Down Under wonders whether, in her private moments, Julia Gillard regrets offering Tony Abbott a ride as the angry mob closed in this past Australia Day.
Australian opposition leader Tony Abbott is pushed into a waiting car carrying the roughed up prime minister, Julia Gillard, after the two were rushed from an Australia Day function amid a violent protest. (Sky News/Screengrab)
Down Under wonders whether, in her private moments, Julia Gillard regrets offering Tony Abbott a ride as the angry mob closed in this past Australia Day.
Beachgoers pose as Australia celebrates Australia Day at Cottesloe Beach on January 26, 2011 in Perth, Australia. Australia Day commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet to Sydney in 1788.
(Paul Kane/AFP/Getty Images)
This Australia Day, Aussies can take a day off work, fire up the barbie and put the beer on ice knowing that America really cares.
A woman passes the Reserve Bank of Australia in Sydney on December 6, 2011 as official rates were slashed by 25 basis points for the second month in a row. Australians were handed an early Christmas present December 6 when the central bank cut interest rates for the second month in a row, but it warned the slowing global economy continued to pose risks. (TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty Images)
They're calling it Eurogeddon. A report out this week says Europe is key Australia's economic fortunes in 2012.
Australian finance sector workers say they are dealing with the ultimate professional insult — being asked to train the same workers who will be replacing them at half the cost to the bank.
A woman shelters under an umbrella as she walks past a Westpac Banking Corporation branch in central Sydney on October 26, 2009. (Greg Wood/AFP/Getty Images)
Australian finance sector workers say they are dealing with the ultimate professional insult — being asked to train the same workers who will be replacing them at half the cost to the bank.
Australia should change its Constitution to remove racist overtones and acknowledge Aborigines and Pacific islanders as the country's first inhabitants, a panel has recommended.
Jimmy Crombie laughs as he has his picture taken on March 29, 2011 in Birdsville, Australia. (Mark Kolbe/AFP/Getty Images)
Australia should change its Constitution to remove racist overtones and acknowledge Aborigines and Pacific islanders as the country's first inhabitants, a panel of experts has recommended.
Visitors crowd around a hanging shark display near the ride, themed after the Steven Spielberg motion picture "Jaws," at Universal Studios during a pre-opening preview of the park March 29, 2001 in Osaka, Japan. (Koichi Kamoshida/AFP/Getty Images)
An Australian surfer is recovering after being dragged under the water by a shark in a scene described as "like Jaws."
A commemoration has been held in the Antarctic of the endeavors of Aussie explorer Douglas Mawson, who dedicated his time on the world's driest, coldest, windiest and highest continent to science.
A Qantas 747 charter flies over Antarctica a century after Douglas Mawson and his Australasian Antarctic Expedition mapped it. (AFP/Getty Images)
A commemoration has been held in the Antarctic of the endeavors of Aussie explorer Douglas Mawson, who dedicated his time on the world's driest, coldest, windiest and highest continent to science.
Australian media are covering a story on the sale of Apps on the Apple online store that "encourage breast implants and give instructions on how to ogle the opposite sex are among programs recommended for 12-year-olds."
Australian media are covering a story on the sale of Apps on the Apple online store that "encourage breast implants and give instructions on how to ogle the opposite sex are among programs recommended for 12-year-olds."
A woman in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who keeps a partially paralyzed kangaroo as a therapy pet says that she must moving to another city for fear local officials will seize the animal.
A rare albino kangaroo ... and friend... pictured at Lovers' Cove on Daydream Island in the Whitsundays archipelago off Queensland. (Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images)
A woman in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who keeps a partially paralyzed kangaroo as a therapy pet says that she must moving to another city for fear local officials will seize the animal.
The Sea Shepherd ship "Bob Barker" — one of three operated by the militant anti-whaling activists — is moored in Hobart as it prepares to leave to confront the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean on December 13, 2011. (William West/AFP/Getty Images)
Will the average Aussie taxpayer love whales as much when they see the bill for retrieving those three anti-whaling activists from the Shonan Maru 2?
You think you know a little about the typical Aussie, right? Kangaroo-riding, croc-wrestling, beach-dwelling people with a genetic predisposition to having no worries, mate. Okay, so Australia has an abundance of furry — and sometimes fearsome — wildlife, year-round sunshine, and laid-back people. In fact, it's the happiest place on earth, according to a recent OECD report. But it is also a country that routinely locks up asylum seekers, sells its military services to the U.S. and everything else to the Chinese, and worst of all worships that ridiculously long and complex game, cricket. Through Down Under, we invite you to explore both the delights and the darker side of Australia.
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