Facebook Places launches in Australia

Facebook users in Australia can share their location with friends from today after the social networking website launched its Places feature.

Keep track of Canberra Times web updates via our Facebook page here.

Keen to avoid another privacy backlash, Facebook stressed the service would be opt-in and users would have to check in to venues before their location was revealed on their page. The default privacy setting would be to share with "friends only" and users can even restrict location sharing to specific friends or groups of friends.

The Australian launch follows recent launches in the US, Canada and Japan.

The feature will be gradually rolled out on Facebook's servers from today

EXCLUSIVE: Twenty grand reasons Libs may have lost Greenway

Louise Markus: ``I don't have access to the funds ..... they are the direct responsibility of the party organisation.''

IT’S the move that may have cost Tony Abbott’s Coalition the Federal Election. A member of the Liberal Party’s Greenway Federal Electorate Council has exclusively revealed to the Advocate that Liberal candidate for Greenway, Jaymes Diaz, was left high and dry with “less than $1000” in campaign spending money for the marginal electorate.

If more campaign money had been available to persuade about 700 of 93,828 enrolled voters in the seat to change their mind, the face of Australian politics today could have been radically different.

The member - who was involved

Woman bitten by snake at Bribie Island

SNAKE BITE: The Queensland Ambulance Service says the woman was in a stable condition.

A 59-year-old woman was transported to Caboolture Hospital complaining of nausea and dizziness after she was bitten by a snake at White Patch, Bribie Island, today.
The woman was bushwalking at the time. It is believed she was bitten by a brown snake.
She was in a stable condition.

Source: whereilive

Newlyweds claim the Castle Hill $20million lotto prize

Young newlyweds have claimed the $20 million lotto prize brought from NewsXpress in Castle Towers.

YOUNG newlyweds have finally claimed the $20 million lotto prize brought from NewsXpress in Castle Towers.

It had remained unclaimed for the last ten days.

The couple who are expecting their first child could not believe their luck. “I had the ticket in my purse all of this time,” the woman said.

“I can’t believe a $20 million winning ticket was just sitting in my purse.

“On the bus on Wednesday I overheard the bus driver jokingly ask two ladies if they were the

Yagoona intersection's safety facelift

A $500,000 RTA upgrade to a Yagoona intersection has been completed and traffic lights installed at Rookwood Rd, George St and Davis Lane. Bankstown State Labor MP Tony Stewart said a review of the crash history for the five years to September 2008 showed there had been 26 crashes at the intersection. The project involved installing new pedestrian traffic lights on Rookwood Rd and George St. There is now also signposting preventing all right turns at the intersection except for those into Davis Lane. Mr Stewart said: “This will be good news, particularly for the students crossing Rookwood Rd to

Barr attacked over cuts for disabled

Support teachers for children with disabilities, and school counsellors, are among the jobs which would be axed under a draft plan by ACT Education to meet a 1per cent budget efficiency dividend.

Parents, teachers and the Opposition have accused the ACT Government of attempting to avoid scrutiny by releasing on the eve of school holidays a consultation paper which reveals details of the proposed cuts.

Under the plan, one of four support teachers who assist blind and visually impaired students would be moved into another job.

Two of 14 hearing support teaching positions would be scrapped as would four vacant

Going wild at The Ponds

Native wildlife loves living at the Ponds. Picture: ISABELLA LETTINI

AN 80ha nature corridor in The Ponds is now teeming with life thanks to Landcom and Greening Australia.

Teams have been working for five years to regenerate the area around Second Ponds Creek, planting more a million native trees, shrubs and grasses.

Landcom sustainability and policy director Steve Driscoll said Landcom aimed to leave natural habitats more ecologically sustainable than when the organisation moved in. "Prior to starting at The Ponds, the area was a degraded natural system which had many salinity and water flow issues, particularly along Second