By Fatima Dennaoui
 
Melbourne is a city of festivals, with regular celebrations of art and culture taking place throughout the year.
 
February marks the Lunar New Year with partying in Chinatown, while March has both Moomba, and the Greek Australian community’s Antipodes Festival.
 
In the western suburb of Newport, a twice-yearly Eid festival is a big celebration for local Muslim and non-Muslim residents.
 
This audio report from Fatima Dennaoui.

By Laura Borghouts

 Melbourne - The screening of the Movie “Balibo” has resurrected painful memories of the events of October 1975 when five Australian journalists were killed during the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

Balibo is a small village in the Bonabaro region of East Timor, just 10 kilometers from the Indonesian border. It was there that the five newsmen and technicians from Channel 7 and Channel 9 TV networks planned to capture footage of Indonesian troops setting foot in the former Portuguese territory.

By Setyo Budi

MELBOURNE -- Non-Government Organisations in East Timor are awaiting a reply from donor countries to their appeal for aid to allow the Dili government to push ahead with development plans to tackle the long-term causes of poverty and conflict in that country, according to reports reaching here.

By Jennifer Henderson

 MELBOURNE - Australians tourists to Bali who show too much skin could be targets of new laws passed in an Anti-Pornography bill. The bill, which was originally drafted in 1999, contains definitions of pornography and restrictions on clothing and behaviour.

Hardline Islamic parties such as KAMMI and The Justice Party have pressured the government to pass the bill. A day before the law was passed hundreds of Muslim Indonesians rallied for its support in Jakarta. They claimed that the bill was vital to protect women and children from sexual attacks.

By Akech Manyiel and Pamela Scriven*

  Melbourne - They come from Cambodia, China and the Philippines but the choristers of the Many Moons choir are united in song.

By Samantha van Zweden

 MELBOURNE - Victoria’s Indonesian community jammed the Immigration Museum in mid-March for a one-day festival celebrating the diverse culture, activities and food of their homeland.

By Akech M Manyiel

 Melbourne - Sudanese youths have moved to counter racist attacks by holding a national Sudanese basketball tournament.

By Thuong Du

 MELBOURNE - A new television show aimed at increasing the status of  young Vietnamese women in Melbourne will be underway soon.

The driving force behind the project is Helen Huynh and her team, already successfully transmitting radio programmes from the Yarraville studios of Channel 31.

 “Nothing we set our minds to is unachievable.We’re just joining the dots - skills we can acquire, resources we can beg, borrow and steal. People will support you if you really believe in what you do,” says Huynh.

By Frank Lin*

 Melbourne - A new satellite TV installation at the Atherton Gardens Public Housing Estate in Melbourne means many migrant residents now enjoy television in their mother tongue.