Waikato University has laid down the challenge to the men's rowing eight from Cambridge University, here for the Gallagher Great Race on Sunday September 7.

THE coalition is facing renewed pressure to pass Budget legislation as the Senate prepares today to debate a hike in the luxury car tax.

THE Federal Government needs to come up with a new plan that allows consumers to more easily switch their bank mortgages, the opposition says.

The Federal Government is seeking ways to stamp out anti-competitive mergers that may go unnoticed by the competition watchdog because of their small size.

NATIONAL Australia Bank (NAB) and Commonwealth Bank have refused to comment on a report that they are in talks with British lender HBOS over a potential acquisition of its Australian retail arm, BankWest.

WESTPAC Bank could be forced to sweeten its $18 billion merger play for St George Bank, with increasing concerns from shareholders.

COMPANIES managed to rake in a record $57.5bn worth of profits in the June quarter despite a slowing economy and high rates.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd says tighter fiscal conditions will enable the Reserve Bank to consider lowering interest rates.

FAIRFAX Media, which removed Andrew Jaspan as The Age editor-in-chief last week, has offered him a job as an editor-at-large.

BHP Billiton, Australia's largest oil and gas producer, has shut down production and evacuated personnel from the Neptune project in the Gulf of Mexico as Hurricane Gustav bears down on the region.

DOCTORS at a booze-fuelled staff meeting laughed about a patient who bled to death, a leading surgeon claims.

A SUDANESE refugee who assaulted a man after he made a disparaging remark has avoided jail.

A $30,000 luxury party that Queensland Rail (QR) had planned to host for clients at the weekend was a legitimate business event, the transport provider's boss says.

TWO men have been killed in a glider crash at an airfield north-west of Brisbane.

A SENIOR female police officer shot a man in the leg after she was violently beaten at the scene of a break and enter, Queensland's police union says.

POLICE divers have found the wreckage of a missing plane with two bodies inside after it crashed into the sea off the Gold Coast.

THE father of a 40-year-old Australian man in a Bangkok hospital says his son is eating and on the road to recovery following an 11-day ordeal lost in a Laotian jungle.

AUSTRALIA'S current account balance narrowed as expected in the June quarter, but economists were surprised by estimates that it will detract from second quarter economic growth.

PARAMEDICS were called to the mother of a Sudanese youth who died from injuries from a beating 12 months ago as details of his injuries were presented to a Melbourne court today.

FORMER Hells Angel bikie Christopher Hudson, who killed a lawyer during a triple shooting in Melbourne last year, tried to take his own life when he realised the enormity of his crime, a court has been told.