down under

Two "unlucky" BASE jumpers were arrested soon after leaping from a city tower overnight, after they landed just metres from shocked police officers on a regular patrol of the city.

Police in Sydney were driving along George Street near the intersection of Liverpool Street about 3.10am when a man in a parachute landed a short distance from their car, police said.

A short time later they watched as a second jumper landed on the other side of the road.

After a three-way jump-off between Robbie Maddison, Ryan Capes and Seth Enslow at Calder Park on March 28 in Melbourne, Australia, a new world record for the longest distance jump from ramp to ramp on a motorcycle was set at over 351 feet by Robbie Maddison. In fact, the record was beaten twice that night, with Ryan Capes briefly holding the record at 324 feet, which was two feet more than Maddison's previous record.

An Australian who passed himself off as Bon Jovi guitarist Richard Sambora to obtain $25 million in loans could spend the next 16 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Romeo Pacifico, 44, of Adelaide changed his name to that of the U.S. rocker as part of his scheme to defraud finance companies out of millions of dollars to keep his business going while living a lavish lifestyle, The Australian reported Tuesday. The fraud took place from about 1998 to 2002, with Pacifico "robbing Peter to pay Paul," District Judge Wayne Chivell said.

"It was stealing and stealing on a grand scale," he said.

While Pacifico used some of the late loans to pay off earlier debts, the lenders wound up losing about $8 million, The Australian reported.

Machete wielding masked bandits picked the wrong club to rob yesterday - 50 biker club members were meeting there.

Police said the robbers raided the Regents Park Sporting Club in Sydney about 8.50pm yesterday, ordering people at the bar to lie on the floor.

But the robbers failed to notice 50 members of the Southern Cross Cruiser Club enjoying a drink in the nearby auditorium.

"Fifty of us jumped out of our seats and raced out to the main bar," said club president Jerry "Jester" van Cornewal.

Back to Basics: Live and Down Under is her new DVD and Christina Aguilera showed up in L.A. to sign copies. But I seriously doubt if anybody actually looked at the DVD itself...

Two in three Australian travelers are either members of the notorious Mile High Club or would like to be a member, a survey showed on Monday.

Asked if they would consider a mid-air sexual encounter, almost half of 1,110 people surveyed wanted an adventure, while 12 percent already had mile-high membership wings.

"People are obviously looking for more stimulating entertainment than a movie or a CD when traveling by plane," Totaltravel.com global marketing manager Paul Fisher said.

In a media world where celebrities in rehab are seemingly as newsworthy as war in Iraq, last weekend's tale of a straight-talking, semi-naked, bleached-blond, unrepentant teenage party animal blamed for wreaking havoc on suburban Melbourne was destined to be a "grower".

And grow it did. By last night reports of 16-year-old Corey Worthington and the out-of-control party he threw that drew 500 wild youths to Narre Warren while his parents holidayed on the Gold Coast had gone global.

I like Tara Reid because I feel like we have a lot in common. The only difference is that she’s got a budget to afford some dude to carry around her boots and purse after she gets a drunken pedicure, when I have to convince old ladies to let me carry their purses, so that I can run off with them and hope there’s enough cash to get me my next drink.

This is the banjo-playing gunman being hunted by police after he allegedly shot dead a father-of-four who complained about his loud music.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for Stanley Francis Maguire, 59, of Woonona, near Wollongong, after alleging he killed neighbour Steve Holmes about 9.10pm on Saturday.

Maguire, who also goes by the name of John Maguire, has now been on the run for three days.

He is believed to be possibly hiding out in bush near Mt White, toward the Central Coast, after his red Nissan Pulsar was found abandoned near the F3 freeway.

Qantas staff have been booed by frustrated passengers at Brisbane Airport after leaving their check-in counters to assist an elderly woman who collapsed and died in the long queue.

The 80-year-old woman is believed to have suffered a heart attack shortly after joining Qantas Club check-in queue on Monday morning.

Two doctors at the terminal provided medical assistance until paramedics arrived 15 minutes later but they were unable to revive her.

An Australian has beaten the Germans at their own boozy game, smashing the world record for carrying stein glasses full of beer.

