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A HOLLYWOOD film about high speed street racing promotes "reckless behaviour behind the wheel", a New South Wales Labor MP said today. More

THE Federal Government has delayed debate on its controversial immigration changes while it tries to quell a backbench revolt against the measures. More

THE stock market made a strong start this morning, continuing to bounce back after a week of heavy losses, with miners and banks leading the way. More

NEW South Wales Government proceedings against a serial pedophile deported to the UK have been formally dismissed. More

THE case of an elderly Sydney man charged with running down young burns survivor Sophie Delezio at a pedestrian crossing was adjourned after a brief mention in court today. More

UP to 10,000 football fans are expected to pack Melbourne's Federation Square to watch Australia take on Brazil at the World Cup in the early hours of Monday. More

MANY young people face being underpaid, bullied and harassed in the workplace because of the Federal Government's new industrial laws, the South Australian Government said today. More

THE operators of Sydney's Lane Cove Tunnel operators have promised the maximum toll will be no more than $2.60. More

FIRE crews have contained a blaze which caused hundreds of thousands of dollars damage at a tissue factory in Melbourne's east. More

FAMILY First senator Steve Fielding said today he was still to decide whether to support immigration changes which would send all boat arrivals to offshore detention centres for processing. More

A SOUTH-EAST Queensland farmer expects to destroy a large amount of his sugarcane crop following the spread of a potentially devastating disease. More

CONTROVERSIAL immigration changes are aimed partly at ensuring good relations with Indonesia, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has said. More

AUSTRALIAN Workplace Agreements (AWAs) allow workers more bargaining power, but may take away leave loading and penalty rates, Treasurer Peter Costello said. More

ADELAIDE has shivered through its coldest night for more than 20 years. More

THREE people have been charged after police broke up an alleged counterfeit money operation in Adelaide. More

US President George W. Bush acknowledged the damage being done to the US image by the Guantanamo "war on terror" prison camp as a new controversy erupted today over journalists who were forced to leave the US base. More

A 34-year-old man has been charged over the Top Taste contamination scare, in which sharp metal objects were found buried in some cakes. More

ADELAIDE is the third best city in the world to do business, according to a new survey. More

FIRE crews have contained a blaze at a tissue factory in Melbourne's east, but are likely to work most of the day to extinguish the fire. More

THE South Australian Government has promised to help find new jobs for 86 workers who are facing retrenchment at Tenneco Automotive plant in Adelaide. More

THE Federal Government could delay forcing its controversial migration legislation through parliament's lower house amid fresh talks to quell a backbench revolt over the changes. More

TREASURER Peter Costello said the Federal Government is well on the way to meeting its biofuels target. More

POLICE detained about 200 German and Polish fans following clashes before the World Cup Group A match overnight. More

AN elderly woman in in hospital with two broken legs after being struck by a station wagon in a hit and run accident in Melbourne's north. More

EUROPEAN shares closed slightly higher in volatile trade overnight, with takeover speculation boosting drugmaker Astrazeneca and Vinci among other stocks, but interest rate worries persisted. More

A BABY girl is undergoing treatment after swallowing a drug understood to be methadone at a south-west Sydney home. More

A VICTORIA Police air wing helicopter pilot was hit in the eyes by a high-intensity laser beam as he took off from Melbourne's Essendon Airport last night. More

A SALE of gems, furniture and paintings belonging to Queen Elizabeth's sister raised £13.65 million ($34.01 million) in two days of bidding by royal souvenir hunters from around the globe. More

A BELGIAN judge today charged a twice-convicted child rapist with the abduction of two missing girls, in a case that has reawakened painful memories of the killings of pedophile Marc Dutroux a decade ago. More

THE dollar opened lower today as its US counterpart gained ground after US core inflation data came in higher than expected. More

MORE than two dozen football fans have been charged with an array of street offences following Queensland's State of Origin victory in Brisbane. More

A MAN has been charged after a police chase on the NSW mid-north coast. More

A CYCLIST is in a critical condition after his bike and a car collided in Sydney's south. More

A MAN has been stabbed in the back during a brawl at an outback Queensland pub. More

US stocks rose overnight and the Nasdaq snapped an eight-day losing streak as investors looked for bargains and brokerage upgrades helped shares of semiconductors and airplane manufacturer Boeing Co. More

