澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-08-23（在线收听）

Australia is in uncertain political territory today. Three independent MPs hold the power to decide whether Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott will be given the opportunity to form the next Federal Government. The ABC’s predicting the Coalition will win 73 seats, while Labor will win 72. That’s four short of a majority, with the Greens and independent MPs taking the rest. One seat is still undecided.

An Australian medical crew will leave for Pakistan today to help the aid effort for the country’s floods. Tens of thousands of more people in southern Pakistan are coming under threat from rising waters. Half a million residents in the town of Shahdadkot are fleeing the floodwaters.

Two Australian soldiers seriously wounded in Afghanistan are in a stable condition. The Department of Defence says the soldiers are at Tarin Kowt after an improvised explosive device blew up near their armored vehicle in the Baluchi Valley. They were from the same Brisbane-based regiment as the two Australian soldiers who were killed on patrol on Friday.

An 18-year-old man has died after he and his brothers were shot in Sydney’s west last night. Police say they were shot by a group of masked men during an assault at their Werrington home just after ten o’clock.

Egyptian officials are blaming the theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting on poor security. Investigators say none of the alarms at the Khalil Museum and only seven of the 43 security cameras were working. The 50-million-dollar painting called "Poppy Flowers" was cut from its frame.