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This was a case like no other. Not only was it the longest criminal trial in Australian legal history, it was conducted under the tightest security and was almost derailed by one young woman. Each morning, the prison van would arrive at the court in a convoy under police escort. A busy Parramatta street was closed for a few minutes while the prison van sped down a steep driveway flanked by Extreme High Security Corrective Services Officers wearing flak jackets and armed with semi-automatic weapons. Inside, there was the usual baggage screening in the foyer, but up on Level Three...

My Op-ed in The Australian By Leah Farrall, Australia I have an op-ed piece out in today’s edition of The Australian called “Detentions come back to bite” It’s about Guantanamo blowback now having very real strategic consequences: the formation of a new strategy to kidnap civilians in Afghanistan in order to secure the release of prisoners taken by America. Sally Neighbour has a front page piece derived from my op-ed here “Afghan foreigner kidnap order by al Qaeda leader Mustafa Hamid”. I haven’t seen the broadsheet yet, so I’m not sure if the photos I provided of Hamid are on...

MILITARY bases and navy ships will be turned into virtual fortresses under plans to beef-up security in the wake of a major terrorist plot. Taxi drivers and other members of the public will be banned from entering military bases without getting high-level clearance after an urgent review found Australia's frontline defence facilities were among the least protected in the world. The top-secret review also found Australia's top defence brass would be vulnerable to a terrorist strike and recommended their leafy military showpiece, at Duntroon in Canberra, be turned into a secure compound. Among sweeping reforms, the review calls for bases...

A series of raids and arrests in Western Sydney last night led to a stand-off between police and a crowd of locals throwing bottles. The Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad carried out three raids on the same street at Auburn. It is investigating who shot a 23-year-old, who turned up at Auburn Hospital on Sunday night with a gunshot wound to the chest. During one of the raids, a 25-year-old man punched an officer in the face and was arrested. Police inspector Mick Reynolds says the man's arrest triggered an angry response from about 150 residents. "There was a lot...

Anti-nuclear campaigners have marked the 64th anniversary of the world's first atomic attack with a plea for Australia to reconsider its uranium exports. A single nuclear bomb dropped by the Americans on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killed some 140,000 people. They died instantly or in the days and weeks that followed as radiation and horrific burns took their toll. Three days later, the US dropped a second nuclear bomb on Nagasaki, which killed another 70,000 people. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II. American scientist Steve Starr and the Sydney-based People for Nuclear...

POLICE this morning arrested suspected Islamic extremists who they believe were plotting a suicide bomb attack on an army base in Sydney's west. Police swooped about 4.30am, executing 19 warrants on homes in the Melbourne suburbs of Glenroy, Carlton, Meadow Heights, Roxburgh Park, Broadmeadows, Westmeadows, Preston, Epping and Colac. The raids came after a suicide bomb plot by suspected Islamic extremists in Melbourne was uncovered.The group is thought to be linked to extremists in Somalia. Police believe the group was planning to launch an attack on Sydney's Holsworthy Barracks. The mass counter-terrorism operation, the second-largest ever in Australia, involved the...

A man whose relatives say had been sniffing gasoline burst into flames after a police officer Tasered him as he ran at officials carrying a container of fuel, police said Tuesday. The man, identified by his family as 36-year-old Ronald Mitchell, was in critical condition at a Perth hospital in Western Australia state following Monday's incident in Warburton, an Aboriginal community 950 miles (1,540 kilometers) northeast of Perth.

THE killer or killers of a Sydney family walked in through the front door and bludgeoned three adults and two boys as they slept in their beds, police believe. The scene of violence in three upstairs bedrooms of the Lin household in North Epping was so great police blood spatter experts were last night trying to map out exactly how the attacks occurred. With no suspects and with no obvious motive, police said they were appalled at the worst crime they had seen for many years. All the victims were bludgeoned repeatedly to the head and upper body with a...

CRUCIFIXES, Bibles and all other Christian symbols have been banned from a hospital's chapel when it is not being used for a church service. The Mosman Daily has learnt that Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney has bes been ordered to remove Christian content by New South Wales bureaucrats to avoid offending Muslims, Hindus or other non-Christian believers who may want to pray in the chapel. Hospital staff say that while the chapel was built for Christians, they now want the chapel to be completely non-denominational. An inspection of the chapel last week by the Daily found no trace of...

