...

3/31/2006 - FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. (AFPN) -- The mission of U.S. Air Force’s refueling aircraft is to carry out global air refueling, airlift and humanitarian assignments. That mission is not only accomplished by U.S. pilots. Foreign exchange pilots from Australia assigned to Fairchild help their U.S. counterparts achieve that mission. The exchange program selects the best pilots in the Royal Australian Air Force with a minimum of 1,500 flying hours. Although instructional experience is not essential, it is highly desirable to be selected for the three-year program. “They are sending us their best qualified pilots,” said Maj. Dennis...

AN army of senior golfers have shot down a former US president in the Battle of Medway. Maidstone's Medway Golf Club refused former president Bill Clinton a round of golf on Thursday because the crowded course was hosting its midweek championships. The rejected Mr Clinton instead played at Sanctuary Lakes Golf Club at Point Cook, where he happily signed autographs and posed for photos. The incident has left Medway red-faced, but yesterday members were standing firm on their presidential snub. "We can't deprive the paying members of their golf, even for an ex-president," said 62-year-old member Wendy Alley. "But it...

He said students were notoriously popular with clients. "Especially the 18 to 25s ... they are pretty much the prime market," said the man, who also refused to be identified. "We could actually do with some students, to be honest. It's a great way for the girls to pay off their loan and live and party and juggle all of these things." The New Zealand Prostitutes Collective's regional representative Bernie Bryant also knew some local students were selling themselves to learn. But she had a warning for those considering it. "It's a very transient industry and there's

`Top-end' brothel is just what the doctor ordered 27.01.2006 By Dylan Thorne A disgruntled doctor plans to open the first licensed brothel in the Far North. GP Neil Benson aims to base his new venture in his former medical centre at Coopers Beach. In the switch from medical practice to the world's oldest profession, it will be called Whalers. The plan has annoyed some residents, and a local minister fears the brothel might lead women into prostitution. Dr Benson closed his Coopers Beach Medical Centre in April last year after a bitter dispute with the Te Tai Tokerau Primary Health...

Private US uni's Aussie campus a 'step to Asia' ELITE private American university Carnegie Mellon will use its first Australian campus as a springboard to Asia when it opens its H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management in Adelaide in March. The US institution's provost, Mark Kamlet, said Carnegie Mellon wanted to establish a unique international presence in Australia, within reach of Asia, China and India. "We view our establishment here as important to Asia," Professor Kamlet said. "We see ourselves as a global player and we see ourselves as very strong in information management and entertainment...

A man who says his doctors misdiagnosed him as a transsexual may sue the medical team that advised him to have a sex change, an Australian appeals court ruled. Alan Michael Finch was 21 when he underwent a sex change operation to become a woman in 1988. By 1996, however, Finch said he was "a mess" and struggling to live life as a woman named Helen. The following year, Finch began another round of surgery and reverted to life as a man.Finch claims that the doctors who performed the initial sex change knew he was not a suitable candidate based...

MARCH AIR FORCE RESERVE BASE, Calif. (August 3, 2005) -- With the ever changing mission in Iraq, the Marine Corps has called on our allies from “Down Under” to help add a different aspect to pre-deployment training. Ten Soldiers with the Australian Army are currently working alongside Marine instructors providing pre-deployment training to the Marines of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment and thousands of other troops in the Marine Corps. “We’re just really glad to get the opportunity to come here and help put an Australian twist on the Marine Corps training,” said Australian Army Capt. Roy Henry, an instructor...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Dozens of Islamic extremists are involved in terrorist cells in Australia, the federal police commissioner confirmed Wednesday after a former spymaster claimed it was only a matter of time before an attack in Australia. Michael Roach, a senior official who recently retired from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, said Australia is facing an imminent risk of a terrorist attack and has called for more extreme counterterrorism powers. He said Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, are home to Islamic extremists who have received specialized training from terrorist groups overseas. "Perhaps the number is around 50...

The questions below about Australia, are from potential visitors. They were posted on an Australian Tourism Website and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials. Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? (UK). A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die. Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? (USA) A: Depends how much you've been drinking. Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney- can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)...

SYDNEY, Australia (AHN) – An Australian national held hostage for four weeks has finally been released in a military operation. Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced the news on Wednesday. Howard told that Australian hostage Douglas Wood has been successfully rescued by international forces from his captors.He is said to be safe and currently in Baghdad. Wood went to several medical checks that declared him well. "Mr. Wood was recovered a short while ago in Baghdad in a military operation that I am told was conducted by Iraqi forces in cooperation in a general way with force elements of the...

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian farmers have been dancing in the rain as downpours delivered the first soaking falls in over four years to large parts of drought-ridden eastern Australia. ADVERTISEMENT The rainfall would be enough to allow many farmers to plant their winter crops after months of waiting, New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said on Saturday.Australia, the world's second-largest wheat exporter after the United States, is a major supplier to Asia and the Middle East."Farmers are out dancing in the rain," farmer Chris Groves told Reuters by telephone from his prime wheat-growing area at Cowra, 250 kilometers...

Australia Deploys More Troops to Iraq By Jim Garamone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 19, 2005 – Coalition forces in Iraq are welcoming the deployment of 450 more Australian military personnel. "These are great soldiers," said a U.S. official in Baghdad, Iraq. The new Australian contingent will bring the number of "Aussies" in country up to 1,370, officials at the Australian embassy here said. Australia has been among the most steadfast allies in the war on terror. Australian forces moved in with U.S. special operations forces against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Australia also sent troops --...

CANBERRA Tony Moloney needed no convincing to move his family last year to Mount Isa, an Australian mining town 18 hours by car from the nearest big city. His employer, Xstrata, can afford to pay him twice the average national wage at its Mount Isa copper mine as sales to China surge. . "We moved here because the job opportunities were full-on and the town is booming," says Moloney, a father of two who earns 108,000 Australian dollars, or $83,446, a year as a plumber at Xstrata's Mount Isa mining complex. The Moloneys bought a 200,000 dollar house in...

Moves are underway for the creation of an independent GLBT state off the coast of Australia, with plans for the new nation to demand recognition before the United Nations. Gay and lesbian activists formed the “Gay & Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands” in June last year after the Australian government passed legislation banning same-sex marriage and stripping same-sex couples of civil rights. The activists are now working on a submission to present to the United Nations that will bring Australia before the International Court of Justice, in order to compel the country to recognize the new state as...

Favourable weather conditions have reduced the threat to residents in Perth's hills from a large bushfire that has been raging for days. The Fire and Emergency Services Authority says the blaze is spreading at the rate of one kilometre every hour and has burnt out 15,500 hectares since it started on the weekend. Most residents in the hills are opting to stay and protect their homes but Steve Harding from Mundaring says others plan to leave. "I've seen people with trailers full of gear leaving ... and people with cars packed up and ready to go as well," he said....

Sometimes it's just hard to resist a headline. A MAN was injured when his backyard outhouse fell on him in a bizarre road accident in Melbourne's inner north this evening. A utility taking an exit off the Eastern Freeway failed to stop and shot across busy Hoddle St in Abbotsford about 7pm (AEDT) today to plough through the back fence of a house, a Victoria Police spokesman said. The utility then struck a brick outhouse - which collapsed on a man in the yard - before crashing into a neighbouring house, the spokeswoman said. Ambulance paramedic Ross Pollard said the...