Australia opened a national probe into child sex abuse yesterday, with premier Julia Gillard warning of “uncomfortable truths” as institutions including schools and churches come under scrutiny.

It took superhuman effort to talk at all in the face of such appalling tragedy, but Edith McKeon somehow found the strength to thank the thousands that turned out in support of her murdered daughter.

United in grief and inspired by the need to demand greater protection, a shaken Australian community took to the streets to condemn the violent death of Jill Meagher.

“I just wish I knew where she was, or that she’s safe.”

The US anti-doping agency stripped cycling icon Lance Armstrong of his record seven Tour de France titles yesterday and slapped him with a lifetime ban from competition.

Football Federation Australia chief executive Ben Buckley has welcomed Sepp Blatter’s pledge to reform the way World Cups are allocated.

Flooded communities across eastern Australia could be under water for more than a week, with the clean-up bill expected to hit billions of dollars, officials said today.

A man has been arrested on charges of raping his daughter for 30 years and fathering four children with her, it has been reported today.

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has incurred the wrath of a US politician - after tricking the congressman into appearing in his new movie 'Bruno'.

The Australian federal government said today it will clear away hurdles that have stalled a nationwide fire alert telephone system, after thousands of people were caught off-guard by the deadliest wildfires in the country’s history.

A lost humpback whale calf has bonded with a yacht it seems to think is its mother, according to reports in Australia.

Australia’s most prominent Islamic cleric, widely condemned for suggesting that women who don’t wear head scarves invite rape, implied today he would not resign as long as the White House continues to influence the world.

A close friend of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin said today that he was appalled at reports of people illegally cashing in on the exuberant entertainer’s legacy.

Two men entombed in an Australian gold mine for a week will probably be freed without major medical problems, a rescue official said today, as a special drill was assembled to bore through tonnes of collapsed rock.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted he may have been wrong to announce he would step down before the next election.

Outraged Muslims today demanded an Australian newspaper apologise after it published one of a series of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that have sparked angry protests around the world.

Canberra has offered a long-term Australian resident it deported to Serbia temporary housing and medical checks in Belgrade, but is standing by its decision not to allow him back into the country, an official said today.

THE Sydney arm of an alleged Islamic terror network had stockpiled enough chemicals to make at least 15 large bombs, a newspaper reported yesterday, as police sifted through evidence seized in a series of pre-dawn raids earlier this week.

The Sydney arm of an alleged Islamic terror network had stockpiled enough chemicals to make at least 15 large bombs, a newspaper reported today, as police sifted through evidence seized in a series of pre-dawn raids earlier this week.

A British national was killed in the bomb blasts in Bali, the Australian Foreign Minister confirmed today.

One of Australia’s leading Islamic clerics says he does not believe Osama bin Laden directed the September 11 2001 terrorist strikes against America or that Muslims were involved in either that attack or last week’s London bombings.

Two Australian brothers made an impassioned plea on Arabic television today for the release of their elder brother being held hostage in Iraq, saying he was ill and his abduction would not persuade Australia to withdraw troops.

Australia today formed a team of diplomats, defence staff and police who will attempt to free an engineer seized by Iraqi insurgents, but the government had a blunt message for the kidnappers: Australia will not remove its troops from Iraq or pay any ransom.

Firefighters have contained Australia’s deadliest wildfire in more than two decades, which killed nine people and left three others missing, officials said today.

The last Australian aid agency operating in Iraq has suspended operations in the country, saying it is too dangerous to keep working there amid the violent insurgency.

A high-speed train derailed in eastern Australia, injuring more than 120 passengers as its carriages slammed into trees and ploughed through fields alongside the tracks.

The US presidential election sunk to a new low today as a public row over the sexuality of the vice president’s daughter rumbled on.

THE US military has tortured terrorist suspects held without charge at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, an Australian lawyer representing some of the suspects claimed yesterday.

The US military has tortured terrorist suspects held without charge at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, an Australian lawyer representing some of the suspects claimed today.

The death toll from an explosion in a Bali nightclub is reported to be at 182, with at least 178 injured in what the national police chief described as the worst act of terror in Indonesia’s history.

A tanker carrying 15,850 gallons of unleaded petrol crashed and exploded in a huge fireball in the southern area of the Australian city of Sydney early today, firefighters said.

IN a taped interview, one of the two brothers who unsuccessfully sought asylum at the British consulate in Melbourne yesterday described how he tried to commit suicide inside the Woomera detention camp.

A decision by a branch of Prime Minister John Howard’s Liberal Party to do election deals with the anti-Asian One Nation Party could spread nationally, a Government lawmaker warned today.

A record-breaking 25,000 bolts of lightning struck part of Australia in just one hour.