Australia

Dungeon girl reveals her horrifying 24-year cellar ordeal

Elisabeth Fritzl boots mom out of houseMelbourne, Sept 10 : Elisabeth Fritzl, who was kept prisoner by her father Josef Fritzl for 24 years, has spoken for the first time of her horrifying cellar ordeal.

The 42-year-old bore Josef seven kids while being imprisoned in an underground cellar in Austria.

Elisabeth, who was finally freed in April, has told a judge investigating the case that she was raped up to three times a week by her father and if she tried to stop him, the children suffered.

Australia to provide food assistance for children in Indonesia

Jakarta - Australia announced Wednesday it will provide 50 billion rupiah (5.36 million dollars) to help improve food security and reduce malnutrition among children in eastern Indonesia, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said.

The contribution was announced by Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer, while visiting a clinic in Kupang, West Timor, the WFP said in a press statement.

"It is with pleasure that I announce that from 2008-10 Australia is providing the WFP with a further 50 billion rupiah (6.5 million Australian dollars)," the statement quoted Farmer as saying.

Australia unlikely to peel off global vandal tag

Australia unlikely to peel off global vandal tagSydney - It's less than a year since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd brought Australia into line with most developed countries and signed the UN's Kyoto Protocol on curbing the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.

The Labor Party leader, fresh from his November electoral triumph over John Howard's conservatives, ratified the treaty and joined European leaders in promising to reduce carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. He gave himself 12 months to set an interim target for 2020.

Oz FM optimistic about ties with India

AustraliaChennai, Sept. 9 : Describing bilateral ties between Australia and India as being on a "firm foundation", especially in the economic and social sectors, visiting Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Tuesday said that he is optimistic about the future of these "shared values and interests" and believed that both countries could "build on these great strengths."

Internet-enabled TVs set to hit Aussie lounges

Melbourne, Sept 9 : A new revolution in TV viewing will start hitting the Australian market as early as this year.

Today, the Internet can only be accessed on a television set through external hardware such as a games console or computer, such as the Apple TV.

However, these television sets are capable of directly accessing news, weather details, stock quotes and, eventually, on-demand video content from the Internet.

The content will run as "widgets" alongside regular TV shows and poses a significant threat to established free-to-air and pay TV broadcasters, which already see the Internet as a way for viewers to bypass their networks.

Australian scientists snipe at government's climate adviser

AustraliaSydney- Senior scientists on Tuesday lambasted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's top climate-change adviser for recommending only a 10-per-cent cut in Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

In an interim report delivered last week, economist Ross Garnaut said even his 10-per-cent cut should be conditional on a global deal committing all other countries to join in setting targets for reducing emissions.

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