Australia

The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was conceived and largely built by Danish... architect Jørn Utzon, who, in 2003, received the Pritzker Prize, architecture's highest honour. The citation stated: The Sydney Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. It is one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world. The Sydney Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, close to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It sits at the northeastern tip of the Sydney central business district , surrounded on three sides by the harbour and neighboured by the Royal Botanic Gardens. Contrary to its name, the building houses multiple performance venues. As one of the busiest performing arts centres in the world, hosting over 1,500 performances each year attended by some 1.
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Bondi Beach is a popular beach and the name of the surrounding suburb in Sydney, Australia. Bondi Beach is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney... central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council, in the Eastern Suburbs. Bondi, North Bondi and Bondi Junction are neighbouring suburbs. "Bondi" or "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks or noise of water breaking over rocks. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a flight of nullas took place. In 1809, the road builder William Roberts received a grant of land in the area. In 1851, Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres of the Bondi area that included most of the beach frontage, which was named the "The Bondi Estate." Hall was O'Brien's father-in-law. Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased his father-in-law's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate," and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access.
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Melbourne Aquarium is a Southern Ocean and Antarctic aquarium in central Melbourne, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Yarra River beside... and under the Flinders Street Viaduct and the King Street Bridge. Built between February 1998 and December 1999, the building was designed by Peddle Thorp architects to resemble a ship moored to the river, and opened in January 2000. The depth of the building however was designed not to be imposing at street level, and extends 7 metres below the surface. At its centre is a world first, 2.2 million litre 'oceanarium in the round' where the spectators become the spectacle to the marine life swimming around them. Soon after opening, the building had a legionnaires disease outbreak that resulted in 2 deaths and another 60 people being affected. Those affected had visited the aquarium between April 11 and 27, 2000. A damages action was brought in May 2000, ending in February 2004. The Melbourne Aquarium recently underwent a significant expansion and extends all the way from the Yarra River to Flinders Street. A new entrance has been built on the corner of Flinders and King Streets.
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St Mary’s Cathedral is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, currently Cardinal Archbishop George Pell. The cathedral is... dedicated to “Mary, Help of Christians”, Patron of Australia. St Mary’s holds the title and dignity of a minor basilica, bestowed upon it by Pope Pius XI in 1930. It is the largest church in Australia, though not the highest. It is located on College Street in the heart of the City of Sydney where, despite the high rise development of the CBD, its imposing structure and twin spires make it a landmark from every direction. In 2008, St. Mary's Cathedral became the focus of World Youth Day 2008 and was visited by Pope Benedict XVI. Sydney was colonised on 26 January, 1788, as a penal settlement, governed in the name of His Majesty King George III by Captain Arthur Phillip, for prisoners transported from Britain. A good number of the people to arrive in Sydney at that time were military, some with wives and family. There were also a number of free settlers. The colony was chaplained by the Rev. Richard Johnson of the Church of England. No specific provision was made for the religious needs of those many convicts and settlers who were Roman Catholic.
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The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War or Operation Iraqi Freedom in which a combined force of troops from... the United States, alongside the United Kingdom, and smaller contingents from Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations. This phase consisted of a conventionally fought war which concluded with the fall of Baghdad that marked the beginning of the second phase, the current Iraq War, and followed or was a continuation of the Gulf War of 1991, prior to which Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait, and after defeat by Coalition Forces had agreed to surrender and/or destroy several types of weapons, including SCUD missiles and weapons of mass destruction . Since the Persian Gulf War 1991 the US and Britain had been keeping a tight rein on Saddam Hussein, waging an undeclared conflict against Iraq for twelve years.