The blame for the weekend violence at Sydney Airport lies entirely with the men who perpetrated it. However, responsibility for not suppressing the violence lies with the relevant authorities. Outlaw bikers are crazy. Jihadi crazy, but some are crazy in their own very special way. Look at the bottom line of what just happened in Sydney. A pack of bikers, allegedly Commanchero, deliberately stormed into an airport terminal patrolled by heavily armed agents of the state, a public space covered by dozens of security cameras, and populated by hundreds of witnesses, and there they beat a man to death with...

SYDNEY – Warring bikers brawled through Australia's largest airport Sunday, beating one suspected gang member to death and brandishing metal poles "like swords" as they rampaged through the main domestic terminal in front of terrified travelers. Police said a group of suspected gang members was ambushed as they disembarked from an airplane. "A fight ensued, the fight moved through various parts of the terminal," said Police Detective Inspector Peter Williams. He said 15 men were involved in the violence, which rampaged from the ground floor up one level to the departures hall before most of the men fled.

A man has been bludgeoned to death by a group of Australian motorcycle gang members in full view of dozens of people at Sydney airport. Witnesses described bikers swinging poles "like swords" at each other's heads as the brawl spilled over two floors of Sydney's domestic terminal. Four suspects have been arrested and the others are said to have fled.

PROFESSIONAL socialite Paris Hilton has confirmed she and rocker boyfriend Benji Madden will host a New Year's eve party at a secret Sydney location. "I can't wait to be partying with the Aussies and Benji DJ-ing by my side," Hilton said from Los Angeles. The billionaire hotel heiress is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to attend parties around the globe, and was last down under when advertising magnate John Singleton reportedly paid her $5 million for a six-day promotional visit almost two years ago. This year's party will be streamed live over The Bongo Virus - a platform similar...

With WYD's grand finale shortly to come -- the climactic closing liturgy at Randwick (vidstreams and Missal) begins at 10am local (2300GMT, 7pm ET Saturday) -- in one of the week's many nods to Australia's indigenous community, topping the stage at the major events has been a popular Aboriginal rendering of the Holy Spirit known as "Marjorie's Bird." Now, with the design about to take on an even bigger visibility as a key element of the specially-designed vestments for tomorrow's liturgy, Marjorie Liddy, the Tiwi islander behind the image (who never painted before seeing its outline in the sky...

On Thursday 17 July 2008, the Holy Father was formally welcomed to Australia by the Governor General, the Prime Minister and other officials. He delivered the following address. Your Excellencies, Dear Australian Friends, It is with great joy that I greet you today. I would like to thank the Governor-General, Major-General Michael Jeffery and Prime Minister Rudd for honouring me by their presence at this ceremony and for welcoming me so graciously. As you know, I have been able to enjoy some quiet days since my arrival in Australia last Sunday. I am most grateful for the hospitality that has...

Dear Young People,   What a delight it is to greet you here at Barangaroo, on the shores of the magnificent Sydney harbour, with its famous bridge and Opera House. Many of you are local, from the outback or the dynamic multicultural communities of Australian cities. Others of you have come from the scattered islands of Oceania, and others still from Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Some of you, indeed, have come from as far as I have, Europe! Wherever we are from, we are here at last in Sydney. And together we stand in our world...

On Friday 18 July 2008 the Holy Father met with representatives of the Christian churches and ecclesial communions present in Australia and gave the following address. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,I give heartfelt thanks to God for this opportunity to meet and pray with all of you who have come here representing various Christian communities in Australia. Grateful for Bishop Forsyth’s and Cardinal Pell’s words of welcome, I joyfully greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus, the "cornerstone" of the "household of God" (Eph 2:19-20). I would like to offer a particular greeting to Cardinal Edward Cassidy,...

On Friday 18 July 2008, Pope Benedict met with and addressed the representatives of the non-Christian  religions present in Australia. Dear Friends, I extend cordial greetings of peace and goodwill to all of you who are here representing various religious traditions in Australia. Grateful for this encounter, I thank Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence and Sheikh Shardy for the words of welcome which they expressed in their own name and on behalf of your respective communities.Australia is renowned for the congeniality of its people towards neighbour and visitor alike. It is a nation that holds freedom of religion in high regard. Your...

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...

Simply marvelous! Inhale the exuberant joy of this description of the impact of WYD pilgrims and you can see God is already mightily at work softening the hearts of Sydneysiders. "THE sun was just rising. It was around 6am and bloody cold on Sunday morning at the top of a hill in a suburban street in Sydney's Berowra Heights. That's when I first saw it. As I started off for a run, the chatter of two young women could be heard. Then, from the fog, they emerged. Bleary-eyed, no doubt from a rough night on the floor, and under-dressed...

p>SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Photos show Benedict XVI enjoying his days of rest Down Under -- praying, working and delighting in a classical music concert. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, told journalists that the Pope is "absolutely serene and resting." Some members of the Australian press had painted a bleak picture of the Pontiff's health, saying that the Holy Father was extremely exhausted after his flight of more than 20 hours. But the Vatican spokesman presented a video Monday afternoon, local time, showing the Pope praying and walking with his secretaries at the...

SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 14, 2008 (Zenit.org).- World Youth Day is already bringing converts to the Catholic Church, and it hasn't even started yet. Sydney's Polish-Catholic community World Youth Day coordinator, 24-year-old Basia Slusarczyk, explained to ZENIT that her non-Catholic boyfriend is participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. His conversion was triggered by the experience of praying with her for the fruits of World Youth Day. "He is attending World Youth Day with me and I hope the week of events and the solidarity with so many Catholics from around the world will make him proud to be...

TV Schedule for World Youth Day 2008  Date ET PT GMT Program Name Description Tue 07/15/08 2:00 AM Mon 11 PM 6:00 WORLD YOUTH DAY 2008 ~ OPENING MASS WITH CARDINAL PELL (LIVE) (3 hrs) Presided over by Cardinal George Pell, this Mass formally celebrates the opening of WYD 2008. A much-anticipated feature of the Mass will be the arrival of the WYD Cross and Icon. Tue 07/15/08 12 PM 9 AM 16:00 Encore Tue 07/15/08 9 PM 6 PM 1:00 Encore Wed 07/16/08 12 AM Tues 9 PM 4:00 Encore           Thu 07/17/08 12:30...

Adult stem cell research, for the pro-life community, is ethically superior to embryonic stem cell research because it doesn't involve the destruction of human life. Scientists at Griffith University in Australia are advancing the notion that its effectiveness is superior as well. The researchers published an article on Friday in the medical journal Stem Cells showing that the use of adult stem cells may be getting closer to a cure, or at least an effective treatment, for Parkinson's. Their new studies show adult stem cells from a patient's own nose could treat their condition. The paper showed the finding that...

SYDNEY, Australia, June 12, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - New research on stem-cell therapy shows scientists have found that the cure for Parkinson's disease may lie right under one's nose - or rather, in it. Researchers from Griffith University have published a study in the journal Stem Cells that has found adult stem-cells harvested from the noses of Parkinson's patients developed into dopamine-producing brain cells upon being transplanted into the brain of a lab rat. Professor Alan Mackay-Sim said researchers simulated Parkinson's symptoms in rats by creating lesions on one side of the rat's brain to imitate the damage Parkinson's disease wreaks...

A SYDNEY council's rejection of a proposed Islamic school is a victory for racism, a Muslim community organisation says. Camden Council last night voted unanimously to reject a proposal for a 1200-student Islamic school, a decision that followed months of heated community meetings and the release of an adverse report by the council's planners last week. Mayor Chris Patterson said the council's decision was based on concerns surrounding the impact on traffic flows, loss of agricultural land, highlighted in the planners report and not on religious grounds. But the independent think tank FAIR (Forum on Australia's Islamic Relations) said the...

ith its lace curtain bungalows and steepled Anglican church, the once tranquil town of Camden in New South Wales seems the most improbable of settings for a row that combines race and religion. Proud of its rich history, the town promotes itself as "the birthplace of the nation's wealth", for it was here, in the early 19th Century, that the sheep and dairy industries first began to flourish. Now the town, which lies on south-west fringes of Sydney, is confronting a very 21st Century issue: the proposal to construct an Islamic school for some 1,200 Muslim pupils. Behind the proposal...

The group searching for HMAS Sydney has found the wreckage of the World War II Australian warship off the coast of Western Australia, the ABC has confirmed. The breakthrough by the Finding Sydney Foundation comes less than 24 hours after it announced it had located the wreckage of the German raider Kormoran, which also sank after a battle with the Sydney in November 1941.

A MILITARY-scale operation, funded by taxpayers, has begun to allow a Melbourne terror suspect to visit his dying brother interstate. Izzydeen Atik, 25, will make a mercy dash to Sydney on an $8000 chartered jet to farewell older brother Merhy, who is stricken with liver disease. Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard Mr Atik will be in the custody of up to 10 federal agents and will be under guard at secret locations in Melbourne and Sydney for his flights. More than 20 officers are expected to guard Sydney's Westmead Hospital, where the final goodbyes will probably take place today. Estimates of...

"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

It was as if someone had poured tons of coffee and milk into the ocean, then switched on a giant blender. Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney were transformed into the Cappuccino Coast. Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards' centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales. One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch...