Bavarian-born restaurant manager Reinhard Wurtz, who recently became an Australian citizen, broke the record for carrying one-litre steins of beer, when he carried 20 for 40 metres last night.

With each beer-filled stein weighing at least 2.5 kilograms, Mr Wurtz carried 50 kilograms of beer and glass in the record-breaking effort.

Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Santa Clauses in Sydney have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.

Car hoons will have their vehicles crushed and the video posted on the internet in a bid to deal with the growing defiance of speed obsessed drivers in Sydney.

But first they will have to witness their car destroyed under crash test experiments in RTA labs.

As four more cars were confiscated at the weekend in drag racing offences across Sydney, The Daily Telegraph can reveal NSW premier Morris Iemma is planning a major offensive against this increasingly reckless - and often fatal - behaviour.

Talk about wishing he'd bitten his tongue.

A Brisbane man reports he was so fed up with always having to be the one to initiate sex in their marriage that he turned to his wife and said "I'll make no more advances until you ask me." That was eight years ago and they haven't had sex since.

The man recently volunteered to take part in a sex research project for social commentator and sex therapist Bettina Arndt, which looks at how couples negotiate their sex supply.
Arndt is tracking how couples deal with ups and downs in their sexual drive. She has more than 80 couples keeping sex diaries for her in which they discuss their daily negotiations over sex.

A Year 10 student has been given permission to take cigarette breaks while at school because her doctor says she is clinically addicted to nicotine.

Tara Lewis, 16, who smokes as much as a packet a day, is allowed to smoke between classes to relieve the "stress" of her Year 10 studies.

Stromlo High School has granted the amazing concession to the Canberra teenager despite the ACT Government boasting of its plans to tighten laws to stop underage smoking.

It is also illegal to supply cigarettes to anybody under the age of 18.

A woman who slaughtered a pet goat at a Brisbane church in a Friday the 13th prank will be forced to apologise to the animal's owners and the church community.

Tracey Lee Arnold, 26, of Coorparoo, was today sentenced to two years' probation for the slaughter of Maddie the pet goat at Bellbowrie Community Church, west of Brisbane, on October 13 last year.

She pleaded guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court last month to three counts including stealing and injuring an animal, but the sentencing was adjourned until today to allow for a psychiatric report to be prepared.

A man has been charged with murder in Australia after allegedly punching and kicking an elderly man during a heated argument over water restrictions.

Ken Proctor, 66, was watering his front lawn in southern Sydney on Wednesday when Todd Munter, 36, walked past and made a remark about wasting water.

Mr Proctor then turned his hose on Mr Munter, prompting a fight, police said.

An off-duty police officer intervened and arrested Mr Munter, but Mr Proctor later died after having a heart attack.

A woman giving another motorist the “small penis” hand gesture – popularised by a driver safety advertising campaign – provoked him lash out in an act of road rage, a court heard.

Simon Jardak was today convicted and fined $400 for maliciously damaging property after throwing a bottle out his window in anger because the RTA hand gesture offended him.

The hand gesture was the basis of a New South Wales advertising campaign against speeding.

A former prisoner liked his old cell at Melbourne's Pentridge prison so much that he is buying it back.

Graeme Alford, who spent several years in the former Pentridge prison at Coburg, in the north of Melbourne, after being convicted of embezzlement and later armed robbery in the 1970s, will buy cell number 43 in the jail's old D Division.

The former prison is being redeveloped into a residential and commercial complex.

A man has been jailed for an hour of road madness that included drink-driving at speeds of up to 237km/h with his 12-month old daughter on board, several abandoned police pursuits and red-light running through inner-Brisbane streets last year.

The Brisbane District Court was told the dangerous situation only ended when Brent Briskey drove his Holden Commodore sedan into a concrete dividing wall on the Inner City Bypass.
The court heard that during the chaos on May 21, 2006, Briskey also drove on the wrong side of the road, ran several red lights, reversed his vehicle at a police car to avoid arrest, performed burn-outs and drove at pace through a Random Breath Testing site.

Customs officals in Australia said Thursday that they had discovered a large amount of ecstasy inside a Mr. Potato Head children's toy mailed to Sydney from Ireland.

Customs said the toy was intercepted in a parcel at Sydney's international mail centre after an alert official suspected there may be something sinister behind Mr. Potato Head's toothy grin.