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The Iraqi no-fly zones were a set of two separate no-fly zones , and were proclaimed by the United States, United Kingdom and France after the Gulf... War of 1991 to protect humanitarian operations in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in the south. Iraqi aircraft were forbidden from flying inside the zones. The policy was enforced by US, UK and French aircraft patrols until France withdrew in 1998. While the enforcing powers had cited United Nations Security Council Resolution 688 as authorizing the operations, the resolution contains no explicit authorization. The Secretary-General of the UN at the time the resolution was passed, Boutros Boutros-Ghali called the no-fly zones "illegal" in a later interview with John Pilger. The NFZ in the north of Iraq was established shortly after the Gulf War. In August 1992 the NFZ in the south to the 32nd parallel was established , but in 1996 it was expanded to the 33rd parallel. From 1992 to the United States-led coalition invasion of Iraq in 2003, there were two NFZs in Iraq. The northern NFZ extended from the 36th parallel northwards, while the southern extended from the 33rd parallel southwards.
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Operation Desert Thunder was a response to threats by Iraq's president Saddam Hussein to shoot down U-2 spy planes, and violate the no-fly zone set... up over his country. The operation was designed to bring stability to the region by bringing in a military presence during the negotiations between Iraq and the United Nations over weapons of mass destruction. The name Operation Desert Thunder has been applied to the build-up of forces in the Persian Gulf region during 1998. If an actual attack had been ordered and executed, the name would have changed to Operation Desert Viper. In the autumn of 1997 CENTCOM established a force of 35,000 air, land, and sea forces in response to Iraq's non-compliance of UN resolutions. CENTCOM Commander-in-Chief General Anthony Zinni established a permanent Coalition/Joint Task Force at Camp Doha Kuwait under command of Lieutenant General Tommy Franks to lead this force. The coalition would consist of forces from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Hungary, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, United States, and Kuwait. On January 18, 1998 additional forces were brought in to support the US-led coalition forces in the region.
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Operation Provide Comfort and Provide Comfort II were military operations by the United States and some of its Gulf War allies, starting in April... 1991, to defend Kurds fleeing their homes in northern Iraq in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War and deliver humanitarian aid to them. The 1991 uprising in northern Iraq resulted in an Iraqi military response towards the rebels in both northern and southern Iraq. Fearing a massacre like what had happened during the 1988 Anfal campaign, millions of Kurds fled towards the Turkish border. On March 3, General Norman Schwarzkopf warned the Iraqis that Coalition aircraft would shoot down Iraqi military aircraft flying over the country. On March 20, an American F-15C Eagle fighter shot down an Iraqi Air Force Su-22 Fitter fighter-bomber over northern Iraq. On March 22, another F-15 destroyed a second Su-22 and the pilot of an Iraqi PC-9 trainer bailed out after being approached by American fighters. On April 5, the United Nations passed United Nations Resolution 688, calling on Iraq to end repression of its population. On April 6, Operation Provide Comfort began to bring humanitarian relief to the Kurds.
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The Secretariat of the Pacific Community, or SPC , is a regional intergovernmental organisation whose membership includes both nations and... territories. It aims to "develop the technical, professional, scientific, research, planning and management capability of Pacific Island people and directly provide information and advice, to enable them to make informed decisions about their future development and well-being." The SPC headquarters is in Nouméa, New Caledonia. SPC was founded in 1947 as the South Pacific Commission by six developed countries with an interest in the region: For reasons either of reduced development interest in the Pacific Islands region or a desire to concentrate assistance in other areas of greater poverty, two founding members have since withdrawn from the SPC: the Netherlands and the United Kingdom . SPC's founding charter is the Canberra Agreement. In the aftermath of World War II, the six colonial powers which created the SPC, arguably intended it to secure Western political and military interests in the postwar Pacific.
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Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation is a forum for 21 Pacific Rim countries to cooperate on regional trade and investment liberalisation and... facilitation. APEC's objective is to enhance economic growth and prosperity in the region and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community. Members account for approximately 40% of the world's population, approximately 54% of world GDP and about 44% of world trade. An annual APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting is attended by the heads of government of all APEC members except the Republic of China which is represented under the name Chinese Taipei by a ministerial-level official. The location of the meeting rotates annually among the member economies, and a famous tradition involves the attending Leaders dressing in a national costume of the host member. In January 1989, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke called for more effective economic cooperation across the Pacific Rim region. This led to the first meeting of APEC in the Australian capital Canberra in November, chaired by Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans.
