Australia has successfully hatched its first shark born via artificial insemination with hopes that the development can ultimately be used to help breed threatened species, an aquarium said.

A MASSIVE cyclone crashed into northeastern Australia yesterday, ripping roofs from buildings and cutting power to thousands of homes, but leaving the scale of disaster unknown as officials and residents holed up while the tempest raged.

A WOMAN drowned after trying to cross a flooded causeway in Australia, becoming the first victim of relentless flooding that one official has described as reaching “biblical proportions,” police said yesterday.

MILITARY aircraft dropped supplies to towns cut off by floods in northeastern Australia, as the prime minister promised new assistance yesterday to the 200,000 people affected by waters covering an area larger than France and Germany combined.

Residents in remote north-eastern Australia are braced for the onslaught of a tropical cyclone today, bearing winds of up to 137mph, a month after another storm left thousands in the region homeless.