WhyGo Australia News 06/23/2010

KEVIN Rudd's leadership is in crisis tonight as factional leaders and MPs urged Julia Gillard to challenge for the prime ministership.

MELBOURNE (AFP) – Two Australian men needed surgery after shooting each other in the buttocks during a drinking session to see if it would hurt, police said on Wednesday.

QUEENSLANDERS, the most dependent of Australians on tourism, are the least optimistic about the economic outlook.

THE Congolese airline and plane involved in the west African air crash that killed the entire board of the Perth-based mining company Sundance Resources had been banned by Australia's leading risk management and specialised insurance firm.

Australia has always been this magical place in my mind. After my dad went on a surf trip when I was a kid and my mom’s total love for it, even though she’s never been, there has been something fantastical about this kangaroo and diggeradoo packed place…

The chief executive of upmarket Australian department store company David Jones abruptly resigned on Friday after revealing he had acted inappropriately toward a female staff member.

The match coincides with National Nude Day, and the New Zealanders are led out by David "Bourkey" Bourke, a veteran of all Nude Blacks' games since they were formed in 2002.

The federal government will spend $30 million trying to lure more Chinese tourists Down Under. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used a visit by Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinpeng to talk up the potential of Chinese tourism to the Australian economy. The government will stage a forum in Cairns "in the near future" on boosting two-way tourism.

Australia will offer every assistance in the hunt for a plane that went down in West Africa with six Australians on board, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says.

The excretion of nutrient-rich poo boosts the growth of plankton in the ocean, which helps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, scientists say. The research lends more weight to the argument against whaling, which will be debated at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Agadir, Morocco this week.