People are changing Earth so much, warming and polluting it, that many scientists are turning to a new way to describe the time we live in.

Australian astronomers say they have found a star 13.6bn years old, making it the most ancient star ever seen.

The Australian archaeologist who rocked the science world with his discovery of a tiny new species of human known as the “hobbit” has died after a year-long battle with cancer, his university said.

After three years plotting his revenge, Kevin Rudd made a spectacular return to the labour leadership and could be named Australia’s prime minister today.

Summer ice is melting at a faster rate in the Antarctic Peninsular than at any time in the last 1,000 years, research has shown.

Recession could make us happier in our jobs, writes Arlene Harris.

WikiLeaks says the group’s founder, Julian Assange, will run for a seat in the Australian Senate in elections due late next year despite facing criminal charges in Sweden.

Australia’s leader faces her toughest political test to date as she tries to sell the nation on a carbon tax that would lead to higher power prices while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

RADIATION from fish and lobsters near Sellafield suggest radioactive material dumped into the sea from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant isn’t a long-term health threat, scientists said.

Voters in the secretive military-ruled nation of Burma cast their first ballots in 20 years today, as slim hopes for democratic reform faced an electoral system engineered to ensure that most power will remain in the hands of the junta and its political proxies.

Leaders of Australia’s two major political parties lobbied for support from independent MPs today to stitch together the nation’s first minority government since the war.

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.

It could take more than a week to learn who will govern Australia after a cliffhanger election – the closest in nearly 50 years – and the winner may have to woo the support of a handful of independent lawmakers in order to assume power.

Australians today chose between giving their first female prime minister her own election mandate and returning to a conservative government after just three years.

Australians go to the polls tonight in what is predicted to be one of the closest battles in decades and offering a stark choice between two very different leaders.

Australia’s first woman prime minister today announced minimum changes to her cabinet in a reshuffle that analysts say points to an election within weeks.

A sudden revolt within Australia's ruling party gave the country its first woman prime minister, who today promised to safeguard her government's reforms in education, health and industrial law.

SCIENTISTS will be eagerly scanning the night sky over the Australian outback this weekend for the long-delayed return of the first spacecraft to complete a round-trip journey to an asteroid.

Australia’s prime minister has set a November deadline for Japan to stop its research whaling programme that kills hundreds of the creatures every year in Antarctic waters, or face legal action.

Men are on the road to extinction as their genes shrink and slowly fade away, medical students heard today.

A PHOTOGRAPH of a naked 6-year-old girl on the cover of an Australian art magazine has sparked uproar.

Burma's state media said last weekend's cyclone killed some 10,000 people in one town alone, raising fears of a big rise in the overall death toll today, as the international community prepared to rush aid to the nation.

Action star Jackie Chan has paid tribute to his late parents by opening a science education centre at an Australian cancer research clinic.

US vice president Dick Cheney arrives in Australia today to thank one of Washington’s staunchest supporters of the increasingly unpopular Iraq conflict.

An Australian inquiry into alleged multimillion dollar bribes paid to export wheat to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is expected to recommend criminal charges against several senior executives.

The Democratic victory in the US elections was seen in Asia as a well-deserved rejection of the war in Iraq, but was not expected to have a major impact on American foreign policy.

A leading Australian scientist believes that the world has just 20 years to turn the tide on global warming and that leaders at a summit in Sydney next week must take concrete steps to tackle the problem.

Australia’s foreign minister is expected to announce next week that Australia will sign a non-aggression pact with its south-east Asian neighbours when he attends an ASEAN security forum, an analyst said today.

TWO human skulls found in Africa have been confirmed as the oldest known examples of our species, scientists said yesterday.

AN epidemic of short-sightedness could soon result from children spending too much time glued to TVs and computers.

The Bali nightclub bombing that killed almost 200 people may push Indonesian leader Megawati Sukarnoputri off the political fence and put her fragile hold over the world’s biggest Muslim country in question.