Australian Towns Impose Curfews — on Cats

(NEWSER) - Sharpshooters with night-vision goggles have been dispatched to protect a penguin colony near Sydney, Australia, the BBC reports. The mutilated bodies of nine fairy penguins—the world's smallest penguin species at just 15 inches high—from the vulnerable colony have been found over the last two weeks. Wildlife officials have ruled out human involvement in the deaths and suspect foxes, dogs, or both. More»

Monika Samaan got salmonella after meal

(NEWSER) - A judge has ordered KFC to pay an Australian family $8.3 million after their daughter was poisoned and suffered brain damage after eating at the fast-food chain. Her lawyer says Monika Samaan contracted salmonella in 2005 after eating a Twister chicken wrap and fell into a six-month coma; she has since lost her ability to speak and is confined to a wheelchair. Among the more salacious tidbits: He also argued that the restaurant would serve chicken that had fallen on the floor. KFC says the evidence doesn't prove it is responsible for Monika's condition, and it plans to appeal, the BBC reports. More»

Then release it in shark-infested waters

(NEWSER) - Usually, we mock criminals when they brag about their crimes on Facebook . But if your crime was breaking into a Sea World, swimming with the dolphins, and making off with a 7-year-old fairy penguin, we understand the urge to share. Three Queensland, Australia men, aged 18, 20, and 21, have been arrested for allegedly doing just that, the Telegraph reports. More»

Julia Gillard stumbles as she tries to pass through indigenous right supporters

(NEWSER) - It sounds perfectly routine: Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott appeared at a restaurant in Canberra today—which just so happens to be Australia Day—to preside over an awards ceremony. What it turned into was an ugly mess, as some 200 supporters of indigenous rights surrounded the restaurant and started banging on the windows. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the scene grew so unruly that Gillard's security decided she needed to be removed from the building. And as some 50 police pushed a path through the crowd to a waiting car, she stumbled and lost a shoe. More»

Two men and their sons stayed afloat long enough for rescue

(NEWSER) - Two friends and their sons were saved from drowning by some quick thinking and an unlikely hero: a beer cooler. Scott Smiles and Rick Matthews were on a fishing trip with their 11-year-old sons off the coast of Sydney, Australia, yesterday, when their 40-foot boat started on fire five miles out to sea, reports ABC News . Smiles tossed the cooler overboard as a flotation device, grabbed a GPS emergency beacon, and the group jumped into the 200-feet-deep water. They were able to stay afloat for the 45 minutes it took a rescue chopper to reach them. More»