Australian town, 326 miles from river, hit by raining fish

Residents in a remote desert town in Australia, 326 miles from the nearest river, are recovering after witnessing two days of fish raining from the sky.

Lajamanu in the Northern Territory, population 669, has seen hundreds of small white fish fall from rain clouds with many still alive.

Weather experts in Australia believe the fish, spangled perch, were sucked up in a thunderstorm before being dumped over the tiny town.

Mark Kersemakers, the senior forecaster at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, said: “It could have scooped the fish up to 40,000 to 50,000 feet in the air.

“Once they get up into the system they are pretty much frozen. After some period they are released.”

It is the third time in less than 30 years that Lajamanu has been bombarded by falling fish, according to Northern Territory News, after reports of the phenomenon in 1974 and 2004.

Joe Ashley, 55, from Jabiru an outback town in the Northern Territory, said: “Usually fish are in the water now they are falling out of the sky what if anything bigger falls out of the sky next?

“It could be crocodiles that would be real scary.”

Thanks Telegraph UK.

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US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s first day in New Zealand will be a tiring one.

She will land in the early hours of Friday and be busy until after a small dinner party hosted by Prime Minister John Key that night.

Although she is in New Zealand for two days, her formal bilateral meeting with Mr Key and Foreign Minister Murray McCully is expected to take just 40 minutes.

Mrs Clinton will arrive for her first visit to New Zealand on a private plane with an entourage of about 40, including US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell.

Her key meeting will be held after a powhiri at Government House in Auckland and tea with the Governor General.

High on the agenda is understood to be the United States’ review of the security relationship with New Zealand and plans to drop the US ban on military exercises with New Zealand.

Mrs Clinton and Mr McCully will also sign an agreement putting New Zealand among a handful of countries with whom the United States shares secondments of diplomatic staff.

They will allow New Zealand diplomats posted to the embassy in Washington to spend a year working at the State Department.

In return, US diplomats would be seconded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade here before beginning their own posts.

On Saturday she will meet Labour leader Phil Goff who said he wanted to voice support for United States participation in the Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, because it would have “mutual benefits”.

He also wished to discuss the outlook for Afghanistan and disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. “We expect, or hope, this administration to be more progressive than its predecessor on those issues.”

She will also attend a reception hosted by the NZ/US Council and American Chamber of Commerce where she will address business people, academics, politicians and cultural sector representatives.

Mrs Clinton will also be at a “virtual opening” of the new Antarctic Wind Farm, a $13 million project led by New Zealand and constructed by Meridian, which the US contributed to.

Mrs Clinton will also face questions from an audience at a “dialogue forum” for invited guests before meeting veterans and laying a wreath at the Auckland War Memorial.

She will leave on Sunday for Australia.

Thanks NZ Central.

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HILLARY Clinton will visit Canberra and Melbourne this month on her first trip to Australia as US Secretary of State.

One year after President Barack Obama’s inauguration, his top foreign affairs adviser has been dispatched on her first mission to Canberra for the AUSMIN talks on January 17 and will also go to Melbourne.

Ms Clinton visited Australia as first lady in 1996 during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

The global fight against terrorism and Australia’s role in Afghanistan will likely dominate the defence talks, to be attended by Ms Clinton, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Australia’s Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Defence Minister John Faulkner.

A spokesman was last night unable to say what Ms Clinton would do in Melbourne.

Ms Clinton’s visit, which has been the subject of rumour for weeks, comes at a critical time for US relations worldwide.

The Christmas Day airline bombing attempt has injected new urgency into global efforts to improve airline security and tackle al-Qa’ida in Afghanistan and Yemen. Australia has about 1500 troops in Afghanistan and there is no sign the US expects a bigger commitment.

Ms Clinton will visit Hawaii, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia on the trip.

Her predecessor, George W. Bush’s secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, visited Australia in January 2008 after Kevin Rudd was elected prime minister.

Thanks Herald Sun.

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Woman Tries Selling her Child for Gas Money

In rather some disturbing Australia news: A 37-year-old woman was arrested on a child-neglect charge Friday afternoon after a tow truck driver told police the woman offered to sell her child in exchange for gas money, Melbourne police said.

Marcy Pappalardo faces a charge of child neglect in connection with the report. Police are continuing their investigation.

Sgt. Michael Casey of Melbourne police said officers learned of a 9-1-1 call about 3 p.m. from a tow truck driver who said a woman had tried to sell him her 6-year-old boy in exchange for gas money at a gas station near U.S. 1 and Lake Washington Road.

The driver refused, Melbourne police said, and then followed the mother who was in a white sedan with her child and another woman as he called police.

“He rolled up his window and followed her. They drove all across north Melbourne,” Casey said.
The white sedan was pulled over in Suntree by police. Pappalardo was questioned and arrested. Her 6-year-old boy sat on the trunk of the car and cried as his mother was led away.

Roy Baijnath, the tow-truck driver who lives in Palm Bay, said he was concerned about the child’s safety.

