Author: ROD MCGUIRK Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia — Police fear Bradley John Murdoch, known as the “Outback Killer”, has taken to his grave the secret of how he disposed of the body of British backpacker Peter Falconio who was murdered in arid central Australia 24 years ago. Murdoch died Tuesday night, aged 67, in the palliative care unit of the […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — Police believe search aircraft are their best chance of finding German tourist Carolina Wilga a day after her van was found abandoned in the Australian Outback, an officer said Friday. The last known sighting of the 26-year-old backpacker was June 29 at a general store in the wheat farming town of Beacon, […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian universities would lose government funding unless they address attacks on Jewish students and potential immigrants would be screened for political affiliations under recommendations to the government made public on Thursday aimed at curbing antisemitism. Antisemitic incidents including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation had surged more than threefold in Australia in the […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — An arsonist set fire to the door of a Melbourne synagogue and forced the congregation to flee on Friday, seven months after criminals destroyed a synagogue in the same Australian city with an accelerant-fueled blaze that left a worshipper injured. A man doused the double front doors of the downtown East Melbourne […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — A man was charged Sunday over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue in an apparent escalation of antisemitic violence in Australia’s second-most populous city. Angelo Loras, 34, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court Sunday charged with arson, endangering life and property damage. He was also charged with possessing a “controlled weapon” […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — A woman has sustained severe injuries to an arm when she was attacked by a lion at an Australian zoo. The Darling Downs Zoo in Queensland state said the 50-year-old woman was watching animal keepers working in the zoo’s carnivore precinct before opening hours Sunday morning when she was attacked. She was […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — An Australian domestic flight was delayed for two hours after a stowaway snake was found in the plane’s cargo hold, officials said on Wednesday. The snake was found on Tuesday as passengers were boarding Virgin Australia Flight VA337 at Melbourne Airport bound for Brisbane, according to snake catcher Mark Pelley. The snake […]

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australian army whistleblower David McBride, who leaked allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan to the media, lost a court bid to have his prison sentence reduced on Wednesday. The three Australian Capital Territory Court of Appeal judges unanimously rejected the 61-year-old former army lawyer’s appeal against the severity of a five […]