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The Paris Club is an informal group of financial officials from 19 of some of the world's biggest economies, which provides financial services such... as debt restructuring, debt relief, and debt cancellation to indebted countries and their creditors. Debtors are often recommended by the International Monetary Fund after alternative solutions have failed. It meets every six weeks at the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industry in Paris. It is chaired by a senior official of the French Treasury, currently the Director General of the Treasury and Economic Policy Department Xavier Musca. The club grew out of crisis talks held in Paris in 1956 between the nation of Argentina and its various creditors. Its principles and procedures were codified at the end of the 1970s in the context of the North-South Dialogue. In the 1990s, the club began to treat the HIPC and non-HIPCs differently. The club began to grant increasingly larger debt reductions for the HIPCs.
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The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 32 countries. It defines itself as a... forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a setting to compare policy experiences, seeking answers to common problems, identifying good practices, and co-ordinating domestic and international policies of its members. The OECD originated in 1948 as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation , led by Robert Marjolin of France, to help administer the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. Later, its membership was extended to non-European states. In 1961, it was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a high Human Development Index and are regarded as developed countries .
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The University of Sydney is the oldest university in Australia. It was established in Sydney in 1850. In 2009, the university had 47,775 students... making it the second largest in Australia. The University’s reputation has been built on the breadth of disciplines that it offers to students, and the quality and impact of its research. It is renowned for the activity of its student life and is consistently ranked by the National Union of Students as offering the best student experience in Australia. Increasingly it has been working to broaden both its student intake, through scholarships and programs like the Compass Project, and its commitment to environmental sustainability, through its Institute for Sustainable Solutions.
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Victoria University is a multi-sector tertiary institution based in Melbourne, Australia with 10 campuses. VU offers qualifications in higher... education, vocational education , as well as short courses. VU also offers learning pathways enabling students to move from a certificate course through to an advanced diploma, degree, or postgraduate qualification by coursework or research. In 2007 Victoria University embarked on a major repositioning of its core teaching and research activities entitled the Making VU Program. The Program was underpinned by five strategic commitments. More information on this Program can be found in the Statement of Purpose - Making VU 2016: A Statement of Purpose. VU offers internationally recognised qualifications ranging from short course diplomas through to apprenticeship level training , higher education degrees, postgraduate masters programs and postdoctoral research .
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The University of New South Wales, also known as UNSW or colloquially as New South, is a university situated in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New... South Wales, Australia. The University was founded in 1949. Today it is recognised as one of Australia’s leading teaching and research institutions, and has developed a strong reputation in a number of fields, including renewable/alternative energy, quantum computing and nanotechnology, taxation reform, information and communication technology, digital media, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, sustainable development, HIV/AIDS research, and social justice and social policy research. The University is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" lobby group, and is also a founding member of Universitas 21, an international network of leading research-intensive universities. The idea of founding the University originated from the crisis demands of World War II, during which the nation's attention was drawn to the critical role that science and technology played in transforming an agricultural society into a modern and industrial one.
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Alex Rafalowicz is an Australian actor. Educated at Unley High School and Flinders University, Rafalowicz is a student of Law and International... Studies at the Australian National University, and was just elected as the treasurer of the Australian National University Student Association. Alex is also the newly elected president of the Australian United Nations Youth Association . Rafalowicz played 'Young David' in the 1996 film Shine. He has also played parts in the Australian television series Chuck Finn and Sarah Watt's film Look Both Ways. He also has a role in the critically acclaimed Family Demons, which will premier worldwide on October 31st in Adelaide.
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Paul Maurice Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player from Adelaide. He has performed solo and led... numerous groups including the Dots, the Coloured Girls and the Messengers. He has been a member of associated projects Professor Ratbaggy and Stardust Five and worked with other artists and groups. Kelly's music style has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output straddles folk, rock, and country. His lyrics capture the vastness of culture and landscape by chronicling life about him for over 30 years. David Fricke from Rolling Stone calls Kelly "one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise." However, Kelly has said, "Song writing is mysterious to me. I don’t feel like I have got it nailed yet." After growing up in Adelaide, Kelly travelled around Australia before settling in Melbourne in 1976. He became involved in the pub rock scene and drug culture, and recorded two albums with Paul Kelly and the Dots.
