Australian

The food fight over the purity of extra virgin olive oil has boiled up again. The UC Davis Olive Center and the Australian Oils Research Laboratory released on Wednesday a second research report that found nearly three-quarters of the samples they tested of top-selling imported olive oil brands failed international extra virgin standards. The report follows a similar study the two research centers conducted last summer, which slammed imported olive oils and said that two-thirds of common brands of extra-virgin olive oil found in California grocery stores aren't what they claim to be. Wednesday's report, entitled "Evaluation of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Sold in California," drew a larger group of samples from fewer brands ?

It's being called the largest wind power project in the country, with plans for thousands of acres of towering turbines in the Mojave Desert foothills generating electricity for 600,000 homes in Southern California. And now it's finally kicking into gear. The multibillion-dollar Alta Wind Energy Center has had a tortured history, stretching across nearly a decade of ownership changes, opposition from local residents and transmission infrastructure delays. But on Tuesday, the project is officially breaking ground in the Tehachapi Pass, a burgeoning hot spot for wind energy about 75 miles north of Los Angeles.

When singer Roy Orbison was touring England in 1968, it had been four years since he last appeared at the top of the charts with "Oh, Pretty Woman," even though he continued playing live and recording long after the pulse of rock music shifted away from his signature brand of sweepingly operatic pop. At a show in Leeds on that tour, he met 18-year-old German fan Barbara Ann Marie Wellhoener Jakobs, and within a year the two were married....

Which is better for weight loss -- a high-protein diet or a high-carb diet? That endless debate got a new twist on Monday. In a year-long study, Australian researchers found that both diets worked equally well when it came to shedding pounds but those on the low-carb diet were in considerably worse moods. The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, assigned 106 overweight and obese men and women to either a low-carb diet high in fat and protein or a high-carb diet low in fat and protein.

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Nathan Meade, one of Australia's premier divers, was killed when he apparently misjudged a dive during practice and smashed into the concrete diving platform Thursday at Brisbane, Australia. Meade, 21, was pronounced dead at Princess Alexandra Hospital. Doctors said he suffered massive brain damage. The Australian high-dive champion was a top contender for a spot on his nation's 1988 Olympic team.

It's difficult to know when to buy an airline ticket and when to wait. Some sites offer to guide you on the timing of your purchase. I recently examined the fare prognostication tools used by Kayak and Bing, which advise travelers whether to buy plane tickets while searching those websites or to wait. Both sites use data from scores of past searches to predict whether you're finding a fare at its lowest point or whether it may fall. I examined 10 random routes and dates of travel, and the companies were generally united on their predictions, with one exception: For a hypothetical trip from Los Angeles to Portland, Ore., in mid-April, Bing and Kayak both brought back the same fare - $178 on both Delta and Alaska airlines - but differed in their recommendations.

. . . a time comes when two people should think of these things. Having a home and a family Facing up to their responsibilities. --Bruce Springsteen's "I Wanna Marry You," 1980. Bruce Springsteen's wedding plans gave the rock 'n' roll world this week one of its hottest pieces of gossip since the "Paul Is Dead" rumors in the '60s. Only this time, the reports turned out to be true. The uproar began Thursday when a Portland, Ore.

AMC, the nation's second-largest cinema chain, is opening its first dine-in theater in Southern California in Marina del Rey. Set to open Monday, the theater is the 11th dine-in theater that Kansas City, Mo.-based AMC has opened around the country. AMC Marina 6, at the corner of Maxella and Glencoe avenues, features six auditoriums with more than 400 seats for adults only that will allow patrons to order food and drinks, including beer and wine, from their plush recliners. “It's dinner and a movie, and it's done right -- what could be better than that?

LAS VEGAS - Spend a sunny afternoon at home with Mike Tyson and if the erstwhile Baddest Man on the Planet is in an expansive mood, he may indulge his cherished pastime: letting loose the performing pigeons he raises in his backyard to flap and somersault in the skies over southern Nevada. And if the mood strikes him, the former heavyweight champion of the world may lower his guard enough to talk about something close to the bone: personal metamorphosis. As a function of this discussion, the self-described piece of garbage from the sewage system in Brooklyn will address his killer instinct.