A MAN has been charged after police allegedly uncovered a cocaine supply during a raid on a unit in Sydney's south-west. More

WORLD oil prices showed mixed fortunes overnight after the latest weekly snapshot of US energy inventories. More

A WOMAN has been charged with attempted murder after shots were fired at a man in Sydney's northern beaches. More

IT is time for the Federal Government to take legal action against Japan for slaughtering whales in the Southern Ocean, environmental groups said. More

NEW figures show four out of five smokers are oblivious to their increased risk of developing osteoporosis. More

A MAN has been arrested following a high-speed police chase in Melbourne's outer-east. More

POLICE are investigating a fire that destroyed a hedge outside a house in Melbourne's outer east. More

POLICE are hunting a gang of four people responsible for a string of thefts in Melbourne. More

VIDEO games are not usually considered fine art, but today the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra was due to perform a symphony composed of music from blockbuster video games to a sell-out crowd. More

EXPOSURE to chronic, subtle, everyday disrespect or mistreatment is hard on a woman's heart. More

FIREBRAND cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has been greeted by a sea of supporters punching fists in the air and screaming "Allah hu Akbar", or God is Great, as he arrived home to his Java boarding school. More

AMATEUR marathon runners who run less than 64 kilometres per week during training often show signs of cardiac dysfunction after the race and some of these abnormalities may persist for up to a month after they cross the finish line, a study shows. More

PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh agreed today to begin removing a Hamas militia from the streets and to integrate it into the police force to try to ease tensions that have fanned fears of civil war. More

IRAQ'S prime minister launched a security crackdown against al-Qaeda in Baghdad today but extended an olive branch to Sunni rebels who want to join the political process in a twin strategy to ease violence. More

ESTONIA, Latvia and Lithuania paid moving tributes today to the tens of thousands of men, women and children who 65 years ago were rounded up in dawn raids and sent to Siberia by the Baltic states' Soviet occupiers. More

ISLAMIST militias tightened their grip over Somalia by seizing a key town today and the parliament approved deployment of foreign troops, a decision likely to imperil relations with the newly powerful Islamists. More

THE UK Foreign Office will this Friday begin the process of potentially freeing Australian terror suspect David Hicks from Guantanamo Bay. More

PAKISTANI authorities raided warehouses in the capital Islamabad today, hunting for ginger that traders were suspected to have soaked in acid to improve its appearance and increase its weight. More

SOMALIA'S parliament overnight approved deployment of foreign peacekeepers to the anarchic nation, a move opposed by newly powerful Islamist militias controlling Mogadishu, the parliament speaker said. More

AUSTRALIAN pastoral company Elders has broken new ground in Russia with the signing today of a contract to deliver the first ever large shipment of foreign cattle into the country. More

TASMANIAN Treasurer Michael Aird will deliver his maiden Budget today. More

SUGAR industry leaders will meet in the south-east Queensland town of Childers today to work out ways of tackling an outbreak of the potentially devastating disease sugarcane smut. More

SENATORS will try today to overturn the Federal Government's bid to quash the ACT's civil union laws. More

A FRENCH court convicted 25 Islamist militants of planning terror attacks in Paris, possibly using chemical weapons, and of recruiting fighters to send to Chechnya and Afghanistan. More

THE Government will force its controversial immigration laws through the House of Representatives today - but the Bill's fate in the Senate remains unclear. More

AN explosion in a fireworks warehouse in western Hungary killed four workers, the country's disaster management agency said. More

CLEANERS will join marches in Australia and New Zealand today, protesting against poor wages and working conditions. More

US President George W. Bush said he wanted to close the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba but first needed a plan to deal with the "darn dangerous" prisoners held there. More

FOR a comic book hero, it's the ultimate taboo. More

AFGHANI and coalition forces killed 26 Taliban on the country's border with Pakistan while four civilians were killed in rocket attacks in the same area, a provincial governor said. More

AGED care centre employees in Victoria will undergo police checks in a government plan to stamp out abuse of elderly residents. More

TRACK star Jana Pittman is pregnant with her first child. More

TOUGH new immigration laws could be softened after a marathon meeting between concerned backbenchers and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone. More

