Sydney

BridgeClimb 5 Cumberland St., The Rocks, Sydney 011-61-2-8274-7777 www.bridgeclimb.com $125- $225 per person . Climbs leave every 10 minutes, 363 days a year, but you must book in advance. The nonrefundable fee includes a group photo and frame-ready climbing certificate. About 3 1/2 hours, including training. Where to stay Dive Hotel 234 Arden St., Coogee 011-61-2-9665-5538 www.divehotel.com.au On one of Sydney's loveliest beaches.

Swimming Australia said Friday that Queensland state will host the Pan Pacific championships in August 2014 at a venue to be determined. The Pan Pacific titles are held every four years over four days in a 50-meter pool and feature about 300 swimmers from the United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia. The 11th edition of the titles were held in Irvine, California, in 2010. Australia last hosted the PanPacs in 1999 in Sydney as a test event for the 2000 Olympics.

SYDNEY -- The Sydney I saw 10 years ago is no longer there. Neither is the one I saw five years ago. Nor two years ago. The Sydney I saw a few months ago is probably still there, but if you want to see it, you had better get a move on. Australia's biggest city is all about new. New buildings, new bars, new restaurants, new music, new fashion -- new everything. Trends that might pop up in edgy enclaves in other cities are pounced on, spread like a virus, and then wrung to exhaustion, often in a single season.

SYDNEY - An Australian judge has ordered KFC to pay $8.3 million to the family of a Sydney girl left brain damaged after eating one of the fast food giant's chicken wraps. Monika Samaan's family sued KFC, claiming the then-7-year-old girl contracted salmonella poisoning from a KFC chicken wrap in 2005. Samaan was in a coma for months and left with brain damage. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Stephen Rothman ruled last week that KFC was responsible for the food poisoning.

SYDNEY - An Australian judge has ordered KFC to pay $8.3 million to the family of a Sydney girl left brain damaged after eating one of the fast food giant's chicken wraps. Monika Samaan's family sued KFC, claiming the then-7-year-old girl contracted salmonella poisoning from a KFC chicken wrap in 2005. Samaan was in a coma for months and left with brain damage. New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Stephen Rothman ruled last week that KFC was responsible for the food poisoning.

Police say a bomb scare has prevented a domestic flight from leaving Sydney. Virgin Australia say the flight was taxiing for take off to the city of Adelaide on Thursday morning when airline spokeswoman Melissa Thomson says an "incident" occurred. Australian Federal Police say officers boarded the plane on the runway and took a 32-year-old woman passenger into custody. No charges had been filed hours later. Police won't detail what the woman is suspected of doing. But they say the jet was cleared of any danger after a bomb expert and sniffer dogs examined all baggage and...

SYDNEY -- From the street, Alicia Campbell's house looks no different from the others in her suburban cul-de-sac. But it has a secret: It's green -- very green. The four-bedroom home she shares with husband Jason Young and their two sons sucks no water from Australia's drought-stricken reservoirs, recycles everything from food scraps to sewage, and even pumps electricity back into Sydney's power grid. As the world debates how best to respond to climate change, families such as Campbell's, like others in the United States and Europe, are taking the challenge personally.

An 90-year-old woman died Tuesday from injuries suffered in a Sydney nursing home fire, raising the death toll from the suspected arson to nine. Eight other residents remained in hospitals with burns and smoke inhalation from Friday's fire, which authorities allege was set by a nurse who worked at the facility. Police said the latest fatality, Neeltje Valkay, died in a Sydney hospital Tuesday morning. The eighth victim, Doris Becke, 96, had died in another hospital over Monday night.

About 3,000 protesting police officers have turned the grounds outside the state parliament in Sydney into a sea of blue uniforms as they demonstrate against planned changes to the way injured officers are compensated. Officers are upset at plans to alter the New South Wales state's Death and Disability Scheme. The changes would restrict some compensation payouts and place more emphasis on getting injured officers rehabilitated and back to work. The police came to Sydney on Tuesday from around the state and marched from Hyde Park to Parliament House.

SYDNEY -- Detectives investigating race riots that rocked Sydney last week seized a pistol, ammunition, knives, and smoke bombs in a series of raids yesterday. The weapons haul came after police questioned five men who were detained Sunday night with a container of gasoline and objects for putting together fuel bombs in their car, New South Wales Police said in a statement. Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said material in the car suggested the men had links to white supremacist groups.

