A masked man broke into the home of a wealthy family, chained a fake bomb to a teenage girl's neck and left a note of demands behind as part of an elaborate extortion attempt, Australian police said today.

Australia’s prime minister slammed WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents as “illegal” today, in the country’s strongest condemnation yet of the website’s ongoing release of sensitive data.

An Australian security contractor was sentenced to death in Afghanistan for fatally shooting an Afghan colleague, Australia’s government said today.

MEDICAL examiners have identified the first 11 of 50 bodies recovered from the Air France flight that plunged into the Atlantic three weeks ago, officials said.

An Australian TV host said today that foul-mouthed celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay would never again be welcome on her show after he hurled insults and sexual references at her during a food and wine fair.

An overloaded cabin cruiser on a night-time joyride in Sydney’s famous harbour collided with a fishing trawler, killing five young people and injuring nine.

THE International Rules series emerged, officially, from the doghouse yesterday morning after the AFL Commission gave the green light for two test matches to take place in the last week of October.