Australia

Australia cuts rates to brake recession

Australia cuts rates to brake recessionSydney  - The Reserve Bank of Australia on Tuesday cut its benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage points to 3 per cent in hopes of breathing life into the somnolent economy.

It was the fifth cut in six months in the rate the central bank charges banks for borrowing.

The further easing of monetary policy came on the heels of figures showing a further fall in inflation. The bank said it now sees recession as a worse threat than inflation.

Public-private company to build Australian broadband network

Public-private company to build Australian broadband network Sydney - The Australian government on Tuesday scrapped a tender process and announced it would form a new company to build a national high-speed fibre-optic broadband network.

The company would be a public-private partnership with Canberra selling its majority stake when the 43-billion-Australian-dollar (30-billion-US-dollar) project is completed.

"It's the most ambitious, far-reaching and long-term nation-building infrastructure project ever undertaken by an Australian government," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.

Australia to build broadband network

Australia to build broadband networkSydney  - The Australian government Tuesday scrapped a tender process and announced it would form a new company to build a national high-speed fibre-optic broadband network.

The company would be a public-private partnership, with Canberra selling its majority stake when the 43-billion-Australian-dollar (30- billion-US-dollar) project is completed.

"It's the most ambitious, far-reaching and long-term nation- building infrastructure project ever undertaken by an Australian government," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.

Schindler's list resurfaces in Australia

Schindler's list resurfaces in AustraliaSydney - The list of 801 Jews threatened by Nazi persecution that was drawn up by German industrialist Oskar Schindler in 1945 has resurfaced in Australia and will go on show at a Sydney library, news reports said Monday.

It's actually a carbon-copy, typed at the same time as the carbon copy that is among the prized exhibits at the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, but it's priceless all the same because few carbon copies survived and the original has never been found.

Beyonce Knowles takes her ‘I Am’ tour to Australia

Melbourne, Apr 6 : Pop star Beyonce Knowles will be taking her `I Am' tour to Australia in September.

The Bootylicious singer kicked off her dazzling tour in Canada last week.

10pct young Oz women take illicit drugs to lose weight

10pct young Oz women take illicit drugs to lose weightSydney, Apr 6 : One in 10 young Australian women take illicit drugs to reduce weight, according to a survey.

Conducted for Grazia magazine, the survey has shown that 10 per cent of women used stimulants like cocaine and speed in a bid to shed weight.

While 67 per cent were in a healthy weight range, 57 per cent of the young women considered themselves overweight, of which another 57 per cent wanted to be size 8 or smaller.

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