Finnish qualifier Jarkko Nieminen won the Sydney International for his second ATP title, beating France's Julien Benneteau 6-2, 7-5 on Sunday in the rain-delayed final. Nieminen was making his 12th finals appearance, while Benneteau lost for the sixth straight time in a championship match. Nieminen, the first qualifier since Lee Hyung-taik in 2003 to win the event, also won the 2006 in Auckland. "It was a bit strange starting the final so early, but I just tried to focus on every point and play my game," Nieminen said.

Victoria Azarenka of Belarus overcame a second-set lapse Friday to beat 2011 champion Li Na 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 for the Sydney International singles title. While much of the focus in Sydney had been on the battle for the No. 1 ranking between current holder Caroline Wozniacki and No. 2 Petra Kvitova, Azarenka consolidated her No. 3 ranking and indicated she'll be a threat in Melbourne for the Australian Open title beginning Monday. After games had stayed on serve until 4-3 in the deciding set, Azarenka broke Li to get a chance to serve out the match.

Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki came back from 4-0 down in the final set to beat Dominkia Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 Tuesday and advance to the quarterfinals at the Sydney International. The match ended on a line call that was ruled in and later, on video review, appeared out by a few millimeters, giving Wozniacki victory on her second match point. Wozniacki, who was No. 1 for all but one week of last year, has achieved the top ranking without having won a Grand Slam.

Grand Slam champions Samantha Stosur and Francesca Schiavone will meet in the first round of the Sydney International — a rematch of their 2010 French Open final won by Schiavone. The high-profile encounter is a byproduct of the strength of the field — nine of the top 10 players in the WTA rankings are entered in tournament which begins Sunday. Stosur, who won the U.S. Open last year, is seeded fifth, whole the 11th-ranked Schiavone is unseeded. Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki, and Wimbledon champion and second-seeded Petra Kvitova have first-round byes.

Supermaxi Investec Loyal's victory Wednesday in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race was immediately placed under protest by the race committee amid allegations the provisional winner used a television helicopter pilot to spy on runner-up Wild Oats XI. Investec Loyal beat Wild Oats by 3 minutes, 8 seconds in one of the closest finishes in the history of the prestigious ocean-racing event. The protest under rule 41, which refers to the use of outside assistance, will be heard at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania on Thursday.

Supermaxis Wild Oats XI and Investec Loyal were locked in a tight tactical struggle in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race Wednesday after trading the lead on the way toward Tasmania. Wild Oats XI, the winner in five of the last six years, lost the lead for the first time since the fleet of 88 yachts left Sydney on Monday. Investec Loyal moved in front during an eventful night of racing in light wind. But Wild Oats XI later pulled ahead by about one-third of a mile. The leading pair had opened a gap of more than 60 miles over third-place Lahana.

SYDNEY - A British teenager lost for 12 days while hiking in Australia’s Blue Mountains was found alive and well yesterday, just hours before his father - who had all but given up hope of ever seeing him again - planned to fly back to England. Two other hikers happened upon 19-year-old Jamie Neale yesterday morning in the mountains, 60 miles west of Sydney, New South Wales State Police said. Neale, an experienced hiker, was taken to a hospital in the mountain town of Katoomba for treatment of dehydration and exposure, police said.

The City Council recently appropriated $102,817 from the Community Preservation Fund to design and construct a walking trail around Sydney's Pond. Through a state grant, the city in 2008 acquired a 39-acre parcel that includes the pond. The purchase added a critical piece to an area of open space in south Peabody that also includes Cedar Grove Cemetery, the Meadow at Peabody Golf Course, and a network of undeveloped parcels surrounding Lower Spring Pond, according to Brendan Callahan, senior planner for the city.

The death toll from a suspected arson attack on an Australian nursing home has risen to 11 with an 83-year-old woman becoming the latest fatality. Police said in a statement Wednesday that the woman, who has not been named, died Tuesday in a Sydney hospital 11 days after the Sydney nursing home blaze. A registered nurse who was working at the facility, 35-year-old Roger Dean, is accused of starting the Nov. 18 fire and has been charged with multiple counts of murder. Three victims died at the scene while the remainder died in hospitals of burns and smoke inhalation in...