A MAN has been charged over a fire bomb attack on the Prime Minister's Sydney residence. The man, age 31, from Lane Cove is expected to face court tomorrow after being charged earlier today. About 11.50am today, reports were received that a man had allegedly thrown a woven cotton shoulder bag over the outer gates of Kirribilli House and into the grounds. It's alleged the bag was lit at the time of the incident. Officers from Australian Federal Police Protective Services extinguished the item and held the man until NSW Police arrived and took him into custody. A crime scene...

SAN FRANCISCO - Air New Zealand is delving into the gay and lesbian market with a special themed flight featuring drag queens, pink cocktails and a cabaret performed by flight crew. The destination for the airline's one-time "Pink Flight," on Feb. 26, ex San Francisco, is the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney, Australia, one of the world's most well-attended gay events, said Jodi Williams, an Air New Zealand marketing director. "We're tailoring inseat entertainment with gay-friendly movies, contests, different music and things like that," Williams said. The airline also plans to throw a going away party for passengers,...

The pilot behind a security scare in Sydney airspace this afternoon is being questioned by authorities. A small Cessna aircraft had to be escorted by two F/A-18 Defence fighter jets into Sydney's Bankstown Airport, after failing to respond in restricted APEC airspace above Sydney. A witness has told commercial radio the fighter jets fired flares at the plane. He says shortly before 3:00pm AEST he saw the plane enter restricted airspace over the western suburb of Penrith before flares were fired at it by two F/A-18 jets. "This light plane came over in restricted airspace because of APEC and these...

Protestors shout slogans during an anti-war rally in Sydney, as world leaders arrive for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. US President George W. Bush has said he saw enough progress in Iraq that he may soon be able to announce a partial US troop withdrawal. Bush made the comments during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard -- his staunchest war ally.(AFP/Jung Yeon-Je)

US President George W. Bush has apologised to the people of Sydney for the widespread inconvenience the APEC summit security lockdown will cause. Speaking to Sky News, Mr Bush said he was not aware of how the city would be affected, but he was sorry if he was putting people out. "I have a lot on my mind," he said, adding that it was the first he had heard of the planned security crackdown that will see much of the northern part of the city fenced off as well as expanded police powers to search people and seize banned items....

PAINT, banners, chant sheets and whistles are being sorted into survival kits for protesters preparing to rally against the Sydney arrival of US President George W Bush. Mr Bush will jet into Sydney on September 4 in preparation for APEC meetings later in the week. His arrival will be marked on September 5 by a planned peaceful "student strike" organised by the anti-war group Resistance. Resistance member Simon Cunich said creating the bright red Stop Bush Bags was a practical way of promoting protests during APEC. The bags also contain chalk, stickers, leaflets, umbrellas, water and a know your rights...

Sydney residents 'must carry survival bags' By Mark Chipperfield in Sydney Last Updated: 2:12am BST 18/07/2007 The easy-going residents of Australia's biggest city are being urged to carry personal "survival bags" to help them cope with a future terrorist attack or natural disaster. The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, says citizens should pack a "Go Bag" containing such essentials as toilet paper, running shoes, spare keys, a torch, disposable gloves, adhesive tape, a transistor radio and sun cream before they leave home each day. Miss Moore, who has yet to pack her own Go Bag, says it is her...

THE 7000 sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk have farewelled Sydney – and about $10 million of their money during their five day stay. Escorted by a flotilla of small boats, the Kitty Hawk left Sydney Harbour after five days docked at the Garden Island Naval Base. It is estimated the 7000 sailors spent $2 million a day during their visit to Sydney – or around $280 a crew member, a day. The sailors also engaged in various charitable works around the city, including a visit to sick children at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. This was probably...

SYDNEY, Australia - The Live Earth global concert series kicked off Saturday with an Aboriginal group dancing and singing a traditional welcome at the first venue in Sydney. Tribal leaders with white-painted bodies and shaking eucalyptus fronds were the first of more than 150 performers at the nine concert, 24-hour series to raise awareness about climate change. The performance was immediately followed by a video greeting from former Vice President Al Gore, whose campaign to force global warming onto the international political agenda inspired the event. Gore invited the crowd — which appeared to be several hundred when the show...

The Australian War Memorial has unearthed what it believes is the only footage of Anzac Cove during the Gallipoli battle of World War One, an iconic event in Australian history which is commemorated each year on Anzac Day. The one-minute grainy black and white film, which shows the shoreline at Anzac Cove and British soldiers massing at Suvla Bay, was shot in 1915 during the pioneering era of film. The footage pans across Anzac Cove from a position on the southern headland, showing a clutter of jetties and stores being unloaded. "Because we have so little authentic footage, everything we...

