Australian rats scurry to desert

7 April 2011 Last updated at 03:54 GMT The rats are unlikely to stay in the desert for long A mass migration of rats is under way into the inland deserts of Australia after a run of high rainfall seasons, scientists say.

The native long-haired rat, or rattus villosissimus, normally lives in the Barkly Tableland of the Northern Territory and in western Queensland.

But now it has been spotted in Alice Springs for the first time in 25 years.

"Some of them get up to about 30cm [12in] long - fair lump of a rat," livestock manager Chris Giles said.

"They will run around and hide under a little bit of shrub there, and you can get pretty close to them," Mr Giles, a stockman on the Northern Territory's Lake Nash Station, told Australia's ABC News.

"I nearly caught one the other day."

'Red Centre nomads'

Peter McDonald, acting scientist with Northern Territory Biodiversity Conservation, said the phenomenon was a "huge event" which he attributed to a run of consecutive good, high rainfall seasons.

"It is unusual in the rodent world but rattus villosissimus are unique in that way and they are pretty famous for their eruptions," he added.

"Probably the only similar expansion by a rodent is seen in the lemmings in the northern hemisphere with their eruptions. There is nothing else in Australia which erupts over such a large area."

Alice Springs generally has no rats because of its arid climate.

The long-haired rodent was first sighted around the middle of last year on the edge of the Simpson Desert, south-east of the town, Mr McDonald said.

Its ability to produce 12 babies every three weeks gives it the highest reproductive potential of any rodent in Australia, he noted.

For those anxious about a plague of rats, the scientist also pointed out that they were unlikely to stay put in the country's "Red Centre".

"It's not really ideal for them," he said. "The chances are they are just moving through and they won't set up camp or be too much of a nuisance."

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Ben Elton's Australian show axed

24 February 2011 Last updated at 10:11 GMT In the 1980s Elton became a leading figure in British comedy British comic Ben Elton's new show in Australia has been axed after three episodes, it has been announced.

Live from Planet Earth, a combination of stand-up and sketch broadcast entirely live, was originally commissioned for six episodes.

"We are all very proud of the show but unfortunately it has not found the audience we had hoped for," a spokesman for the Nine Network said.

Elton's spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

''Comedy is always risky, and live comedy is the riskiest of all,'' Nine's director of television Michael Healy told The Sydney Herald newspaper.

The show's debut episode attracted an average audience of 455,000 viewers and ratings have continued to drop, the newspaper reported.

In the 1980s, stand up comedian Elton became a leading figure in British comedy after creating successful shows such as The Young Ones and Blackadder.

He went on to write several books and more recently wrote the West End musicals We Will Rock You and Love Never Dies.

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Burma arrests Australian editor

12 February 2011 Last updated at 16:22 GMT Burma ranks low on press freedom The Australian owner of English-language newspaper Myanmar Times has been arrested in Burma.

Ross Dunkley, who is also the paper's editor-in-chief, is reported have been detained under Burmese immigration law.

However, one of Mr Dunkley's business associates say his arrest comes amid a dispute with his Burmese partners over the newspaper's ownership, future direction and senior leadership roles.

Media rights groups say Burma has one of the worst records for press freedom.

The mainstream media is mainly state-controlled and privately-owned publications are subject to strict censorship.

Mr Dunkley was arrested on Thursday and is being held in Rangoon's main Insein prison for overstaying his visa, David Armstrong, his business partner in Cambodia said on Saturday.

If convicted, he could be jailed for up to two years.

Media rights group, Reporters Without Borders, ranked Burma 174th out of 178 countries in its 2010 press freedom index.

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