BRITISH novelist Jeffrey Archer won a cybersquatting case, gaining the rights to the contested Internet domain name www.jeffreyarcher.com. More

A 70-year-old woman is in a critical condition after being hit by a car while crossing a Sydney road. More

POLICE believe a black glove may hold the key to the brutal bashing murder of a lonely pensioner in his Melbourne home. More

A MAN has died after being stabbed at a home in southwest Victoria. More

LABELLED in some circles as one of the worst Queensland sides in State of Origin rugby league history, the Maroons answered their critics in emphatic fashion with a 30-6 thrashing of NSW at Suncorp Stadium tonight. More

A MEMBER of the ruling family in oil-rich Abu Dhabi said today he wanted to adopt a 10-year-old Palestinian girl who lost her entire family in a Gaza beach bombardment. More

DOZENS of people were injured today in the Bangladeshi capital as protesters clashed with police on the second day of a national strike called by the Opposition which has brought the country to a standstill. More

ALL 96 Afghan citizens being held in the United States' Guantanamo prison camp will be brought back to Afghanistan "very soon", a top government official said today. More

A TODDLER is in a serious condition after being found face down in a backyard swimming pool north of Sydney. More

AUSTRALIAN peacekeepers today secured a burning house in East Timor's violence-racked capital Dili in the first apparent arson incident for about a week. More

IMMIGRATION Minister Amanda Vanstone has conceded the Federal Government took Indonesia's concerns into account when it formulated new immigration laws. More

THE Queensland Supreme Court has rejected an application to return a convicted pedophile to jail. More

NURSES could lose up to 20 per cent of their pay under the Howard Government's workplace reforms, a union chief has told a gathering of disgruntled carers. More

TOUGH new immigration laws could be softened after a marathon meeting between concerned backbenchers and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone. More

TEENAGE girls today complained of being kissed, photographed and offered money to dance by a group of men later identified as persons of interest in the cruise ship death of Dianne Brimble, an inquest has heard. More

SAME-sex couples wanting to tie the knot are pinning their hopes on a push by senators tomorrow to overturn the Federal Government's decision to quash the ACT's civil union laws. More

A TRAINEE police officer who collapsed and died during a training run had shown enormous promise, New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney said today. More

A CANBERRA man has been charged with negligent driving after his ute allegedly veered into the path of a police car while he was trying to scrape ice off the windscreen. More

TWO foreign soldiers and 14 rebels have been killed in the latest clashes in the most serious spell of violence in Afghanistan since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001. More

A DISTINGUISHED firefighter was killed and four of his colleagues injured when their fire truck crashed at high speed while responding to a false alarm in Sydney today. More

THE execution of a young Melbourne man appears to have had little impact on relations between Australia and Singapore, with their leaders today describing a deep friendship between the two countries. More

THE top US envoy to South Korea said today Washington would hit back if North Korea test-fired a missile capable of reaching the United States. More

A JAPANESE man has been sentenced to life in jail for killing a 76-year-old man on behalf of the victim's son and grandson who had placed an order for his murder on the internet. More

A FRENCH court today handed down prison terms ranging from six months to 10 years to more than 20 Islamic radicals convicted of planning terrorist attacks in Paris. More

PRIME Minister John Howard's Work Choices laws have suffered an embarrassing rebuff in a Liberal Party branch newsletter. More

A MOTHER and son hired a hitman to kill the son's estranged wife to stop her testifying against him, a Perth court has been told. More

AUSTRALIANS have spoken of their pain and distress at the release of militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir after 25 months in jail for giving his blessing to the 2002 Bali bombings. More

RADIOACTIVE gases escaped after an accident at Australia's only nuclear reactor, days after Prime Minister John Howard announced his inquiry into nuclear power. More

THE younger brother of Gold Coast mobile phone entrepreneur Ron Bakir has been refused bail after being charged with attempted murder. More

THE Federal Government was facing a backbench revolt led by Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce over the fuel additive ethanol. More

MELBOURNE'S leading cancer hospital, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, was at the centre of a legionnaires scare. More

FLASH floods have killed at least 25 people in remote towns in southwest China where 30 are missing, while the north-east is suffering sustained drought, state media said today. More