Rescuers have plucked nearly 240 survivors from the sea off Papua New Guinea’s east coast after a ferry sank with as many as 350 people on board, officials said.

Qantas Airways said its flights were back on schedule today, a day after an Australian court ruling ended 48 hours of travel chaos stemming from the airline’s decision to ground its entire fleet.

A plane carrying 32 people crashed in the wilds of Papua New Guinea today with an unknown number of casualties, reports say.

Asian stocks nosedived today as the first ever downgrade of the US government’s credit rating jolted global financial markets, reinforcing fears that the world economy is weakening.

A cyclone struck a glancing blow on Australia’s main northern city today, two weeks after a much stronger storm devastated another part of the weather-weary country.

A truck carrying AUS$250,000 (€179,172) worth of salmon crashed in Tasmania, spilling 15 tons of fish into the street.

Australia’s Labour Party won the backing of a Greens party politician today in its bid to form the country’s first minority government in nearly seven decades, while other independents said they were close to deciding which party they would support.

The leaders of Australia’s two major political parties began negotiating power deals with independent lawmakers today after the nation’s closest election in decades failed to deliver a clear mandate to govern.

WILDFIRES possibly sparked by fallen power lines roared across a swath of western Australia yesterday, razing almost 40 homes and sending hundreds of people fleeing for their lives, officials and witnesses said. At least three people were injured.

Australia’s government today announced a new conservation zone off the country’s northeast coast but rejected environmentalists’ demands for a fishing ban in the Coral Sea.

Rescuers worked today to save dozens of whales and several dolphins stranded on a beach in the southern Australian island state of Tasmania, the fourth beaching incident in recent months.

WITH terrifying memories of Australia’s deadliest wildfires still fresh, residents chose to flee rather than protect their homes yesterday when new blazes broke containment lines and threatened the fringes of the country’s second-largest city.

AN AUSTRALIAN cowboy told yesterday how he spent six nights up a tree for fear of being attacked by a crocodile after accidentally riding his horse into a swamp.

AUSTRALIA will ban alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal communities across the country’s vast Northern Territory to combat widespread child sexual abuse, Prime Minister John Howard said yesterday.

Qantas Airways will probably begin flying to Beijing within a year as part of its expansion into Asia, the Australian flag-carrier’s chief executive, Geoff Dixon, said today.