Two staff members of a Sydney cafe have revealed how they plotted to stab a gunman who held them hostage during a 16-hour siege in December.

Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has brought forward a challenge to his leadership to tomorrow in the interests of ending uncertainty about his government’s direction.

The Australian biological parents of twins caught up in a surrogacy scandal in Thailand wanted both babies but the surrogate mother threatened to involve the police and they feared she would keep both children, they said yesterday.

A Thai surrogate mother raising a Down syndrome baby that she claims was abandoned by his Australian biological parents, said she wants the boy’s healthy twin returned to her after learning the father is a convicted sex offender.

A Thai surrogate mother left with a Down’s syndrome baby who was abandoned by his Australian biological parents has said she would be happy to have the infant’s healthy twin returned to her.

A woman who let loose with a torrent of racial abuse against an innocent Asian woman on a train in Australia says she is deeply ashamed of her behaviour.

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 are investigating a very public fight between one of the country’s richest businessmen and a top television executive in an exclusive Sydney beachside suburb.

A shark has killed a woman as she swam at a popular Australian east coast beach.

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.

Firefighters battling wildfires in Australia are braced for conditions to get worse in the coming days, with high temperatures and strong winds expected to intensify the danger.

Australian billionaire Clive Palmer said he plans to sue Rupert Murdoch over unflattering allegations and claimed the media mogul’s estranged wife is a Chinese spy.

The Australian DJs behind the hoax call to the hospital that treated Kate Middleton said they were “gutted, shattered, heartbroken” by the death of a nurse they had duped.

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.

AN ELECTRICAL fault sent smoke into the cockpit of a Qantas Boeing 747 and forced pilots to turn back yesterday in the latest in a string of problems for the airline since an engine explosion on a superjumbo prompted a global safety scare.

A volcanic eruption and a tsunami killed scores of people hundreds of miles apart in Indonesia.

A powerful earthquake off western Indonesia triggered a small tsunami that killed one man, damaged more than 150 homes and sent thousands of people fleeing to high ground.

Three independent politicians who will likely decide which party governs Australia said today they plan to demand details of how much competing election promises would cost the nation over the next three years.

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard said she is changing her campaign strategy after polls showed her government’s popularity fell as early voting begins for general elections.

New Prime Minister Julia Gillard today signalled Australia's immigration intake will slow under her leadership as concerns grow about the nation's rapid population growth.

A 16-YEAR-OLD Australian steered her bright pink yacht out of Sydney Harbour yesterday on Sunday to start her bid to become the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world.

Russell Crowe’s manager today denied a newspaper report that the Oscar-winning Australian actor had been banned from an English pub near the set of his new film 'Robin Hood'.

BRITON Ben Southall said he’ll miss his mother’s Sunday roast as he began what’s been dubbed the “Best Job in the World” — a six-month contract to serve as caretaker of a tropical Australian island.

Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his treasurer are rejecting opposition calls to resign over their relationship with a car dealer which commentators say has created the 19-month-old government’s biggest political crisis.

CELEBRITY chef Gordon Ramsay was labelled a “low life” by Australia’s prime minister yesterday over a rant in which he suggested a female TV presenter was a lesbian.

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.

The man accused of starting one of Australia’s deadly wildfires is a lonely web surfer who liked dogs, always said “G’day” to neighbours, and was trying to find love online.

Photographs of nude teenagers that prompted police to close a gallery exhibit in Australia's biggest city and launch an obscenity investigation were cleared today by censors as non-pornographic.

AN AUSTRALIAN woman who had a child with her father pleaded for acceptance of their illicit love as the couple appeared on national television with their baby girl after being convicted of incest.

A state leader accused Australia's government today of incompetence in its handling of the case of Indian terror suspect Mohamed Haneef.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard today defended his government’s warnings that a terrorist attack in Indonesia may be imminent, despite officials saying there was no direct intelligence a strike was being planned.

Australia have been placed in a super pool with England, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea for the group stages of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup.

A Garuda Airlines passenger jet was flying at almost double the normal speed when it crash-landed at an Indonesian airport, killing 21 people, it was reported today.

Two pilots had been arguing moments before their Garuda Airlines passenger jet crashed last month at an Indonesian airport, leaving 21 people dead, a senior investigator said today.

An Australian diver who was almost swallowed head-first by a huge shark today said he survived by poking the fish in the eye and credited the lead-lined vest he was wearing as saving him from being bitten in half.

Celebrity couple Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have been reunited in the Oscar-winning actress’s home town of Sydney, Australia, after her singer husband completed treatment in the United States for alcohol abuse, media revealed today.

Muslim leaders, women’s rights advocates and political leaders in Australia today condemned one of the country’s top Islamic clerics for comparing women who don’t wear head scarves to “uncovered meat” who invite rape.

CROCODILE Hunter Steve Irwin always felt he would die early but that it would be a car wreck, not an animal, that killed him, the widow of the daredevil TV star and conservationist said yesterday.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin always felt he would die early but that it would be a car wreck, not an animal, that killed him, the widow of the daredevil TV star and conservationist said today.

Australia’s hottest celebrity couple, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, jetted out of Sydney today, likely bound for a secluded honeymoon getaway on the golden sands of the South Pacific.

Nicole Kidman has married country singer Keith Urban, shunning Hollywood glitz for a fairytale ceremony in her hometown of Sydney attended by close family and just a smattering of A-list stars.

East Timor dumped its defense minister today and the government showed signs of further unravelling, as desperate residents scuffled over scarce food in the capital and looters ransacked the prosecutor’s office of vast numbers of files.

East Timor’s government showed signs of unravelling today, as desperate residents scuffled over scarce food in the capital and looters defied foreign peacekeepers sent to restore order.

Two miners trapped for two weeks almost 3,000ft underground in an Australian gold mine today revealed they wrote farewell messages to their families on their own skin in expectation of dying.