Chinese hackers have attacked the website of Australia's biggest film festival over a documentary about Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.
Content on the Melbourne International Film Festival site was briefly replaced with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans on Saturday, reports said.
In an earlier protest on Friday, Beijing withdrew four Chinese films.
Melbourne's The Age newspaper says private security guards have been hired to protect Kadeer and other film-goers.
She is due to attend the screening of Ten Conditions of Love, by Australian documentary-maker Jeff Daniels, on 8 August......more
First let's all just hail the red jacket.
Second - let's give it up for Amitabh Bachchan who's taking a stand and refusing an honorary doctorate from the Queensland University of Technology because of the racists attacks on Indian students from the past year (as many as 70):
"I have been witnessing, with great dismay and shock the recent violent attacks on Indian students in Australia," his blog post said.
"Under the present circumstances, where citizens of my own country are subjected to such acts of inhuman horror, my conscience does not permit me to accept this decoration from a country that perpetrates such indignity to my fellow countrymen."
Looking cool as MF and using his stature to shed light on racism?
Give that man a double.
An April Fool's Day prank in Australia suggesting a Chinese firm wanted to buy naming rights for the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) sparked a furious online reaction Wednesday.
In a sign of sensitivities at Chinese takeover activity in Australia's mining sector, the story on the Herald Sun's website saying the stadium would be renamed the Mekong Cricket Ground drew more than 200 comments by midday.
While many realised it was a joke -- with the story quoting a spokeswoman named April Fulton -- most expressed anger at the idea of renaming the 100,000 capacity ground regarded as a symbol of Australia's second largest city.
"Let's just give up this whole country to the Asians and be done with it," posted "Mister Master."
"What did our diggers (soldiers) fight and die for in the past wars???? And they still expect us to be patriotic. This country is selling its soul."
Anthony of Melbourne expressed similar sentiments.
"Are we serious... de we have to sell everything to the Asians!!!
"They are taking over the world, and we are letting them. I am not being racist when I say this, but aside from the Australian Asians, what possible interest do China have in the MCG?"
OPEN-plan offices are making people sick, with workers more likely to suffer stress, catch a cold and be less productive, Australian researchers have found.
A review of global studies into the impact of modern office design found the switch to open-plan spaces had been overwhelmingly negative, with 90 per cent reporting adverse health and psychological effects.
High levels of stress and conflict, elevated blood pressure, and rapid staff turnover were associated with open-plan environments, according to review author Vinesh Oommen.
"Employees face a multitude of problems such as the loss of privacy, loss of identity, low work productivity, various health issues, overstimulation and low job satisfaction when working in an open-plan work environment," Oommen wrote in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Health Management.
Workers were plagued by insecurity, he said, ever-conscious of their colleagues' ability to see what they were doing on the computer and eavesdrop on their phone calls.
High noise levels led to impaired concentration and low productivity, he said.
There was a higher incidence of workplace conflict, with people sitting so close to their neighbour that even a ringing phone could irritate.
Ease of germ transmission also meant illnesses such as influenza were more swiftly passed around.
"It is estimated that organisations can save up to 20 per cent in development costs when creating an open-plan work environment," Oommen wrote.
"(But) workplace design must go beyond cost-saving to cater for the multifaceted social and psychological needs of employees."
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