QUEENSLAND: A charity shop in Australia received an unexpected windfall after being donated a suitcase containing $50,000 (£32,000).Surprised staff at the Pomona thrift shop on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast found the tidy sum in a concealed compartment.The suitcase had been on sale for a ...

SYDNEY : An Australian man who raped and strangled his Indian student neighbour and threw her body into a canal in a suitcase was jailed Friday for 45 years for the "horrifying" murder.Daniel Stani-Reginald, 21, had plotted to rape and murder a woman for years before choosing Tosha Thakkar, a ...

SYDNEY : Sky-gazers were treated to an annular solar eclipse in remote areas of Australia on Friday, with the Moon crossing in front of the Sun to leave a “ring of fire” around its silhouette. The eclipse, which occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun but is too close ...

BANTEN, Indonesia : An Indonesian court jailed an Australian and a Pakistani for six years each after the men were caught organising an asylum-seeker boat toAustralia, their lawyer said Wednesday. Ali Qaseem, a 57-year-old from Sydney described by prosecutors as part of an "international ...

  SYDNEY: An Australian is being detained on terrorism-related charges in Saudi Arabia, Foreign Minister Bob Carr revealed Thursday, with the man’s brother claiming he has been tortured. Shayden Thorne, 25, has been held in a jail outside Riyadh for almost 18 months, reportedly after a ...

SYDNEY  - Australia's world championship selection trials begin in Adelaide on Friday as fallout from last year's mediocre performance in the pool at the London Olympics continues to haunt the team.In the eight months since the nation's worst Olympics swimming medal tally in 20 years a massive ...

LONDON - British royal officials on Thursday dismissed media reports that Prince Harry is to spend six months on assignment to the Australian army.Australia’s News Limited newspapers had reported that planning was under way for Harry, third in line to the throne, to be formally embedded in an ...

SYDNEYWorld freestyle champion James Magnussen and his 4x100 metres relay team mates have been fined and given deferred suspensions for using a banned sedative in a bonding session before the London Olympics, Swimming Australia said on Friday.Magnussen, Matt Targett, Eamon Sullivan, James Roberts, ...

WELLINGTON - Former Australian wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi was Friday named in the 15-man New Zealand one-day squad for their upcoming tour to England and the Champions Trophy.Ronchi is the only player who has not previously represented New Zealand in the side that also sees the return of spinner ...

MUMBAI - Five-time champions Australia will walk in with the twin aims of revenge and title triumph when they take on a spirited West Indies, a team which has punched above its weight all through, in the summit clash of the ICC Women's World Cup on Sunday.Australia were undefeated in the series ...

CANBERRA - The Australian government promised on Thursday to crack down on match fixing and the growing influence of organised crime on sports after a major investigation found links between doping and crime may have led to manipulated results.A report by Australia's top criminal intelligence body, ...

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian scientist said Wednesday he had discovered a way to turn the HIV virus against itself in human cells in the laboratory, in an important advance in the quest for an AIDS cure.David Harrich from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research said he modified a protein in ...

SYDNEY  - An Australian open-water distance swimmer who has made multiple crossings of the English Channel on Sunday announced an ambitious bid to swim solo from Cuba to the United States without a shark cage.Chloe McCardel, 27, has twice won the Channel Swimming Association's Sotiraki Cup for ...

SYDNEY Australian rock band INXS have called it quits, reports said Monday, 15 years after the suicide of original frontman Michael Hutchence. The band, which formed in 1977 and has sold more than 30 million records, made the announcement to fans at a concert in Perth on Sunday evening where they ...

KARACHI  - Authorities resumed culling Australian sheep on Friday after the importer withdrew a legal challenge to government claims they are diseased and despite tests showing the animals are fit for human consumption, officials said.A Karachi court last month had halted the culling of 21,000 ...

SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian race crew hoping to beat their British rivals to a new supersonic land-speed record of over 1,000mph launched their bid Thursday, unveiling the first parts of their rocket-powered car.Daredevil drag-racer Rosco McGlashan has dreamed of being the fastest man on wheels ...

MELBOURNE  - An Australian politician has questioned Prime Minister Julia Gillard's decision to award an Order of Australia to iconic Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar for his contribution to sport.Federal Independent MP Rob Oakshott who expressed his love for Little Master, said the special ...

SYDNEY (AFP) - The Catholic Church in one Australian state has revealed that at least 620 children have been abused by its clergy since the 1930s, sparking a fresh call Saturday for an independent inquiry into abuse. The Catholic Church in Victoria revealed the number in a submission to a state ...

SYDNEY  - Veteran Australian opener Matthew Hayden has called time on his glittering playing career, opting not to play in Australia's domestic Twenty20 series this year, his Brisbane Heat team said Thursday.The Heat said that after lengthy discussions, Hayden, 40, had opted not to return for ...

SYDNEY (AFP) - The father of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard donated his body to science and did not want to be buried or remembered at a funeral but privately mourned, his death notice said Wednesday.John Gillard, 83, died suddenly on Saturday morning in the South Australian city of ...

LAHORE – A six-member Australian parliamentary delegation paid a visit to the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (UVAS) on Sunday and held a meeting with Vice Chancellor Dr Talat Naseer Pasha and senior faculty members. The purpose of the meeting was to review strengthening of dairy ...

SWAT - Senior Australian Strategic Studies lecturer at Deakin University of Australia Dr Claude Rakisits arrived at Swat on two-day official trip. Dr Claude wants to write a book on the history of Swat. Talking to this correspondent, Dr Claude said he loved the eye-catching sceneries of Swat ...

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has eclipsed Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton to become the world’s wealthiest woman, according to an annual index by Business Review Weekly.A preview of the respected BRW Rich 200 list, published Wednesday, put the mining ...

PARIS Australian Samuel Groth, the world number 340, has broken the record for the fastest serve in tennis with a serve of 263km/h during a Challenger Tournament in Busan, South Korea, the ATP announced on Saturday. Groth, 24, broke the record during a defeat by Belarusian Uladzimir Ignatik in the ...

SYDNEY - Australia's trade unions said Saturday they would call on the government to introduce a millionaires' tax similar to US President Barack Obama's so-called "Buffett Rule".The Australian Council of Trade Unions said it wanted to ensure mining billionaires such as Clive Palmer, Andrew Forrest ...

COPENHAGEN Matthew Goss of Australia won the third stage of the Giro d'Italia over 190km around Horsens in Denmark on Monday in a sprint finish. Sprint favourite Mark Cavendish and overall leader Taylor Phinney both went down in a crash about a hundred metres from the line. Juan Jose Haedo took ...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Secret diaries of an Australian woman who was one of young Barack Obama’s girlfriends, show the warmth and trust of the future president in love, but also hint at his reserve and “coolness.”Accounts of the 1980s romance between Genevieve Cook and a ...

LONDON Yorkshire are hoping to have Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc available as their overseas signing by early next month. The club confirmed Starc's intended arrival on their official website this morning, in time for the LV- Division Two County Championship match against Gloucestershire at ...

SYDNEY  - One of Australia’s richest men, Clive Palmer, on Monday unveiled plans to build a 21st century version of the doomed Titanic in China, with its first voyage from England to New York set for 2016.Palmer, a self-made mining billionaire, said he had commissioned state-owned ...

SYDNEY (AFP) - A surfer was recovering Wednesday after being bitten by a shark on Australia’s Gold Coast when he fell off his board and landed on the predator.The animal, believed to be a bull shark, bit Billy O’Leary twice, slicing his flesh down to the bone and severely damaging his ...