Melbourne court told Victorian MP ‘raped woman on couch’

October 10th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Victorian Premier John Brumby assurance to the state's Indian community that the Government was taking steps to make its streets safer and more harmonious has been warmly received by the community. Brumby, who recently returned from a nine-day trip to India, has been constantly trying to clear growing doubts about Australia's image as an 'unsafe country' for Indians following a series of violent assaults on Indian students in the past few months.

October 4th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Life in this Australian city does not live up to expectations, say overseas female students in a survey that revealed "international students have been seriously affected by the current housing situation in Melbourne". In a report by the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women's Coalition that involved interviews with 17 women, all but one respondent said Melbourne was a "tolerant and multicultural place".

September 18th, 2009 MELBOURNE - An Australian woman whose father allegedly raped her every day for 30 years had taken out a restraining order against him in 2007 - two years before he was eventually charged. She was also reportedly pursued by state authorities to pay for damage to a house she fled to escape her father.

September 12th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Australia's Victoria province faces a 175 million dollars loss following the cancellation of a Mahindra Satyam-led IT project that was set to create 2000 jobs in Geelong. Victorian Premier John Brumby, who promised Geelong residents a gold chest at the end of the rainbow, launched the scheme in April 2008.

August 22nd, 2009 MELBOURNE - A man who had sex with a prostitute has refused to pay child support payments after she had his baby. The married Melbourne man, who can be referred to only by the pseudonym Mr Lilley, claims the birth was a breach of the Trade Practices Act.

August 15th, 2009 MELBOURNE - A man has been sentenced to seven years in jail after he raped his former girlfriend with a sex toy to scare her into properly locking her doors. According to AdelaideNow, while sentencing the man, Supreme Court Justice Trish Kelly said she was 'outraged' that the 45-year-old man had used the couple's previous sex life as an excuse for his crimes.

July 29th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The lawyer of a stripper, accused of raping the best man at a buck's night with a sex toy, has said that the incident was an 'accident'. The Victorian County Court heard that the best man was completely naked and on his hands and knees, when he was allegedly raped by the stripper with a "statuesque" pink sex toy.

June 2nd, 2009 MELBOURNE - Victorian tourism bosses have come up with a new "Melbourne Match" campaign that aims at helping Sydney women poach the best single blokes. Ten eligible bachelors are said to have volunteered to hook up with New South Wales women as part of the internet marketing push.

May 21st, 2009 SYDNEY - Six swine-flu cases have been confirmed in Australia, officials said Thursday. Three of the victims are brothers under 12 years old, who flew home to Melbourne from the United States after a family holiday in Disneyland in California.

April 22nd, 2009 MELBOURNE - At a court hearing in Australia it was revealed that five Thai women, who were imported for the sex industry, were told that they had to service up to 750 clients before they could earn their own money. Four men, Kam Tin Ho, Ho Kam Ho, Chee Fui Hoo and Slamet Edy Rahardjo, believed to be involved in the racket, are now facing trial in the Victorian Supreme Court.

March 28th, 2009 MELBOURNE - Melbourne's Catholic Church has embraced a Vatican suggestion to ban gays from becoming priests. All potential priests will have to undergo tests for sexual orientation.

March 12th, 2009 MELBOURNE - An Indian woman, who was killed in an alleged hit-run accident last night, had just applied for permanent residency in Australia, the Herald Sun reports. Thirty-three-year-old Aman Preet Sanhotra died when a B-double truck hit her at the corner of Melbourne's Broadhurst Avenue and High St, Reservoir, about 10.40 p.m.

March 12th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The Sound Relief concert organised in Melbourne to raise funds for Victorian bushfire victims have become the largest-ever paid event in Australia. Several international acts will perform and some legendary Australian bands have also reformed for the bushfire aid concerts to be held side by side in Melbourne and Sydney on March 14.

February 10th, 2009 SYDNEY - Australian firefighter John Munday told of his heartache at saving the lives of his crew but leaving others to their deaths in fire-ravaged Marysville. 'We had people banging on the sides of our tanker begging us to go back to houses where they knew people were trapped,' Munday told The Australian newspaper Wednesday.

January 25th, 2009 MELBOURNE - The future of the Australian Open in Melbourne is secure until 2036. Victorian Premier John Brumby Monday committed to a multi-million-dollar plan to keep the Open at Melbourne Park.