Several more hostages have fled the scene of the Sydney cafe siege amid the sound of gunfire and loud explosions.

The Australian government is considering intervening in the case of a sick Down Syndrome baby left with a Thai surrogate mother by Australian biological parents.

A teenager has described how he took the controls of a light plane for more than half an hour after the pilot passed out during a joy flight over rural Australia.

Kangaroo meat hopping off the menu

Firefighters battling some of the most destructive wildfires to ever strike Australia’s most populous state are focusing on a major blaze near the town of Lithgow that stretches along a 190-mile front.

Two American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week when a training exercise went wrong, the US Navy said, angering environmentalists.

An Australian politician taking his morning jog in the capital Canberra has come off second best after crossing a kangaroo.

Facebook is under pressure in Australia to take down a page that insults Aborigines.

The mother of a baby snatched by a dingo at an Outback campsite 32 years ago is praising former critics who now admit they were wrong to have accused her of murder.

Thirteen people killed when a suicide bomber rammed a military convoy in Afghanistan included five coalition troops and eight civilian contractors, Nato has said.

Wildfires tore across the outskirts of an Australian city today, destroying at least 35 homes and injuring a firefighter, authorities said.

MILITARY aircraft dropped supplies to towns cut off by floods in northeastern Australia, as the prime minister promised new assistance yesterday to the 200,000 people affected by waters covering an area larger than France and Germany combined.

Military aircraft dropped supplies to towns cut off by floods in north-east Australia today as the prime minister promised new assistance to the 200,000 people affected by waters covering an area larger than France and Germany combined.

Prime minister Julia Gillard said today no major party had won a majority of parliamentary seats in Australia’s general election and she had started negotiating with independent MPs in an effort to cling to power.

The water minister of Australia’s driest state says it has been forced to buy water to secure critical supplies for 2009 as the ongoing drought has dried up its reserves.

A painful break-up with his wife has prompted a man to put his entire life - his house, his car, his job, even his friends – up for sale online in an effort to start over.

Aborigines greeted Australian Prime Minister John Howard's surprise plan to give constitutional recognition to the country's indigenous people with mixed views today, with many calling it a stunt ahead of elections.

The Pentagon has released new details of allegations against three high-profile terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in a move condemned by a defence lawyer as a tactic to inspire moral condemnation.

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.

Independence hero and former guerrilla fighter President Xanana Gusmao today urged warring factions to end violence ripping through East Timor’s capital, while ex-soldiers whose rebellion triggered the broad mayhem offered peace talks.

Two Australian gold miners spent a 12th night trapped underground as rescuers worked in relays tonight to cut the final stretch of an escape tunnel by hand.

A 52-year-old diver mauled by a great white shark today fought it off by hitting it with a spear gun near a beach in the Western Australia state capital, Perth, police said.

Australia is considering taking Singapore to the International Court of Justice in a desperate bid to prevent the execution of a heroin trafficker on December 2, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.

Two Germans and a French tourist were killed when their minibus collided with a four-wheel-drive vehicle in north-eastern Australia, police said today.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard today dismissed calls from lawmakers within his ruling Liberal Party to ban girls from wearing Muslim headscarves in public schools.

Australian pop star Kylie Minogue, who recently underwent breast cancer surgery, has visited children in an Australian hospital who also are stricken with cancer.

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.

An overzealous attempt to rid a Thai restaurant of cockroaches sparked an explosion that blew up the restaurant in Perth, Western Australia, apart, emergency services said today.

China’s threat to oppose Taiwanese independence with military force today has triggered an immediate call for peaceful dialogue from Japan and discussion of Australia’s treaty obligations should a war break out.

A fire brigade chief called survivors of Australia’s recent wildfires ungrateful today after a report that some were considering legal action against firefighters.

The most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive waves that swamped coastlines across Asia today, killing more than 5,600 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

Extra police were on standby near a remote Outback town today as hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of a teenage boy whose death sparked a nine-hour riot in an Aboriginal ghetto in Sydney.

Tensions flared again today between officials and mostly Iraqi asylum seekers when some refused to be unloaded from an Australian navy ship docked at the tiny Pacific island of Nauru.

A Supreme Court chief justice in Afghanistan told eight foreign aid workers today that they would be treated fairly, and that the threat of a US military assault would not play a part in their trial on charges of preaching Christianity.

An Australian warship which has arrived off Christmas Island may load more than 400 asylum seekers stranded on a cargo ship on to a navy vessel for transfer to New Zealand and Nauru.