“You know, I have mixed feelings. To see the kid crying like that on TV was tough. I caused that upon him and I have a kid of my own,” Baijnath said Friday night. “But had it been the other way, where would the child be?”

Mallory Acker, who was in the car with Pappalardo, told police the tow truck driver requested sex with the woman in exchange for gas money.

“When she refused, he made up this story for police,” Acker said.

No other arrests were made.

Baijnath said Friday night that there was no mention of sex in the conversation.

The child is in the care of his father, police said.

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One to Watch Out for: Daniel Goddard

A great actor from the Young and the Restless

This is a bio from his webstie:

A native of Sydney, Australia, Daniel Richard Goddard was one year away from a career in Finance at the University until he pursued acting. He transferred to the Ensemble Actors Studio and performed in local theatrical productions before landing his first major television role as ‘bad boy’ Eric Phillips on the popular European primetime soap opera Home and Away. His work on the show quickly won him recognition as one of Europe’s biggest heartthrobs.

Although he enjoyed his fame in Australia, Daniel felt it was time to set his sights on Hollywood. The transition from soap star to a virtual unknown in Los Angeles was difficult for Daniel — he literally had to start all over again. To survive, Daniel ventured into commercial modeling, appearing in print ads on behalf of such products as Calvin Klein and Dolce & Gabbana. 

Soon after, he landed the role as Dar, the Beastmaster, in the syndicated action adventure TV series entitled BeastMaster, which was filmed in Australia.  Back to Oz Daniel went.  Since the show’s debut in the fall of 1999, Daniel portrayed the mythical hero blessed with the unique ability to communicate telepathically with the animals in this fantasy world.  To prepare for the role, Daniel underwent rigorous training to convincingly match Dar’s fighting skills.  He also had to become familiar with the animals seeing as he worked so closely with them.  BeastMaster ran for three seasons.

Learn more about Daniel by reading the numerous magazine articles, talk show interviews and exclusive interviews found in the Fan Club section — it’s free to join.  Enjoy browsing the site.

http://danielgoddard.com

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This just in from Australia. A man accused of stabbing his wife to death because he feared she and  a gang were going to murder him was psychotic with a deranged brain. Huh?

Colin Barry Clough, 41, is on trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court for the murder of his wife, Leanne Elizabeth Clough, 34, on September 16, 2005 in the east Brisbane suburb of Carina.

Clough was granted a judge-only trial in November after his lawyers argued they would not contend the facts, but only the defence of insanity or diminished responsibility.

In his closing submission today, defence barrister Robert East said his client “was not of sound mind” when he used a kitchen knife to stab his wife of 12 years and mother of his three children in the chest.

Mr East said the trial had heard from four psychiatrists who all agreed that Clough was in a psychotic state at the time of the stabbing.

However, the psychiatrists have all differed in their opinion on whether or not it was Clough’s drug use that brought on the psychotic state.

Mr East said there was no evidence Clough had taken drugs within 48 hours of his wife’s death, despite admitting his client was an amphetamine (speed) user.

Mr East also highlighted a comment made from one of the psychiatrists, who said Clough had a “deranged brain”.

The court heard Clough suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and believed his wife was in a gang that wanted to torture then murder both he and his mother.

Mr East told the court that leading up to the killing his client was trying to decipher hidden messages on salami wrappers.

“This was a frenzied attack by a psychotic man,” Mr East said.

“It is more than likely that Mr Clough was not of sound mind.”

Previously the court heard Clough believed there were people living in both the ceiling and couch of his Meadowbrook home.

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Another one of my favorite people Sharon Stone is in the news. Not in this country but Australia. She was reportedly caught in a heated argument with an airhostess while boarding a Delta flight.

I guess she had refused to comply with flight restrictions, and had to have a bag checked against her will, forcing Stone to make a scene at the Delta flight from Kalispell, MT to Salt Lake City.I guess the hostess took the bag from her and she screamed at her assistant with her and made a scene during the entire flight,” News.com.au quoted the website as saying.

 

Gotta love the craziness.

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LIZA Minnelli is being a big old baby…While being in Australia she throws a wrench in Australian musical The Boy From Oz, which she maintains exploits the memory of her former husband, Peter Allen. It’s funny because she came to the opening of the Broadway version, hypocrite. 

Minnelli, who tours here there October, also reveals she didn’t know Allen was gay when they married in 1962. Oh Really? I guess that trait followed her throughout her career, David Guest and or Mark Gero?

They divorced 10 years later when he “came out”.

Revealing also that she had no input on the musical, she told a magazine in Australia: “No, of course I didn’t know. I don’t think he knew either . . . and when he did (come to terms with it) of course he told me and of course I said, ‘I understand’. But it was hard.”

Denial Old Woman. Denial.

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Can’t go too long with out an article from Australia and or New Zealand. A woman at the centre of sex allegations against Cronulla players says her life has been destroyed by the incident and she’s wanted to kill some of the players. Duh!

The woman, who does not wish to be identified, says a night in which she had group sex with several Cronulla players at a Christchurch hotel seven years ago has left her with psychological damage and led her to abandoning her studies. It took her 7 years to figure this out?

