ANZ cuts its fixed rate home loans by up to 50 basis points Banks have hinted they will not lower rates if RBA cuts In-depth: The latest interest rates news and features

THE Australian dollar has crashed to its lowest level in six months as the currency enters its longest losing streak since 1980.

THE Federal Government and the country's big four banks appear to be on a collision course over mortgage interest rates.

TELECOM Corporation shares tumbled 7 per cent today after the company posted a 30pc fall in quarterly net profit and downgraded its forecasts.

A TODDLER is fighting for her life after she was run over by the family car in the driveway of her home.

TELSTRA is expected to do better than its guidance when it reveals its annual profit results next week, as Australia's biggest telecommunications company increases revenue from its Next G mobile services.

WESTPAC has avoided making the poor investment decisions that have battered two of its local peers and expects earnings this year to remain solid, even as the economy slows.

GUINNESS Peat Group (GPG) is selling its entire cornerstone stake in Tower Australia for $376.3 million to a major Japanese life insurer.

COMMANDER Communications has appointed voluntary administrators after its banking syndicate refused to grant a further extension to its debt repayment schedule.

HOPES are high for the canonisation of Blessed Mary MacKillop following the attention paid to the Australian nun by Pope Benedict XVI during a recent trip to Sydney.

POLICE are continuing their search for missing Adelaide boy Jacob Taylor after a series of reported sightings failed to find him.

A 10-year-old boy missing since Tuesday has been found safe and well, police have confirmed.

THE father of a boy, 10, found at a house in the Adelaide suburb of Sturt last night, will face charges over an alleged hoax disappearance.

THREE people have been charged over the disappearance of a 10-year-old Adelaide boy in an apparent hoax.

ITALIAN dairy giant Parmalat has scrapped a proposed partnership with Victoria's Murray Goulburn Co-operative to pursue a takeover of New South Wales food co-operative Dairy Farmers.

THE air turned blue with a barrage of coarse jokes at a police award ceremony yesterday - and not just because the room was full of the force's top brass.

A WOMAN discussed plans to kill her husband by injecting air into his heart or adding a ground-up spider to his coffee before she offered a hitman $10,000 to do the job, a court has heard.

A JURY has found a Sunshine Coast woman guilty of the manslaughter of her husband, who died during a kinky bondage session.

A TEENAGE boy has confessed to murdering his older brother.

IF it was not for the prevalence of ecstasy in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, understaffed police say they would struggle to cope with the drunken violence.