Guode wept and wailed throughout her sentencing hearing as the judge outlined her crimes and her troubled life that led to it.

An appeals court in Melbourne today quashed the conviction of a British-born Australian man accused of receiving funds from al-Qaida, ruling that some of the evidence against him was not admissible at his trial.

Australia is considering taking Singapore to the International Court of Justice in a desperate bid to prevent the execution of a heroin trafficker on December 2, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.