Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Lawyers for the most senior Roman Catholic found guilty of child sex abuse argued in his appeal on Wednesday that he could not have molested two choirboys in an Australian cathedral undetected moments after Sunday Masses while he was dressed in an archbishop’s robes.

Cardinal George Pell, 77, wore a black suit and black shirt with a cleric’s collar when he appeared for the Victoria state Court of Appeal hearing before three judges. He came and went from the court as the sole occupant of a prison van. He said nothing during the hearing.

5 June 2019; DW: Australian Federal Police (AFP) raided the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday over a 2017 investigative report based on leaked military documents. The story from Australia's national public broadcaster concerned possible war crimes committed by forces in Afghanistan.

4 June 2019; DW: Attackers breached the computer systems of the Australian National University (ANU) to gain access to student data going back 19 years, ANU officials said on Tuesday. The data includes bank accounts, phone numbers, addresses, passport and tax file numbers, and academic records.

The attack was committed by "a sophisticated operator," according to ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt. He said he breach happened in late 2018 but was only discovered two weeks ago.

CANBERRA, June 1 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has chosen northern Australia for its first-ever launch from a privately-owned site.

The U.S. space agency on Friday night announced it will work with the Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) to launch four rockets from the Arnhem Space Center in Northern Territory, 700 km east of Darwin, in 2020.

SYDNEY, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Pregnant women should avoid using electronic cigarettes as there is a lack of evidence about the safety of the smoking devices, Australian researchers said on Saturday.

Many people believe that "vaping" with the e-cigarettes "was either safe or at least far safer than tobacco smoking during pregnancy, however, the lack of detailed research into the subject meant this belief could not be supported," researcher from the Telethon Kids Institute Alexander Larcombe said in a statement from the institute.

SYDNEY, June 1 (Xinhua) -- High temperatures and lack of rainfall helped kill off a record number of critically endangered sawfish in a parched creek in Western Australia state, according to the latest research.

More than 40 of the fish, with their distinctive flat nose extension and sharp traverse teeth, died on a dried-out area in the Kimberley region late last year, local media reported on Saturday.

A team of researchers, who have just confirmed the latest deaths, tried to save the fish but only two of the victims survived, according to the ABC news channel.

CANBERRA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- An elderly Australian man has suffered a heart attack while climbing Uluru, just months before the iconic rock is closed to climbers on October.

The 64-year-old man was halfway through the hour-long climb of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, with a tour group on Tuesday when he entered cardiac arrest.

Two paramedics were quick to help, and two off-duty police officers were able to get the man's heart back into "survivable rhythm" with a defibrillator while awaiting the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

29 May 2019; DW: The 17-year-old who went viral cracking an egg over a politician's head was given thousands by the public to cover his legal fees and allow him to "buy more eggs." He has donated the money to victims of a mosque attack.

Sydney, May 29 (AP) An Australian man who kidnapped and repeatedly raped a British backpacker during a month-long ordeal in the country's Outback has been jailed for 10 years.

Marcus Allyn Keith Martin, 25, had pleaded guilty in the District Court of Cairns, in the far north of Queensland state, to charges of rape and deprivation of liberty against the 22-year-old woman from Liverpool, England.

Prosecutors told the court the pair met in Cairns in January 2017 and had begun a relationship.

21 May 2019; AFP: Chinese investment in Australia has fallen to its lowest level in five years, new research shows, sparking calls for the newly re-elected conservative government to improve its rocky relationship with Beijing.

After hitting a peak of Aus$15.8 billion (US$10.4 billion) in 2016, Chinese firms invested Aus$4.8 billion in the country last year, the Australian National University said Monday.