Australian Breaking Stories

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will this morning begin a round of meetings with state premiers to push his plan to overhaul the health system.

The former anti-corruption Royal Commissioner and judge, Tony Fitzgerald, has slammed Australia's two major political parties for creating what he says to be an amoral, anarchic political culture, controlled by money and lacking in ethics, oversight and accountability.

Burma's military government has annulled the last election held in the country which was won in a landslide by the party of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Electrical specialists have warned the Government not to use safety switches to fix problems in houses fitted with foil insulation.

More than 30 of the nation's top water scientists have united in an urgent plea to the Federal Government to reduce water allocations.

A British journalist has been freed by the Hamas Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip, nearly four weeks after his arrest on suspicion of spying for Israel, Palestinian and British officials said.

A British journalist arrested by Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month and held for nearly four weeks on suspicion of spying for Israel is being released, his lawyer and Palestinian officials say.

The head of Chile's emergency management agency has resigned after admitting she was slow to respond to last month's huge earthquake and deadly tsunami.

Tourists are being warned to avoid certain areas of Bangkok as tough new security laws are introduced ahead of a major protest in Thailand's capital.

Palestinian leaders are threatening to pull out of planned peace talks with Israel unless it reverses a plan to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem.

Staff at Sydney's Taronga Zoo have described how they were overwhelmed with emotion when they realised a baby elephant previously thought dead had been born alive.

Australia has retained the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy with a six-wicket victory over New Zealand in the fourth match of the series at Eden Park in Auckland.

Queensland's Corrective Services commissioner has rejected allegations that hatred of Indigenous Australians is to blame for the death in custody of an Aboriginal teenager.

A 100-year-old wool store full of stained tutus and soggy props is not a pretty picture for one of the country's flagship arts companies.

A Melbourne conman who pretended to be an ASIO agent to cheat a woman out of her life savings has been jailed for four and a half years.

East Timor's President, Jose Ramos-Horta, says a press release issued by Amnesty International has misrepresented his comments about calls for an international tribunal in East Timor.

The Australian share market has finished the day slightly lower, dragged down by mining stocks, with a spike in China's inflation sparking fears the government could further curb bank lending, cutting demand for metals.

Predictions it would be up and running before the NRL season began proved wide of the mark, but rugby league's independent commission has finally been agreed to a day before the campaign kicks off.

A boat carrying asylum seekers has been intercepted off the Northern Territory coast.

Healthcare professionals and industry groups are calling for chronic pain to be recognised as a disease, saying the condition is misunderstood, much like depression was 20 years ago.