Sydney - A wall of Aboriginal rock art paintings replete with images of aeroplanes, bicycles, guns and steamships blasted open the notion that interaction between Australia's indigenous population and the rest of the world began with the British takeover and the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, scientists said Saturday.

"This rock art dismantles the popular identity of Australia being a nation first visited by the British," Griffith University archaeologist Paul Tacon said.

The panoply of 1,500 pictures, some dating back 15,000 years and the most recent done in the 1940s, detail extensive contact with Bugis traders from the Indonesian port city of Macassar in Sulawesi, now called Ujung Pandang.

Sydney  - Australia's securities regulator Friday joined its counterparts in the United States and Britain in curbing the short-selling of shares that has contributed to the tumult on stock markets.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ruled that from Monday a temporary ban on what's called naked short-selling would take effect.

In naked short-selling, traders sell shares they don't actually own in the hope of buying them later at a cheaper price. ASIC said it was concerned some individuals were spreading false and misleading information about listed companies to provoke fire sales of securities at low prices.

Melbourne, Sep 19 : Australia’s relationship with China could be affected by the US election results and the Australian influence is limited to reacting to US actions, a former American diplomat has said.

Former Clinton government official Derek Shearer said Republican candidate John McCain would be more forceful with China, while a Barack Obama Democrat Administration is likely to be less confrontational.

Now visiting Australia on a US state department tour, the former US Ambassador to Finland, said he expected tough foreign diplomacy from Senator McCain.

Sydney, Sept. 19 : A convicted killer and ringleader of the "Super Max jihadists" is likely to create legal history by claiming that his segregation from other prisoners represents false imprisonment.

Bassam Hamzy''s lawyers flagged an appeal in the Supreme Court today that they may argue that his solitary confinement in Goulburn''s Super Max prison complex constitutes false imprisonment, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

If he decides to go ahead with the new claim, his lawyers will argue that he is illegally imprisoned within a prison.

Toulouse, France - Australian carrier QantasQantas has taken delivery of the first of the 20 Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft it has ordered, Airbus said Friday.

The aircraft was handed over to Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon at a ceremony at Airbus headquarters in the southern French city of Toulouse.

The world's largest commercial airliner, the A380 typically seats 525 passengers but can seat up to 850, depending on cabin configuration.

The Qantas A380 will have a more spacious cabin, with only 450 seats, 332 of them in Economy class, Airbus said in its statement.

Canberra, September 19: A team of marine scientists has found hundreds of new lifeforms, which includes some bizarre creatures, on Lizard and Heron islands on the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia.

According to a report carried out in www. news. com. au, the research project has taken four years and revealed some strange creatures.

Among those found was a “tongue biter” parasite that eats the tongues of host fish and then essentially becomes the new tongue by attaching itself to the fish’s mouth.

The study also found hundreds of previously unknown soft corals, brightly coloured jellyfish, crabs and other creatures they believe may hold the key to curing some human diseases.