Australian police flew to Rome to interview a senior Vatican cardinal about allegations of sexual assault dating back decades.

Nine Australians, including a government adviser, have been arrested in Malaysia for stripping down to their briefs and drinking beer from shoes after their countryman Daniel Ricciardo won the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix.

Australia’s first online census is in disarray after being targeted by a series of cyber-attacks.

Australia's prime minister has ordered a sweeping investigation into claims that teenagers were abused at a juvenile detention centre in the country's north.

A major riot has broken out at a remote detention centre for asylum seekers in the Indian Ocean.

A 91-year-old retired surgeon has been charged with importing cocaine hidden in soap into Australia, prompting police to warn travellers to beware they are not tricked into becoming drug mules.

A surfer was seriously injured as he repeatedly punched a shark that mauled him off the Australian east coast, less than a week after a fatal attack.

Facing imminent death, Johnny Depp’s dogs Pistol and Boo were last night on a flight due to from Australia to the US after the agriculture minister angrily accused the Hollywood actor of sneaking the pups into the country.

Refugees rejected by Australia will soon fly from the Pacific atoll of Nauru to be resettled in Cambodia.

Australian authorities are looking into Islamic State claims that an Australian teenage recruit died after blowing himself up in Iraq, and local media reported that bomb-making materials had been found at his family home in Melbourne.

The worst storm in decades has lashed Brisbane, Australia’s third-largest city, with wind, rain and hail cutting power lines, flooding streets and injuring a dozen people.

A teenage girl has told how a small shark tried to drag her from her board after biting her ankle as she surfed off the Australian east coast.

A 57-year-old man was killed by a 15ft crocodile in front of his wife while the couple fished in a northern Australian river notorious for the deadly predators.

Four couples from the United States and Australia have been prevented from leaving Thailand with surrogate babies, it is reported.

The grandfather of a seven-year-old boy pictured clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier has urged the Australian government to bring the child home.

Australia has issued arrest warrants for a pair of Australian citizens believed to be fighting in Syria, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported, after images emerged of the two holding the severed heads of Syrian soldiers.

Around 150 Australians are fighting with militants in Syria and Iraq, raising fears of a terrorist threat if they return home.

Australia’s prime minister has admitted that he made a mistake by winking with a smile in a talk radio studio while listening to a phone-sex worker complain about welfare cuts.

Police in Australia began digging up a rural property searching for what reports said were “multiple babies” in secret graves.

A huge snake has won a life-and-death battle against a crocodile in Australia, swallowing the animal whole after a lengthy struggle before amazed onlookers.

Australian police searching for a stolen $200,000 (€130,560) rare pink diamond have X-rayed a British tourist suspected to have swallowed it.

Australian police searching for a stolen 200,000 Australian dollar (€131,000) rare pink diamond have X-rayed a British tourist suspected to have swallowed it.

That sucks: Cockroach lodges in man’s ear

An Australian couple survived for six hours buried under ice and snow after an avalanche in Tibet only for the husband to die after descending the mountain.

Australia’s ruling Labour Party appeared poised for defeat in a national election today, as opinion polls, analysts and an early exit poll suggested the conservative opposition party was on its way to a sweeping victory.

Australian troops are under investigation for allegedly cutting off the hands of at least one dead militant in Afghanistan, it is reported.

Environmentalists have expressed anger after it emerged that two US fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park when a training exercise went wrong.

Jill Meagher's uncle says a certain justice has been done for his niece after the man convicted of the rape and murder of the Irish journalist was sentenced to at least 35 years in prison in Australia.

An Australian woman who now speaks with a French-sounding accent after a head injury eight years ago has revealed the experience has left her feeling frustrated and reclusive.

Chinese hackers did steal the blueprints of a new Australian spy agency headquarters, a politician has confirmed following media reports.

A man has pleaded guilty to the rape and murder of an Irish woman he attacked as she walked home from a bar in Australia’s second largest city.

Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel have been described as “two enemies” inside Red Bull and with a relationship now broken beyond repair.

Mark Webber is not about to immediately turn his back on Formula One in the wake of Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix team orders controversy.

Israel’s prime minister today defended the actions of his country’s security forces following a public uproar over the mysterious death of a man who apparently hanged himself while being held secretly in a maximum-security prison.

The mother of murdered Irish woman Jill Meagher has thanked the public for their support.

A man is expected to be charged within hours with the rape and murder of an Irish woman missing in Australia.

Homicide detectives have taken over the investigation into the disappearance of an Irishwoman in Australia, police have said.

It has emerged that missing Irish woman Jill Meagher, who disappeared in Melbourne, Australia over the weekend, made a worried telephone call to her brother in the early hours of Saturday morning.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is little closer to discovering whether his request for political asylum in Ecuador will be accepted after he spent a third night at the country’s embassy in London.

A day after nearly 250 survivors were rescued when a ferry sank off Papua New Guinea, crews searching for more than 110 missing people have found no further survivors.

Australia’s government ordered an emergency arbitration hearing today after Qantas Airways grounded its global fleet amid a bitter dispute with striking workers, stranding passengers around the world.

An earthquake has shaken cities in north-eastern Australia, officials said.

A flooded Australian coastal city braced itself for water levels to peak today as authorities held an emergency meeting to draw up recovery plans for the 200,000 people hit by the deluge.