"Upon opening the parcel, Customs officers were greeted with the smiling face of Mr. Potato Head," Customs said in a statement.

At Bondi Beach a total of 1,010 bikini-clad women made history today, where they broke a world record by posing in the largest swimsuit photo shoot ever.

The event in Sydney was watched by hundreds of spectators and an official Guinness World Records adjudicator.

In January you can see the shoot in Cosmopolitan magazine, on sale Monday December 3, and will also feature in the next edition of the Guinness World Records book, out in September 2008.

Click Read More for pics of the event...

Detectives are stunned by a daylight attack at Newmarket, in the north of Brisbane on Monday, in which a woman had her underwear ripped off and bag stolen.

Cops say the 23-year-old woman was grabbed from behind as she walked home from Newmarket train station.

The offender then lifted her dress up, and pulled off her underpants before grabbing her bag and taking off.

"It was absolute daylight, not far from a Brisbane train station. This person must have felt sure he was going to get away with it," Det-Sen-Sgt Rix said. He said there was no attempt to sexually assault the woman, who did not realise her bag had been stolen until some time later.

Pop duo The Veronicas swapped their punk rock threads for a set of khakis today to help launch a special day to honour Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin.

Twins Lisa and Jess Origliasso joined students from Albany Creek State School in Brisbane's north to launch Steve Irwin Day, which will be held on November 15.

The day, run by Australia Zoo, encourages people to either visit the zoo, wear khaki or have a backyard campout to help raise money for Irwin's Wildlife Warriors charity.

Police in Australia, New Zealand and the US are searching for the parents of a three-year-old girl abandoned at a train station in southern Australia.
Qian Xun Xue - known as Pumpkin until she was identified on Monday - was found in Melbourne on Saturday.

Australian police believe her father, Xue Nai Zin, fled to the US after dumping the toddler.

In New Zealand, police say they fear for the girl's mother, Annie Xue, who has not been seen since 10 September.

They found a car belonging to 27-year-old Mrs Xue, a Chinese national also known as Anan Liu, at the airport in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, on Monday night.

A lesbian couple is suring a Canberra doctor after one of them gave birth to twins instead of one child.

In the first case of its kind in Australia, the couple, who now live in Melbourne, are suing Dr Robert Armellin for more than $400,000 to cover the cost of raising one of the twin girls until the age of 21.

The birth mother of the girls, who are now aged three, claims Dr Armellin implanted her with two embryos, when she told him minutes before the IVF procedure in November 2003 that she only wanted one.

The Royal Australian Navy is paying for women sailors to have breast enlargements for purely cosmetic reasons, at a cost to taxpayers of $10,000 an operation.

Defence officials claim the surgery is justified because some servicewomen need bigger breasts to address "psychological issues".

Darling Point plastic surgeon Kourosh Tavakoli told The Sunday Telegraph the navy had paid for two officers, aged 25 and 32, to have breast-augmentation surgery at his private clinic.

Golf star Nikki Garrett is suing Zoo Weekly, claiming the lads' mag made her out to be a prostitute.

The 23-year-old professional golfer instructed her lawyers to take Federal Court action after the magazine published a picture of a scantily clad Garrett originally taken for the Women of Professional Golf calendar to raise money for charity.

The picture appeared in the magazine's January 29 edition accompanied by a salacious caption.

Australians under 18 will be banned from getting intimate body piercings under new State Government legislation.

The new laws announced today, will also make it illegal for children under 16 to get any type of piercing without their parents' written consent.

A draft of the proposed changes will be released for public consultation later this year.

Intimate body piercings include genital and nipple studs and rings.

A 30-year-old man is lucky to be alive after he and his wife were assaulted by up to six occupants of a Hummer vehicle as they stood admiring it in inner-Melbourne early today.

Police said the man and his 32-year-old wife were admiring a silver-coloured Hummer - a large, US-style four-wheel drive - outside Kings car park on Flinders Lane, between Spencer and King streets, about 5.30am (AEST) when they were set upon.

The man said "I love your car" before he was attacked by up to six people, with at least one brandishing a metal bar.

"The victim was severely beaten and left unconscious," Detective Senior Constable Brett Hampson said.