Australia

Pilgrims' weather forecast partly cloudy

Sydney - Not all the 225,000 pilgrims at Sydney's week-long Catholic youth festival are hoping that the picture-perfect weather holds until after the closing open-air Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.

"Rain. We're praying for the drought to break," local youngster Johanna Kelly told the Daily Telegraph on Friday.

The worst drought on record forced the sale of the family farm last year. Her Father is out of work and the family of seven get by on her mother's wage as a teacher.

Kelly, 19, is one of 100,000 local pilgrims in Australia's biggest city to meet the pope and proclaim her faith at World Youth Day.

"Drought is such a large part of Australia and while it does challenge people's faith at times, it has to rain eventually," she said.

Living doll tricks Australian police

Sydney - Police in the Australian east coast town of Gympie smashed a window to rescue a seemingly unconscious baby from a locked car only to find they had liberated an inordinately lifelike baby

Flying kangaroo cuts 1,500 jobs

Sydney - Australian airline Qantas said Friday it would cut 1,500 jobs and retire more aircraft in response to lower passenger numbers stemming from the faltering world economy and the surging cos

Catholic devotees turn on the spectacle in Sydney

Sydney - Catholic youngsters in Sydney for a weeek-long love-in with Pope Benedict XVI were promised a life-changing experience Friday as they lined the harbour for a theatrical re-enactment of the

Oz authorities drop one charge against Dr. Death

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Elisabeth Fritzl testifies against dungeon dad

London, July 17: Elisabeth Fritzl, the Austrian woman who was held as a captive by her dad for 24 years in a cellar, has finished talking about her ordeal to a judge.

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