Daily News Channel
Political tension over the deadly riots that struck northwest China has spilled into an unlikely venue: the Melbourne International Film Festival. Three Chinese directors announced they were pulling their works from the event to protest the inclusion of a documentary about a Uighur activist. The Uighurs are a Turkic speaking, largely Islamic minority group concentrated in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.
Australia’s reputation as the happy, go lucky country was turned on it’s head in the late 1990s as the usually safe streets of the Victorian capital were transformed into a gangland war zone. Melbourne’s “underbelly” of organized crime suddenly became very public. Men hungry for easy money, power and control of the state’s lucrative illegal amphetamines trade were prepared to do whatever it took to be the boss of the underworld.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called for calm Wednesday, assuring the Indian community that his country was still one of the safest study destinations in the world despite a series of attacks on Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne.
An apologetic Lewis Hamilton said he had made a "huge mistake" for misleading race stewards at the Australian Grand Prix but said he had been told to lie by McLaren sporting director Dave Ryan. Hamilton, who was stripped of third place in the season-opener, broke his media silence after Ryan was suspended by McLaren and sent home from the Malaysia where the second round of the championship takes place this weekend.
World number two Roger Federer survived the loss of the second set to see off Chilean Fernando Gonzalez 6-3 5-7 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the Masters Series event in Indian Wells. Federer was winning for the 12th time in 13 matches against Gonzalez to earn a clash with Fernando Verdasco of Spain. Verdasco, playing his first match since reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open, beat German Phillipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 3-6 6-1.
Australia’s raging wildfires have killed at least 130 people, decimating massive spans of land and leaving thousands of residents homeless, creating situation officials say they’ve never experienced.
Deadly bushfires raged on in southeast Australia on Sunday despite cooler temperatures and scores of firefighters trying to control the flames. At least 35 people have died in the fires, authorities said Sunday “Unfortunately those numbers will increase as we move through the day,” said Kieran Walshe, deputy police commissioner of the state of Victoria, told CNN on Sunday, adding that police are investigating possible instances of arson. “We do believe some of the fires are the result of human intervention,” he said