A snake apparently used to control the progress of certain teams in the soccer World Cup has been seized by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), the organisation said on Monday.

"The Cape of Good Hope SPCA in Grassy Park rescued a Burmese Rock Python from a sangoma in Nyanga on 30 June 2010," said SPCA regional spokesperson Sarah Scarth.

ABORIGINAL Client Services Specialist at Campbelltown Courthouse Gary Stewart is well-known among the region’s Aboriginal community as a good friend and tireless worker, but his efforts deserve to be more widely recognised and applauded.

AUSTRALIA'S first Aboriginal opera is coming to the stage.

SOPRANO Deborah Cheetham has an audacious ability to turn any situation into an opportunity. Bullied at her Sydney school for being a "fat Abo", she would challenge her persecutor to a fight after hours and spend the day selling tickets to the ensuing spectacle (she routinely won).

To mark the start of NAIDOC Week in Hobart, Aunty Eva Richardson gives a welcome to country and raises the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flags outside the ABC Centre in Hobart. NAIDOC Week is a recognise and celebrate our country's Ingigenous heritage and culture.

On its way to the ocean, the San Luis Rey River runs through a hilly, brushy parcel of land known as Gregory Canyon.

With large stands of coastal oak and cottonwood trees and a population of rattlesnakes and even a few mountain lions, the canyon is tucked away in a sparsely populated part of northeast San Diego County, just south of California 76 and three miles east of Interstate 15.