Australia/Antarctica News

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged hundreds of thousands of young Catholics to beat back a "spiritual desert" spreading through the modern world as he closed Catholic World Youth Day in Australia.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Up to a million people in Australia could face a shortage of drinking water if the country's drought continues, a report on the state of the nation's largest river system revealed Sunday.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, wrapping up his visit to Australia, on Sunday urged a crowd of 400,000 young people to beware the spreading "spiritual desert" that often accompanied modern prosperity.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A surgeon linked to the deaths of more than a dozen patients in Australia is expected to be extradited from the United States within days, a top politician said Sunday.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - At most outdoor festivals the longest queues are generally for the portable toilets and bar but at World Youth Day in Sydney, the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock, one of the biggest queues is for confessing sins.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Saturday apologized directly for the first time for sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, but victims groups in Australia said they wanted action and not words.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia's former deputy prime minister Mark Vaile announced his resignation from politics on Saturday, ending a 15-year career in parliament during which he spent seven years as trade minister.

HANOI (Reuters) - A court in southern Vietnam has sentenced an Australian woman of Vietnamese origin to life in jail for trafficking heroin, and her husband, who is also of Vietnamese descent, to a 20-year jail term on the same charge.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday apologised explicitly for the first time to victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy, expressing his shame and calling for perpetrators of the "evil" to be brought to justice.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday led a key mass for Australian bishops and clergy at which he was expected to raise the spectre of the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church.

SYDNEY (AFP) - East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said Friday he would use a personal audience with Pope Benedict XVI to thank him for his concern after an assassination attempt earlier this year.

SINGAPORE - An Australian television journalist was charged Friday with drug trafficking and possession in Singapore and faces up to 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane, court documents and his employer said.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - An Australian journalist was arrested in Singapore on drug-related charges, the Australian government said on Friday, and faces up to 20 years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane if convicted.

SYDNEY, Australia - A veterinarian in Australia plunged his arm up to his shoulder into the throat of a rare shark to save the animal after it swallowed a grappling hook.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Efforts to promote unity within different denominations of the Christian faith are at a "critical juncture", Pope Benedict XVI told other Christian leaders in Australia Friday.

SYDNEY, Australia - Pope Benedict XVI's marathon journey to Australia gave him a bird's eye view of a beautiful but battered planet Earth.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday delivered a stinging attack on pop culture, consumerism and "false idols" to 150,000 mainly teenaged Catholic pilgrims gathered in Australia for World Youth Day.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Ecstatic Catholics mingled with curious office workers as hundreds of thousands of people lined Sydney's famous harbour Thursday to watch Pope Benedict XVI sail into an adoring welcome by pilgrims.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian hire firm which painted "Save a Whale--Harpoon a Jap" on the side of one its camping vans was accused by a senior politician Thursday of racism and risking a tourist backlash.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI prayed at a memorial to Australian nun Mary MacKillop Thursday and offered encouragement that she could eventually be declared Australia's first saint, a nun said.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI hailed the Australian government's apology to Aborigines for past injustices Thursday as he took charge of Catholic World Youth Day celebrations.

SYDNEY, Australia - Pope Benedict XVI has praised the Australian government for its apology to the country's indigenous Aborigines for past injustices.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A rapping priest from New York's Bronx entertained thousands of young pilgrims at Bondi Beach on Wednesday, while acid jazz and Gregorian Chant filled Sydney's Opera House on day two of the Catholic Church's "Woodstock."

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A motorist saved a teenager being savaged by snarling pack of pig hunting dogs in New Zealand by pulling him into the safety of her car, police said Wednesday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A scandal over sex abuse by priests which has partly overshadowed Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Australia intensified Wednesday after the parents of two victims said they planned to confront him.

SYDNEY, Australia - For Pope Benedict XVI, the cat is not quite out of the bag. Organizers of the Catholic youth festival in Sydney say they borrowed a gray cat named Bella to help the feline-loving pontiff pass the time at his retreat in Australia's bush country, according to front-page stories in Australian newspapers Tuesday.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (AFP) - Indonesia on Tuesday expressed regret for violence in East Timor in 1999 after accepting a report blaming it for crimes against humanity, but rejected calls for an international tribunal.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A koala emerged with barely a scratch after riding for miles with its head stuck in the grille of a car, Australian wildlife rescuers said Tuesday.

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesia and East Timor expressed deep regret on Tuesday for violence surrounding Dili's 1999 independence vote after a joint probe blamed state institutions for "gross human rights violations."