Australia & Oceania

DILI, East Timor - Thousands of mourners lit candles, sang hymns and prayed in East Timor on Thursday, honoring the victims of a massacre of pro-independence demonstrators by Indonesian troops 18 years ago.

SYDNEY - A bomb-sniffing dog that disappeared during a fierce battle in Afghanistan between Australian troops and militant fighters has been found and returned to its unit after more than a year.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian sniffer dog has been found alive and well nearly 14 months after going missing in an intense firefight in war-torn southern Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - China has extended an investigation of detained Rio Tinto mining executive Stern Hu by two months, Australian officials said Thursday, calling for a quick resolution to the long-running case.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Britain's last surviving World War I veteran shunned Remembrance Day commemorations Wednesday because he was against the glorification of war, his family was reported as saying.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali pirates seized a Greek cargo ship and a Yemeni fishing boat in the latest attacks demonstrating their ability to evade international naval forces, gunmen and officials said on Wednesday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia on Wednesday rejected plans to build a massive new dam, despite pleas it is needed to provide water to residents, because of its feared impact on endangered fish and turtles.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Aborigines can still expect to die up to 11.5 years earlier than other Australians and are twice as likely to die as infants, figures showed, despite government pledges to tackle their health problems.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian territory became the first to legalise civil partnership ceremonies for same-sex couples, in a move supporters hoped would spark national momentum.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto said Tuesday it was interested in collaborating with Chinalco, months after rejecting a massive cash injection from the state-owned Chinese firm.

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian student sparked fears of a new era of computer viruses on Tuesday after creating a worm which infects Apple's iconic iPhone with pictures of 1980s pop star Rick Astley.

BRISBANE, Australia - It was just a routine car wash. Except there was no car — and no clothing.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Members of an elite Australian college linked to Sydney University provoked outrage Tuesday after it was revealed they had set up a "pro-rape" group on social networking site Facebook.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - New opinion polls added pressure on Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Monday to take a tougher stand against asylum-seekers and end a standoff involving 78 boat-people picked up by an Australian ship off Indonesia.

SYDNEY (AFP) - A man spearfishing in South Australia was mauled in a shark attack Sunday, officials said as a report warned of several sightings of the deadly predators in the area.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Withdrawing Australia's government stimulus now would interrupt the recovery underway, Treasurer Wayne Swan said Sunday as he warned the country was not immune to the risks to the global economy.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australian authorities declared a natural disaster along parts of the country's east coast as heavy floods cut the main road linking major cities, stranding thousands of people.

JAKARTA (AFP) - Indonesia extended by a week on Friday a deadline for an Australian customs ship loaded with 78 protesting Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave its territory.

LONDON (AFP) - An angry man threw a boot at former Australian prime minister John Howard during a debate at Cambridge University, the quick-thinking student who caught the shoe said on Thursday.

MELBOURNE (AFP) - Australian police laid murder charges against a 49-year-old male patient on Thursday over a stabbing rampage at a secure psychiatric hospital that left two people dead.

MELBOURNE, Australia - A psychiatric patient was charged Thursday with two counts of murder in the overnight stabbing deaths of two men who were also patients at an Australian hospital.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia launched an inquiry on Thursday into a major oil spill off its coast which has been described as one of the country's worst environmental disasters.

SYDNEY - In the world of fiddler crabs, the best form of protection for females is, apparently, having sex with the neighbors, according to an Australian study published Wednesday.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Monitoring the clean-up of a huge oil spill in pristine Australian waters could take as long as seven years, an official said Wednesday as environmentalists urged a wide-ranging inquiry into the disaster.

SYDNEY (AFP) - Two Australian pilots have been suspended for preparing to land a passenger plane without the correct landing gear, in what air safety investigators Wednesday labelled a "serious incident".

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia called off an air and sea search for survivors on Wednesday after a boat carrying unidentified Sri Lankans sank in remote seas far off its northwest, killing 12.

SYDNEY - Planes and ships searching a remote patch of the Indian Ocean found no signs Tuesday of additional survivors from the sinking of a suspected asylum-seeker boat. Eleven people were believed missing, while 27 were rescued.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - A boat carrying around 40 people, possibly asylum seekers, has sunk off the remote Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean, with 19 people rescued and aircraft searching for other survivors, Australian officials said on Monday.

WELLINGTON (AFP) - Prince William will visit New Zealand early next year for his first official overseas trip, then travel to Australia as he steps up his royal duties, the countries' leaders said Monday.