Former Telstra boss terms Australians as racist

October 5th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Melbourne Police is investigating whether racist abuse was behind a brawl in which two angry Indian wrestlers put two Australians into hospital. Police have confirmed two men, aged 25 and 42, were assaulted and hit with sticks in a fight after joining a "mouthy" skateboarder who allegedly sparked the incident outside Meadowglen International Athletics Stadium in Epping on Sunday afternoon.

September 27th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Majority of Australians chose mobile phone over their landline connections as their main communication tool, a new survey has claimed. According to Australian Media and Communications Authority data, 70 per cent of 18-31-year-olds look at their hand set as the primary source of communication.

August 11th, 2009 MELBOURNE - At least nine Australians have been declared missing after the aircraft in which they were traveling disappeared in Papua New Guinea on Tuesday. The plane was scheduled to arrive at the small village of Efogi at 9.55 a.m.

July 20th, 2009 LONDON - A poll released on Monday by the Royal Commonwealth Society in London has found that more than three-quarters of Australians were far less attached to their membership of the Commonwealth than other developing countries, including India. Royal Commonwealth Society took the survey, after reviewing more than 6000 people who had gathered to mark the Commonwealth's 60th anniversary from seven Commonwealth member countries - Australia, Canada, Great Britain, India, Jamaica, Malaysia and South Africa.

July 9th, 2009 MELBOURNE - A new survey has revealed that Japanese tourists are the best in the world, and French the worst. The Japanese retained the top prize, with hoteliers worldwide naming them the world's best tourists, ahead of the British and Canadians.

July 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - A presenter for a New South Wales community radio station has been reprimanded for several racist remarks, which included one statement where she urged attacked Indian students to go back home to study. Terrie-Anne Verney, a presenter and sales representative for Griffith FM radio station 2MIA, was reprimanded after it was revealed that she was the administrator of several racist and anti-immigration groups on famous social networking website Facebook, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

June 28th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Australian telecommunications and media company Telstra has had to apologise for the second time in the last two months because of a sexually explicit photo that ended up on a Sydney teenager's rental phone. The lewd image was found on 13-year-old girl Monique's second hand Telstra ZTE handset last week.

June 24th, 2009 SYDNEY - Australians are in two minds about multiculturalism, and a long-term survey has found that nine out of 10 Australians believe that racial prejudice exists in the country. They believe cultural diversity is good for the country but they're worried that cultural differences will stop everyone from getting along.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - On social networking sites, Indian students across the globe have been expressing their anger and condemnation of the racist attacks on Indians studying in Australia. Students overseas have launched an online protest in the wake of the attacks through social networking sites Facebook and Orkut.

June 2nd, 2009 TORONTO - The recent attacks on Indian students have been overblown as racist, says the papa of the Indian student community in Australia. Eighty-two-year-old Gurcharn Sidhu, who in 1951 was one of independent India's first students to come here under the Colombo Plan, says these attacks are not "overly blatant acts of racism" by Australians.

June 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - Indian nationals living in Australia have expressed deep concern over the manner in which the Indian media has covered the recent Australian assaults on students and many consider this reporting "irresponsible" This comes as the Indian media is doing exclusive coverage of the Australian attacks and has been extensively rebuking the country for being a racist. "There is a problem with Indian media and Indian leadership - they can't assess a situation in a rational way.

June 1st, 2009 MELBOURNE - Satyam Computers has appointed Venki Prathivadi as country manager for Satyam Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) replacing Deepak Nangia. The India based IT company has also appointed former chief information officer Vijay Prasad as principal advisor to the ANZ region to enable it to find its feet in the area after the set back in January following the revelation of a massive fraud.

May 31st, 2009 MELBOURNE - Amid racial attacks on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia's first Asian-born cabinet minister believes racism in the country is confined to a minority of people with extreme views. Federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong has previously recounted her "pretty difficult" childhood experiencing racist abuse while growing up in Adelaide.

May 7th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The leader of Sydney's radical Middle Eastern street gang - Asesinoz MC - has accused Australians of racism. The 29-year-old, who calls himself Sam "The Assassin", defended the Parramatta-based gang's violent image in its YouTube videos and MySpace site.

March 31st, 2009 WASHINGTON - American fashion model Angie Harmon has revealed that she has no qualms about saying that US President Barack Obama is not doing his job right. Harmon, 36, also said that she was no racist, and was tired of defending herself from being deemed as one.