ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe has agreed to post-election talks with the opposition to resolve the country’s political crisis, state media reported today.
CASEWORKERS have confirmed with police an apprehended violence order had been taken out against a father who later killed himself and his three young children, but no specific concerns were raised about the youngsters, the NSW Department of Community Services (DoCS) says.
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd has called for a national child protection system following disturbing cases of abuse and neglect.
A ONE-YEAR-OLD boy has been seriously injured in an attack by two dogs at a home in Sydney’s west.
THE NSW Government has ruled out a congestion tax for Sydney, in response to a report which predicts a major surge in peak-time traffic for the city’s already clogged roads.
FURTHER tests are required to determine the cause of death of a newborn baby found at a Gold Coast house.
THOUSANDS of Australians gathered in capital cities today to mark the 12 months since the Howard government announced its emergency intervention into indigenous communities.
TWO people have died and four others became trapped in a minivan after a series of horror accidents in rural Victoria today.
THE latest leg of the Olympic torch relay has been held in the Tibetan capital amid tight security after deadly riots against Chinese rule three months ago, as rights groups condemned the event.
FLASH floods and landslides triggered by Typhoon Fengshen have left at least 12 people dead and forced the evacuation of thousands of others in the Philippines.
A US man was sentenced to 30 months in jail for obtaining $US1.1 million ($1.17 million) from a victims fund by falsely claiming he had been injured in the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York, the US Justice Department said overnight.
GENETIC material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia may well have played a key role in the origin of life on earth, according to a study to be published on Sunday.
THE US Catholic Bishops’ Conference has issued an explicit rejection of research using stem cells from human embryos.
A MAN and a child have died after their four-wheel drive hit a camel and rolled in central Australia.
ONE of Australia’s leading jockeys, Jimmy Cassidy, accepted more than $50,000 in cash from alleged crime boss Tony Mokbel in return for racing tips, The Age newspaper has claimed.
ELECTING a president by popular vote in Australia under a republic system of government would be a risk, Governor-General Michael Jeffery says.
A MAN has been charged over a fatal hit-and-run that left a 15-year-old father of one dead on a Sydney roadway.
ASTRONAUTS on the space shuttle Discovery spotted an unidentified object floating behind the craft, as well as a bump on the shuttle rudder, the US space agency said today.
GERMAN researchers say they have found some of the strongest evidence yet linking traffic pollution to childhood allergies.
Thirty-four workers remain trapped underground but nine have been rescued after an explosion at a coal mine in northern China today, state media said.
DEMOCRATIC White House hopeful Barack Obama said today he was honoured to have won the endorsement of Hillary Clinton and vowed she would be at the forefront of the party’s election battle.
EGYPT’S parliament today outlawed female circumcision except in cases of “medical necessity”, a condition that could undermine the ban, parliamentary sources said.
HILLARY Clinton today formally ended her quest to be America’s first woman president and endorsed the Democratic party’s new champion, White House nominee Barack Obama.
TWO people have been killed in Hong Kong when their hut was crushed in a landslide triggered by some of the worst rain in the city since records began.
A SIBERIAN tiger has mauled to death a zookeeper who had been trying to encourage the animal to mate.
INDONESIA has raised the alert for a volcano on Sulawesi island to the highest level after it began spewing hot lava and clouds of smoke.
A FRENCH tourist said today he and four other European divers spent two nights on a deserted Indonesian island eating shellfish and watching for komodo dragons as they awaited rescue.
A WOMAN who allegedly ploughed her car into a group of young people on Sydney’s north shore, killing one man, has been charged with murder.
BRITISH celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has sent a message of support to staff at his Melbourne foundation headquarters after it was gutted by fire.
A CHILD is reported to have died in hospital after being pulled from a backyard pool in Sydney’s west.
A TAXI driver has crashed his cab while being assaulted by a passenger on the Gold Coast.
A TEENAGER has been arrested over a drive-by shooting outside an Adelaide nightclub early today.
PETROL prices in Australia could soon reach $2 a litre unless governments around the world act to stop the manipulation of crude oil prices, the NRMA motoring organisation says.
