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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...

By + Cardinal George Pell Archbishop of Sydney18/9/2006 It is a sign of hope that no organised violence has flared here in Australia, following Pope Benedict’s recent comments. No one compared the Pope to Hitler or Mussolini (as in Turkey) or called for his murder as Sheik Malin did in Somalia. No group like the League of Jihadists in Iraq promised “that the soldiers of Mohammed will come sooner or later to shake your throne and the foundations of your state”. However the violent reactions in many parts of the Islamic world justified one of Pope Benedict’s main fears. They...

THE thousands of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks will be remembered in a ceremony at the US embassy today. On the fifth anniversary of terrorists flying hijacked planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, new US ambassador Robert McCallum will host the memorial service at the embassy in Canberra. And Prime Minister John Howard, who was in Washington at the time of the attacks, has admitted he fears a similar attack on towering office blocks in downtown Sydney. Mr Howard, who will attend today's service, said the Government has the power to order the Australian air...

Eleven Melbourne men accused of plotting a terrorist attack in Australia were committed Friday to stand trial. The 11 were among 13 picked up in Melbourne in November over what police said was a 'significant threat' to Australia. Committal hearings for the remaining two are to be held at a later date. The men are all followers of Algerian-born Abdul Nacer Benbrika, a radical Melbourne cleric who also had acolytes in Sydney, eight of whom were arrested at the same time. The 11 are charged with being members of a terrorist organization, and some are charged with funding a terrorist...

A SYDNEY brothel owner has resorted to offering petrol discounts to clients in a bid to boost business. Madam Kerry's brothel in western Sydney offers clients a discount of 20c a litre if they use one of its "service providers". Kerry said high petrol prices were hurting the sex service market as much as any other industry. "We wanted to think outside the box, we have gone quieter with the high petrol prices and we wanted to find a way to give something back to our clients," Kerry told AAP. And on top of the money back from the brothel,...

PASSENGERS on an international flight have been evacuated from a plane at Sydney Airport after a threat was made against the aircraft. "A Pacific Blue flight from Nadi, Fiji, which landed at approximately 5.45pm (AEST) today has had a threat made against it," Sydney Airport Corporation spokesman Peter Vickary said. "That aircraft has been parked away from the terminal, the passengers have been evacuated and the NSW police are now investigating." The Seven Network says the threat against the 737 aircraft was made from the Philippines .. while the plane was en route from Fiji. The east-west runway at Sydney...

10 minutes ago SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian police said on Thursday they were investigating reports that a suspicious device may have been found on board a flight that landed at Sydney airport from Fiji. A police spokesman said the reports were unconfirmed. Passengers and crew were evacuated from the plane, which has been parked away from the main terminal buildings while it is being searched, the spokesman said. No further details were available.

TERRORISM suspects hoarded computer how-to guides on making explosives and articles about al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and jihad, a court heard yesterday. Aimen Joud, 21, also had graphic video footage of the execution and decapitation of a man said to have come from Chechnya in 1998, Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told. Federal police found the manuals on terrorism and militant Islam when searching the homes of Mr Joud and Shane Kent, 29, in September 2004. Sen-Constable Paul Madden told the court one handbook, known as the Vortex Cookbook, was later shown to the group's alleged spiritual leader, Abdul Nacer Benbrika....

ANGER over the Middle East conflict and the spiralling civilian death toll in Lebanon might have triggered an attack on a Sydney synagogue, a rabbi said today. Rabbi Wernick and his young family were inside a house attached to a synagogue in Mason Street at Parramatta when it was attacked about 9pm (AEST) last night. Projectiles were hurled at the roof of the synagogue, and blocks of concrete were thrown at two cars, smashing windows. Shortly after the incident witnesses told police they saw a group of about 10 Middle Eastern men laughing and running down a nearby street. Rabbi...

Suspected terrorist Willie Brigitte was reportedly sent to Australia to help a local terror group prepare a terrorist act "of great size". Brigitte, 35, who was deported last October and is in French custody, was a link figure in the world terrorist network who had connections with the organisers of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the March 11 Madrid train blasts, Sydney's The Daily Telegraph reported. It said his potential targets included the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor and the Australian army's administrative compound at Victoria Barracks, both in Sydney, and the Perth headquarters of Australia's SAS regiment. French authorities...

CANBERRA: The first arrest made under Australia's new anti-terrorism laws, in fact the first Australian since 1978 to be charged with terrorism is a Pakistan-born medical student who allegedly attended a three-week training camp organised by the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan in January last year. Sydney resident Izhar Ul-Haque was arrested by the Australian Federal Police on April 15 and although he was released on bail on May 27, he is said to be under close observation. His lawyer has denied he was a terrorist but admitted that Ul-Haque was sympathetic to the “Kashmir cause''. Ul-Haque is said to have claimed...

A council in the Australian city of Sydney is taking radical measures against car-revving youths - the calming tones of singer Barry Manilow. Officials in Rockdale say that local youths have been hanging around in car parks, revving their engines and generally annoying residents. So the council has decided to strike back. From July, Barry Manilow's greatest hits will be piped into one car park in a bid to drive the youths away.

THE American Hooters chain will make a second attempt to crack the Australian market when it opens two of its restaurants in Sydney later this year. The restaurant and bar, better known for its skimpily dressed waitresses than its burgers, will open in Parramatta in July and Cronulla in December. There are also plans to expand to the Gold Coast and two other Sydney locations in 2007. While there are more than 400 locations world-wide, a previous attempt to open in Australia in 1997 was far from successful. The short-lived entity was located in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Five...

<p>SYDNEY, Australia - Brothel owners in the southern state of Victoria have called for an exemption to a new ban on smoking in the workplace, saying customers like to light up after sex.</p> <p>The Australian Adult Entertainment Industry has written to Victoria's health minister arguing that new laws banning smoking in bars and brothels could push prostitution back into the streets, according to a report in the Sunday Herald Sun newspaper.</p>

PATRONS at a bar in Sydney have foiled masked robbers by throwing stools at them. Three men wearing hooded jackets and with their faces disguised, entered the hotel in Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, just after 9pm (AEST) yesterday, police said. One of them was armed with a large knife and threatened a female worker, demanding cash while his companions guarded the bar. But a patron confronted the man and a struggle ensued, during which other drinkers began throwing bar stools at the men. All three offenders fled empty-handed and were last seen running down Eveleigh Street. A crime scene was established...