SYDNEY, Australia - The Sydney Opera House's gleaming white-shelled roof was darkened Saturday night along with much of the rest of Australia's largest city, which switched off the lights to register concern about global warming. The arch of Sydney's other iconic structure, the harbor bridge, was also blacked out, along with dozens of skyscrapers and countless homes in the 4 million-strong city, in an hour-long gesture organizers said they hoped would be adopted as an annual event by cities around the world. Mayor Clover Moore, whose officials shut down all nonessential lights on city-owned buildings, said Sydney was "asking people...

The Coathanger, as Sydney's Harbour Bridge is affectionately known, was opened 75 years ago. It was the first time in 25 years the bridge had opened to the public to walk across. Some people stopped to admire the latticework of the bridge's superstructure. Some 6m rivets hold together the 52,000 tonnes of steel which make up the bridge. The bridge means much to Sydney and Australia, arising amid the Great [Economic Downturn] of the 1930s. Festive hats dotted the crowd which was entertained by fly-pasts, a regatta and Aboriginal sunset ceremonies.

A LOS Angeles-bound Qantas airliner which had flames jetting out of one engine has landed safely at Sydney airport. The Boeing 747 Flight QF149 with 274 people on board was forced to turn back after taking off at 11.58am (AEDT) today, Qantas said. It landed at 1.20pm (AEDT) after dumping fuel and circling the city's northern beaches, a Qantas spokesman Lloyd Quartermaine said. He said flames had been seen coming out of one of the engines, but there was no explosion and passengers were not at risk. "The engine didn't explode," Mr Quartermaine said. "At this stage we believe it...

Church's 'Jesus loves Osama' sign criticised By Matthew Moore Last Updated: 10:02am GMT 01/02/2007 The Australian prime minister has criticised a Sydney baptist church for erecting a sign declaring that "Jesus Loves Osama". The sign has been placed outside several churches in Sydney The slogan, a reference to Osama bin Laden, the al-Qa'eda leader, has provoked a storm of controversy across the country despite its apparently Christian message of forgiveness. Small print at the bottom of the sign urges churchgoers to "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you", a quotation from Matthew 5:44. But John Howard, the...

STOLEN Australian Army rocket launchers are in the hands of a home-grown terrorist group which planned to use them to attack Sydney's Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, police allege. The Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty, said a man arrested in Leumeah yesterday and charged with possessing stolen weapons was linked to a group that had planned to attack buildings in Sydney, including the reactor. Mr Keelty would not publicly link the man, Taha Abdul-Rahman, directly to a plan to target the reactor, referring only to "evidence of a proposed target", and saying: "Clearly, there was a plan for the use of...

A SYDNEY building was to be the target of a rocket attack after a man allegedly supplied rocket launchers stolen from the military to a suspected terrorist. Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty said the man arrested today over the theft of rocket launchers was allegedly connected to some of the men detained in an anti-terrorism raid last year. It is understood that one rocket was intended to be used against an unspecified building in Sydney. The rocket launchers are reportedly of the type designed to be fired from the shoulder by infantry. They have enough punch to destroy a...

Confused Tourist Lands in U.S., Not Australia BERLIN (Dec. 29) - A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site. Tobi Gutt planned on flying from Germany to sunny Sydney, Australia, left. He mistakenly booked a ticket to snowy Sidney, Montana. Big Sky, Montana, is shown at right. Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany Saturday for a four-week holiday. Instead of arriving "down under," Gutt found himself on a different...

SYDNEY (AFP) - A mystery over a Japanese midget submarine that went missing after attacking a ship in Sydney Harbour during World War II has been solved, an Australian television station has claimed. The submarine was one of three that slipped into the harbour on the night of May 31 1942 after being launched from a fleet of five larger Japanese submarines offshore. Two of the midget vessels were spotted and attacked, leading the two-man crews to commit suicide, Australian national archives record. The remains of those subs were recovered and a rebuilt composite is on display at the Australian...

Sydney warned more beach riots are likely Phil Mercer in Sydney Sunday October 1, 2006 The Observer (UK) Australia's biggest city is bracing itself for more racial violence on its beaches this Christmas. Sydney witnessed a wave of unrest at the seaside suburb of Cronulla last December when 5,000 people - most of them young white men - gathered at the beach to protest at alleged intimidation by Lebanese gangs. The demonstration quickly degenerated into drunken violence, and anyone of Mediterranean or Arabic appearance was forced to hide in hotels or restaurants. The following day groups of men from Middle...