The New Zealand Accident and Compensation Commission has found she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, has funded treatment for her and given her a weekly payment, ABC Television has reported on Monday. Psychiatrists reported that she was suicidal, had cut her wrists several times and bought a rope to hang herself.

Ex-Cronulla player Matthew Johns has admitted involvement in the incident but says it was consensual.

Among new allegations aired on Monday, the woman said two men rubbed their penises in her face while other men stood watching and masturbating. Six men had sex with her while another six looked on. There was always someone touching her, she said.”For years and years afterwards I was drinking a lot, crying a lot and losing a lot of friends and doing quite destructive things to myself and other people,” she told the program.

“At the end of it, I wasn’t so much drinking heaps and heaps, I was more scared to go out of the house.”

She said the destructive period lasted about four or five years and she was now speaking out to let the wives and girlfriends of those involved know what they had done. ”I was so angry and I wanted their lives destroyed like mine was,” she said. ”If I had a gun I’d shoot them right now. I hate them. They disgust me. For all that they did, I hate them so much.”

The woman said Matthew Johns came up to her after the incident and apologised for others coming into the room.

Christchurch police Detective Sergeant Neville Jenkins said that in the years after the incident he saw the woman “struggling with life”.

“I didn’t know her prior to this episode, but presumably I’m led to believe this is as a result of what happened to her at that time,” he said.

She had called him several times over the years in a “distressed state,” he said.

It said incidents of group sex historically had been perceived as “a tool” to facilitate team bonding, and such degrading treatment of women persisted in some quarters of the sport.

NRL CEO David Gallop, on behalf of the game, issued an apology for the NZ and other incidents.

“The distress of the victims spoke for itself and to the extent that the game can apologise for the actions of individuals then I offer that apology unreservedly,” he wrote in the statement released after the program.

He said the program “dealt with issues that I would hope everyone in the game finds appalling and unacceptable”.

“It is important, however, to understand the very substantial efforts the NRL, the clubs and the players have made in changing attitudes, particularly since 2004.

“It is also important to recognise the clear actions taken by the NRL and our clubs against those who breach our codes of conduct.”

What do you think?

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Bully Scalps Boy???

 

This is disgusting. A five-year-old boy was chased into a brick wall and had his hair and scalp skin ripped off during years of schoolyard bullying from a group led by a student in charge of protecting him. Where are the freaking parents and authorities in Australia?

Lachlan Antony Guerin also suffered a minor brain injury during the attacks at the Queensland school in 1997 and 1998, the Courier Mail reports. His guardian Evelyn-Joy Lindsay-Park filed a claim for $250,000 in Brisbane’s District Court but agreed to an offer of $150,000 from St John’s Lutheran Primary School during an out-of-court settlement. Who cares about the money?

In the claim, Ms Lindsay-Park said Lachlan’s school-assigned buddy was supposed to “provide guidance, support, mentoring and/or friendship” but instead abused him.

The “buddy” and his mates regularly pegged rocks at Lachlan and stopped him from using the bathroom, once to the point where he wet himself. Lachlan, now 16, was also hit, kicked, ridiculed and, in one incident, chased into a brick wall and scalped. He suffered bruising and scarring to the head as well as cuts and a chipped tooth.

The attacks were so intense that Lachlan also suffered a minor brain injury which affected his upper limb function, speech and co-ordination. Ms Lindsay-Park claimed the school breached its duty of care and that parental complaints were not taken seriously to prevent future bullying.

The school’s principal Helen Folker declined to comment because she is a massive douche bag!

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Cate Blanchett and her Mommy Skills

 

Cate Blanchett revealed she wants to expand her family and “homing instincts” had brought her back to Australia. ”I’d love to have more children,” the mother-of-three told InStylemagazine, out on May 18. ”Just when, I don’t know. But the thing is, we hadn’t planned any of the others. They just popped out. So you shouldn’t overplan these things. If it happens, it would be great.”

The film star and Sydney Theatre Company co-director moved back to Sydney in 2006 with her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, and their two older sons, Dashiell, 7, and Roman, 5, before the birth of Ignatius, 1.

“It was after our second son was born [in Britain] that we started to get homesick and our homing instincts got a lot stronger,” she said. “You do start to miss family.”

The Oscar-winning actress paid tribute to her mother June, who single-handedly raised three children in suburban Melbourne following the sudden death of her husband Bob from a heart attack when Blanchett was 10.

“I have a whole new sense of respect for my mother and I think she’s incredible,” she said. “She just kept going. I am in awe of women – and men – who parent by themselves. To not have someone beside you at 3am when the baby’s sick and be able to thrash that out with somebody, about what you do, the stress must be so intense.”

Blanchett, who turns 40 on Thursday, has been nominated for two awards in Tuesday’s inaugural InStyle Women of Style Awards, to be held at Australian Technology Park in Eveleigh.

She said that off the red carpet, she tended to be lazy when it came to clothes. “I tend to wear the same thing three days in a row.”

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