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The Tour Down Under became another Europe-Australia contest, taken out this time by the home team, in the shape of Victoria’s Simon Gerrans (picture).
The 803-kilometre race staged during six days, over the last 14 years in the South and South-eastern part of the country, draws in a set of riders from international elite racing, and thousands of fun riders, children and amateur racers in parallel events. … Read More »
Christmas celebrations in 2011 were marked with calls for the protection of innocents, love of family, and salvaging of the Earth itself.
Pope Benedict XVI in Rome said the earth was “stained with blood”, praying for the victims of war in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and for victims of natural disasters.
The Christian festival, as sometimes will happen, saw the creation of martyrs. More than forty people were killed in a round of bigotry and religious hysteria in Nigeria, by bombs set off while they were in church, on Christmas Day (25.12.11). Blasts were recorded in the capital, Abuja, Jos in the centre of the country, and other places, in the North-east. Friction between Christian and Islamic communities in Nigeria has got worse in recent years. … Read More »
“The international take-over of the Melbourne Cup is complete after the first seven across the line yesterday were international horses”, said one commentator, echoing almost all. … Read More »
A bizarre answer to cravings for a safe investment in troubled times … purchase, and hold onto a one-tonne gold coin from the Australian mint at Perth. … Read More »
Backing-off on liberal marijuana laws in the Netherlands this month has seen a new ban in the offing, on potent varieties of the drug, known as “skunk”. … Read More »
An economist working at the European Union office in Port Moresby was bitten by a large tiger shark while kite surfing off-shore near the city on Sunday. … Read More »
“This is the most humble day of my life”, said Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of News Corporation, on Tuesday, at the commencement of a parliamentary hearing in London into the affairs of his company.
Well into the hearing, a member of the public lunged at him with a shaving cream “pie” on a plate, causing a ten-minute recess, a young man ending up in handcuffs, (and journalists there saying Wendy Murdoch, defending her husband, took on the assailant).
The Select Committee on Culture and Media said it had reconvened because it had been misled in a 2009 investigation into the hacking of private telephones by the Murdoch group newspaper, The News of the World. … Read More »