Former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer clashed with panellists on the ABC’s Q&A on Thursday over Australia’s intelligence gathering in the Pacific.

Melbourne Victory’s stunning rise from the bottom of the A-League ladder in 2022 didn’t include passage to the grand final, but their season was recognised by scooping two major awards, including the Johnny Warren Medal for the league’s best player on Thursday night.

Health officials have advised anyone who has been in the Sydney CBD in the past 10 days to be on the lookout for symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease.

A rare outbreak of meningococcal at a north Queensland school has health authorities worried after two students were hospitalised.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has promised Australia will be a partner to Pacific Islands nations “that doesn’t come with strings attached”.

Hundreds of Indian air travellers were stranded inside their planes after the low-cost airline SpiceJet cancelled or delayed flights due to an "attempted ransomware attack", the company has said.

China's premier has sounded an unusually stark warning about the world's second-largest economy, saying it must return to normal as the country's zero-Covid strategy bites into growth.

A man on trial for the stabbing murder of a father-of-five on a Queensland highway has been jailed for life.

A pair of crooks have made of with cash after robbing three fast food stores in Brisbane’s south overnight.

Premier Mark McGowan has taken another swing at the Victorian and NSW governments after both launched “attacks” on Western Australia over the GST distribution deal.

Sport Integrity Australia has referred three complaints to police and is continuing to investigate two others as part of its probe into off-field misconduct at the national level of football.

Losses for the iron ore miners and retail behemoths Woolworths and Wesfarmers helped wipe Wednesday’s gains and consign the local sharemarket to its worst session in a week.

Mothers hosting playdates near cordoned-off parks, mahjong maestros huddled in streets and youngsters slugging night-time beers on barricaded sidewalks -- Beijingers are making the most of the small spaces available as China's coronavirus controls close in.

Western powers sounded the alarm Thursday over leaked plans to dramatically expand China's security and economic reach in the South Pacific, in what one regional leader called a thinly veiled effort to lock island states into "Beijing's orbit".

The fiercely competitive buy now, pay later space has a brand new entrant, with National Australia Bank making a pitch to prise shoppers away from the likes of Afterpay, Zip Co, Step Pay and Klarna.

Sydney will unleash a second player from its 2021 draft class against Richmond at the SCG on Friday night, with midfielder Matt Roberts to make his AFL debut.

Labor is one seat away from forming a majority government after retaining the Lyons electorate in Tasmania.

World champion Max Verstappen heads home this weekend hoping to survive the chaos and beat arch-rival and luckless local hero Charles Leclerc again in Sunday's 79th running of the Monaco Grand Prix.

They came to see the superstars of Barcelona and were left gobsmacked by the teenager from the Central Coast.

Eleven newborn babies died in a hospital fire in the western Senegalese city of Tivaouane, the president of the country said late Wednesday. 

Cannes is set to be shaken, rattled and rolled on Wednesday as the world premiere of "Elvis" rocks the film festival on the French Riviera, in what is proving a vintage year for music-lovers.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson presided over a culture of lockdown-breaking parties that featured drunken fighting among staff, according to a long-awaited inquiry Wednesday that prompted renewed calls for his resignation.

John Aloisi never doubted his ability as a coach, but the Socceroos legend had lost hope that he would get another job in the A-League – until he was interviewed by Western United CEO Chris Pehlivanis.

As tensions flared in Melbourne amid last year’s Covid-19 lockdowns, several journalists claim they were targeted by police in painful attacks.

A fourth Covid-19 shot is being made available to a further 1.5 million of the most vulnerable Australians – dubbed a “winter booster”.

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Wednesday said it would sell its patented drugs on a not-for-profit basis to the world's poorest countries, as part of a new initiative announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

A teenage gunman killed at least 19 young children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday, prompting a furious President Joe Biden to denounce the US gun lobby and vow to end the nation's cycle of mass shootings.

A mass shooting that left 19 schoolchildren dead in the deeply pro-gun state of Texas on Tuesday increased pressure on US politicians to take action over the ubiquity of firearms -- but also brought the grim expectation of little or no change.

Golfers are being warned not to be complacent when dealing with kangaroos on the course following a spate of nasty attacks.

Chinese President Xi Jinping held a video call with UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday, as she visits Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uyghur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool by the Communist Party.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong will travel to Fiji this week in an effort to strengthen Australia’s partnership with the Pacific nation.

Try-scoring wizard Alex Johnston says the struggling South Sydney Rabbitohs aren’t worried the Origin period is coming around just as their season is threatening to implode.

North Korea fired a volley of missiles early Wednesday including a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile, just hours after US President Joe Biden left Asia after a trip overshadowed by Pyongyang's sabre-rattling.

Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew has leapt to the defence of Sam Collins after comments from Western Bulldogs mentor Luke Beveridge led to suggestions of foul play from the Suns defender.

Sydney residents grappling with the soaring cost of living have been forced to dumpster dive for recyclable plastics to exchange for cash and search bins for half-decent food.

Russian troops are advancing in eastern Ukraine, pounding key cities and aiming "to destroy everything there", President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, as Moscow signalled it was digging in for a long war against its neighbour. 

US oil and gas firms took advantage of energy worries over the Ukraine war to push their fossil fuel products and resist climate change regulatory measures, an analysis showed on Wednesday.

Republican voters delivered a stark repudiation Tuesday of Donald Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 US election was stolen, backing Georgia Governor Brian Kemp for re-election by a huge margin over a candidate recruited by the former president.

The death toll for the “horrific … incomprehensible” shooting which occurred at a primary school in Texas has increased to 19 children and two adults, along with the gunman.

Three Victorian schoolmates have turned their shared love of sport into a successful business generating $2.3m in revenue.

Toxic black mould has been found behind picture frames and underneath mattresses following the nation’s dampest season on record.

Peter Dutton’s likely appointment as opposition leader shows the Liberal Party has learnt “absolutely nothing” from their defeat at Saturday’s election, according to the new government.

A labor coalition on Tuesday said that Amazon delivery workers are getting hurt due to pressure by the e-commerce giant to quickly distribute heaps of packages to customers.

New Zealand Warriors coach Nathan Brown has hosed down incorrect reports that Chanel Harris-Tavita is retiring from the NRL.

A former Liberal minister has weighed in on the party’s way forward following a shocking federal election defeat.

Northern Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer says she would “potentially” put her hand up for Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in an effort to keep the party from lurching further to the right.

An asylum seeker family who have spent years fighting to return to the town of Biloela in Queensland is set to be allowed to under the new federal government.

Anthony Albanese is set to be sworn in as the 31st Prime Minister before he jets off on his first international trip to a leaders summit in Japan.

A police officer was allegedly bitten while trying to eject a drunk AFL fan from the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the Richmond v Essendon Dreamtime match on Saturday night, where the rowdy crowd behaviour led to the expulsion of 50 people.

After copping a soaking over the weekend and for much of this year, east coast residents are preparing to deal with more heavy rainfall across this week.