Chinese high rollers have transformed Macau and Singapore into two of the world's top gambling destinations. Now, Australia wants a slice of that market too. Peter Gotting of Australia Network News reports. more ›

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"CHINA Eastern Airlines will add five weekly flights linking Shanghai with Sydney and Melbourne in Australia from June 20. The Shanghai-based carrier will fly daily on the Shanghai-Sydney route after adding a flight every Tuesday and Sunday. It will also fly daily between Shanghai and Melbourne by adding a flight every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

For Wu Liping, mother of an 18 year old Chinese student raped and murdered in Sydney, 2008 has been a year of unfathomable tragedy. Wu flew to Sydney earlier this week to identify the body of her only child who was raped three times before falling off the balcony in a Sydney apartment. The alleged rapist Brendan David Dennison is currently under arrest facing 21 charges. more ›

Chuck Culpepper of the Los Angeles Times has been tracking this and as of his latest posting yesterday, the Beijing Olympics "MPC" leaders are — you guessed it — Armenia. Australia is No. 2. USA? 30th. China? 40th. (We have a feeling the Aussies might climb back to No. 1 after their efforts in the pool this morning.) Australia is not the two-time defending MPC champs, however. That honor goes to the Bahamas, which has the population of a Shanghai city block. They were tops in Sydney and in Athens. more ›

Thanks to Twitter’s perpetual failures, Lu’s Fail Whale now features on t-shirts and coffee mugs while other artists create kinetic Fail Whale sculptures. more ›