Australia World News

Australia's new government won praise from the United Nations and human rights groups Wednesday for offering refugees permanent sanctuary rather than temporary visas.

An Australian man has been fined after buckling in a case of beer with a seat belt but leaving a 5-year-old child to sit on the car's floor, police said Tuesday.

An Australian swimmer says he survived a mauling by a 16-foot shark by wrestling with the beast, finally getting free by poking it in the eye. The shark, believed to be a great white, seized Jason Cull by the left leg as he was swimming at Middleton Beach in southwestern Australia on Saturday.

Australia is investigating allegations that its soldiers mistreated suspected insurgents in prison in Afghanistan, the military said Friday.

With a bill like a duck, a tail like a beaver and snake-like venom hidden in heel spurs, the platypus could be the result of some strange genetic experiment.

Koalas are threatened by the rising level of carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere because it saps nutrients from the eucalyptus leaves they feed on, a researcher said Wednesday.

An Australian doctor proposed Monday that the government pay up to $47,000 for kidney donations to overcome a chronic shortage.

A sixth person died of injuries suffered when a fishing trawler collided with an overcrowded boat in Sydney Harbor, authorities said Friday.

Fiji's military government defied a High Court order and deported the Australian publisher of the South Pacific country's leading newspaper Friday, continuing a campaign of media intimidation it began within days of seizing power.

Marine scientists studying the carcass of a rare colossal squid said Wednesday they had measured its eye at about 11 inches across — bigger than a dinner plate — making it the largest animal eye on Earth.