With one eye on the upcoming election, public sector unions are pushing for big pay increases to lock in gains for their members before a possible change of government.

It's this plastic thing with a ball inside he uses to bash up spices.) Max found a pretty negative review though, which kills it for me. Back to the mortar and pestle...

Obama Town Hall Meeting in ElkhartBarack Obama held a Town Hall meeting at Concord High School this morning. I heard about it on the news at my Mom's house last weekend. To my surprise, a couple people in my family

How many can you guess in five minutes? I got 52. Judging by the Metafilter thread where I found the link, that's a pretty good score!

DEMAND for home loans has fallen to the lowest level in four years, fuelling the possibility of an interest rate cut as early as next month.

WEBJET has bucked the trend of the wider travel market to post a $9.37 million net profit last year, up 134 per cent on the previous year.

NEWS Corporation has posted a healthy $5.8 billion profit in the financial year just ended on the back of a series of box office hits.

THE corporate tax rate is likely to be slashed below the current 30 cent rate under Kevin Rudd's new economic reform agenda.

RESURRECTED West Australian Opposition Leader Colin Barnett has indicated he will revisit plans for a Kimberley-Perth canal in preparing policies for the next election.

FORMER WA Opposition Leader Colin Barnett has been elected unopposed to lead the state Liberals after a 90-minute meeting of the parliamentary party today.

WEST Australian Premier Alan Carpenter says the worst of the state's gas crisis is over, with the return to partial production of the Varanus Island plant.

THE corridor for a controversial pipeline to pump water from northern Victoria to Melbourne has been approved.

POLICE have withdrawn murder charges against a man over the killing of a mother and her young daughter in their Melbourne home more than 20 years ago.

SECONDARY school students are being given lessons on how to bet on the races complete with visits to the track to practise.

A 36-YEAR-old man who suffered a badly broken leg that wouldn't heal is walking again without crutches after the successful trial of stem cells to repair non-healing bones.

THE body of a man pulled from Melbourne's Yarra River last Saturday has been identified as missing Irish tourist Stephen King.

POLICE in Victoria will have to re-examine every crime solved using DNA after admitting evidence used to lay a murder charge was contaminated.

A TASMANIAN mother who tried to cut her daughter's throat is sickened by her attack, a court has heard.

A FISHING boat skipper who spotted a "ghost ship" drifting near a reef off north Queensland days before its crew disappeared did not contact authorities despite noticing its sail was ripped and nobody could be seen aboard.

SEEDS from Australia's oldest pine are hurtling through space as Barcaldine in central western Queensland gets ready to plant out cloned seedlings of the celebrated Tree of Knowledge.