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Alice Springs now Australia crime capital
[April 13, 2006]

Alice Springs now Australia crime capital


(UPI Top Stories Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Alice Springs has long been a popular tourist site in Australia but now the gateway to Ayers Rock is also the country's crime capital.

Further, its Aboriginal camps have been labeled a sea of despair.

The London Telegraph reports a record increase in violent crime among the 2,500 Aborigines in rundown settlements on the edge of town.

Physical and sexual assaults ballooned 50 percent in the past year. Fifteen people have died in the past 16 months from alcohol-related violence.

Joe Hockey, the federal community services minister, says the Aborigine camps represent a sea of despair. The camps represent the very worst aspects of poverty in remote and regional Australia.

Hundreds of thousands of tourists pass through Alice Springs each year on their way to Ayers Rock, now known by its Aboriginal name of Uluru.

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