US stock markets lost ground overnight after earlier gains as renewed jitters about the banking and finance sector dented investor optimism, traders said.
ONE dog is dead and another injured after three armed men forced their way into a couple’s Sydney home and assaulted them.
BRITISH police charged a man today with possessing explosives and preparing a terrorist act after he was injured in a blast in the toilet of a restaurant in the west England town of Exeter last month.
TWO small cars under the $30,000 price range have been given a five-star crash test rating in an Australian safety program.
US President George W. Bush does not worry much about Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s future and remains focused on “the big picture” of Middle East peace, the White House said today, as the beleaguered Israeli leader began a three-day US visit.
DEMOCRATIC Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts is “recuperating well” from brain surgery and should be released within a week from Duke University Medical Centre, his office said today.
DEMOCRAT Barack Obama was on the historic threshold of becoming America’s first mainstream black presidential nominee today, but Hillary Clinton’s camp denied reports she was about to fold her campaign.
FIRE has destroyed a jetski factory in Sydney after more than 35 firefighters fought to contain the blaze from destroying adjacent premises.
IN the latest challenge to Bolivian president Evo Morales, two impoverished provinces demanded today that the government recognise their weekend vote in favour of regional autonomy.
IMMIGRANT leaders in South Africa said today thousands of refugees frustrated at miserable living conditions were on the point of retaliating against a wave of xenophobic attacks.
RENEWED jitters about the financial sector sent Wall Street shares tumbling overnight as the sector’s latest troubles accelerated profit taking from last week’s gains.
A MAN has been charged with murder following the assault and death of another man at a pub near Lithgow.
SEVEN children were killed and 25 people injured last night when a train ploughed into a packed school bus on a level crossing in the French Alps, local officials said.
THE US shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station (ISS) today, delivering a bus-sized Japanese laboratory to expand research and badly-needed parts for a troublesome toilet.
THE French government said today it will appeal a court decision to grant a marriage annulment to a Muslim on the grounds his wife lied about her virginity, after the verdict sparked a public uproar.
STONEHENGE may have been a burial ground for an ancient royal family, British researchers said today.
A MAN has been charged with attempted murder after an incident in which a woman was stabbed in the eye, the knife penetrating her brain, police said.
BURMA’S junta announced today that its new constitution had been “confirmed and enacted” after a referendum held earlier this month amid the devastation of Cyclone Nargis.
WALL Street extended its gains to a third day today as investors took some comfort in an upward revision to US economic growth and a further drop in crude oil futures.
IRAN’S President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked for an audience next week with Pope Benedict XVI which would be the first meeting between the two leaders, a diplomatic source said today.
AN elderly man is dead after being hit by a truck in Sydney’s south-west.
US stocks closed in positive territory today as oil prices fell, bringing inflation relief after hitting record highs above $US135 a barrel last week.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said today he hoped to return to Burma soon to assess progress made in delivering international aid to survivors of Cyclone Nargis.
SHAREHOLDERS heckled and jeered management of French bank Societe Generale today, taking them to task for the loss of billions of euros blamed on a rogue trader.
COMMUNITY-BASED programs could offer an acceptable way for overweight and obese teens to trim down, Australian researchers report.
A TOP Afghan intelligence official said today his agency received information several months ago that al-Qaeda figurehead Osama bin Laden is hiding in northern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon today expressed deep concern about a British charity report alleging under-reporting of child sexual abuse by aid workers and peacekeepers.
EUROPEAN stock markets closed mixed today, with the London FTSE 100 index down 0.47 per cent at 6058.50 points.
THE Pentagon said today it was sending invitations to news organisations to cover the arraignments of the five alleged September 11 co-conspirators in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
HOUSEHOLDS across New South Wales have wiped out almost 14,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year, while also saving 585 million litres of water annually, the state government says.
REPUBLICAN White House hopeful John McCain, 71, has no medical impediment to serving as president, his doctors said today, as his campaign released health records to defuse questions about his age.
NEW Yorkers are being warned against a poisonous aphrodisiac after the death of a man.
