HEALTH-AUSTRALIA: Fighting Dengue With Bacterial Ally

Australian scientists appear to have made a potentially major breakthrough in the battle to combat dengue fever, the mosquito-borne infection which leads to more than 20,000 fatalities worldwide each year.

AUSTRALIA: Refusing to Resettle Gitmo Inmates

Australia's rejection of Bush administration requests to accept a number of detainees currently held at the Guantánamo Bay detention centre, although supported in some quarters, is also being opposed in others.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: No Accountability For Anti-Terror Errors

Despite the Kevin Rudd-led government committing to introduce all ten recommendations of the inquiry into Australian authorities’ bungled terrorism investigation of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, civil rights groups are concerned at the lack of accountability for mistakes made.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: ‘Prison-like’ Immigration Facility Open

Refugee rights organisations have criticised the Rudd government’s decision to hold suspected asylum seekers in a controversial detention centre on an isolated Australian island in the Indian Ocean.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Emissions Reduction Target ‘Weak’

The gap between the Rudd government’s rhetoric and practice in addressing climate change, albeit with one eye on the worsening global financial conditions, has led to a palpable feeling of betrayal among Australians.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: E-Waste – ‘Motherboard of All Problems’

With electronic items high on Christmas shopping lists, a new report is calling on the government to ensure that manufacturers collect and recycle unwanted computers and mobile phones to protect environmental and human health.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Anti-Terror Laws Under Increasing Fire

As the Rudd government continues to speak of the need to balance concerns for civil liberties with maintaining intrusive counter-terror legislation to protect Australia, rights groups are stepping up their campaign against the laws.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Anti-Whalers Take Campaign to Japan

As Japan’s whaling fleet sails south for the annual hunting season, Greenpeace and the Australian government are concentrating their anti-whaling actions on diplomacy and public opinion in Japan.

Q&A: ''The One Goal is to End Homelessness''

The week-long Homeless World Cup football competition came to a dramatic climax here on Dec.7, with Afghanistan and Zambia, respectively, winning the men’s and women’s competitions in what was the sixth edition of the annual tournament. But while the competition provides players with the opportunity to represent their country and gives spectators a chance to appreciate some exhilarating street soccer, the Homeless World Cup’s president and co-founder, Mel Young, told IPS that ending homelessness is the real goal.

AUSTRALIA: Homeless World Cup – More Than Football

While the action has been fast and furious among the 56 teams competing in the 2008 Homeless World Cup - a football tournament in which homeless and marginalised people from around the world represent their respective nations - the problems associated with homelessness are never too far away.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Aboriginal's Death in Custody Case – No Justice?

Although supporters have expressed satisfaction with the six year jail term handed down recently to Lex Wotton for his role in the 2004 Palm Island riot - sparked by the death in police custody of aboriginal man Cameron Doomadgee - they say that justice has yet to be served.

AUSTRALIA: Do More Regionally to Stop HIV/AIDS Gov’t Told

While HIV infection rates remain relatively low in Australia, the peak non-governmental organisation representing the country’s community-based response to HIV/AIDS wants the government to do more to fund prevention measures here and in the region to counter rising infection rates.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Abortion Decriminalised But Stays Controversial

While pro-choice groups have welcomed the recent decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria - Australia’s second most-populous state, where around 20,000 abortions are believed to be performed annually - anti-abortionists have vowed to continue opposing termination of pregnancies.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Harvesting Stormwater as Drought Bites Hard

With large parts of southern and eastern Australia enduring an ongoing drought, the regional centre of Orange - some 260 km west of the nation’s largest city, Sydney - is developing Australia’s first scheme to harvest stormwater in order to service the town’s requirements.

AUSTRALIA/US: Afghanistan – Potential Sticking Point For Obama

While change may have come to the United States - as professed by president-elect Barack Obama following his election victory, a result largely welcomed here - Australia’s alliance with the superpower is likely to remain strong.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Police Spying ‘Infringing on Civil Liberties’

The revelation that police in the state of Victoria have infiltrated a number of community and protest groups has been met with indignation by the targeted organisations.

AUSTRALIA: Indigenous People – Approach Still Paternalistic

The paternalistic, top-down implementation of the Australian government’s intervention in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory is undermining its chance of success.

AUSTRALIA: Poverty on the Rise Down Under

Australian cities rank high among the world’s most liveable in ‘quality of life’ surveys and car bumper stickers proclaim the nation as ‘young and free’. But an increasing number of people are living in grinding poverty, a situation that will likely be exacerbated by the ongoing global financial crisis.

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Challenging Indigenous Alcohol Myths

While it may be a relic from the past, a common assumption in Australia is that indigenous people are particularly susceptible to alcohol and its effects. But a Canberra-based anthropologist is aiming to dispel such myths.

Q&A: "Mistakes Will Continue to Happen When There Isn’t Transparency"

Not many people want to spend time at Guantánamo Bay. But while studying law at the University of Miami in 2005, Mahvish Rukhsana Khan became outraged to learn of the lack of rights afforded detainees in the "war on terror" and was keen to get involved.

ENVIRONMENT-AUSTRALIA: Discoveries Highlight Danger to Reefs

Efforts to create an inventory of life on Australia’s major coral reefs - to be used as part of a baseline to determine the impacts of global warming and overfishing upon reefs - have turned up hundreds of previously unknown and rare species.