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Sister Janet Mead is a Roman Catholic nun and is best known for recording a rock version of The Lord's Prayer. The surprise hit reached #3 on the... Australian Singles Chart in 1974 and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in that same year. The single earned her a Grammy Award nomination and Golden Gospel Award in 2004. Mead became the second woman to have a top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while serving as a nun. Sister Luc-Gabrielle, also known as Soeur Sourire and The Singing Nun, had a #1 pop hit in 1963 with "Dominique." Mead formed a rock band simply called The Rock Band when she was 17 to provide music for the weekly mass at her local church. She studied piano at the Adelaide Conservatorium before joining the Sisters of Mercy order and became a music teacher at two local Catholic schools. She began to explore the "rock mass" concept in the early 1970s, desiring to make the Catholic mass more interesting and accessible for her students. This led to a successful series of "rock masses" that she conducted at Adelaide Cathedral. She began making professional recordings of her music for schools and churches in 1973.
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Lewis Fitz-Gerald is an Australian actor and television director who has obtained a Masters degree in Creative Writing, majoring in Communications Studies.

Solomon Islands /ˈsɒləmən ˈaɪləndz/ is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of... nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of 28,400 square kilometres . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal. The nation of the Solomon Islands is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The Solomon Islands are believed to have been inhabited by Melanesian people for thousands of years. The United Kingdom established a protectorate over the Solomon Islands in 1893. In the Second World War, there was fierce fighting between the Americans and the Japanese in the Solomon Islands campaign of 1942–45, including the Battle of Guadalcanal. Self-government was achieved in 1976 and independence two years later. The Solomon Islands is a constitutional monarchy with the Queen of the Solomon Islands, at present Elizabeth II, as the head of state. The Rt. Hon. Derek Sikua, leader of the parliamentary Solomon Islands Liberal Party, has served as the ninth Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands since December 20, 2007.
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Papua New Guinea PAP-oo-ə new-GIN-ee, also /ˈpɑːpuːə/ PAH-poo-ə or /ˈpæpjuːə/ PAP-yew-ə;... Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands . It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia. The capital is Port Moresby. Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, with over 850 indigenous languages and at least as many traditional societies, out of a population of just under 7 million. It is also one of the most rural, with only 18% of its people living in urban centres. The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea. The majority of the population lives in traditional societies and practise subsistence-based agriculture.
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New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous smaller islands, most notably... Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands. The indigenous Māori language name for New Zealand is Aotearoa, commonly translated as The Land of the Long White Cloud. The Realm of New Zealand also includes the Cook Islands and Niue ; Tokelau; and the Ross Dependency . New Zealand is notable for its geographic isolation: it is situated about 2,000 kilometres southeast of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and its closest neighbours to the north are New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. During its long isolation New Zealand developed a distinctive fauna dominated by birds, a number of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and the mammals they introduced. The majority of New Zealand's population is of European descent; the indigenous Māori are the largest minority. Asians and non-Māori Polynesians are also significant minority groups, especially in urban areas.
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New Caledonia Calédonie; popular nickname: Caillou, has a special status of sui generis collectivity of France. It is located in the subregion... of Melanesia in the southwest Pacific. It comprises a main island , the Loyalty Islands, and several smaller islands. Approximately half the size of Taiwan, it has a land area of 18,575.5 square kilometres . The population was estimated in January 2009 to be 249,000. The capital and largest city of the territory is Nouméa. The currency is the CFP franc. Since 1986 the United Nations Committee on Decolonization has included New Caledonia on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. New Caledonia is set to decide whether to remain within the French Republic as an autonomous overseas collectivity or become an independent state in a referendum to be held between 2014 and 2019. Nouméa, the capital, is also the seat of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community , an international organization.
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