THREE Japanese tourists and the pilot of a light aircraft had to camp out in the Kimberley in Western Australia overnight after their plane made a forced landing on an abandoned airstrip.

IT will be 30 days before a preliminary report into what caused a Qantas jet to violently lose altitude is delivered, investigators say.

THE captain of a boat intercepted by the navy off Ashmore Reef on September 19 has been charged with people-smuggling.

THE Government backs off guarantees it will raise the single pension, saying the financial crisis may force it to reconsider.

AN AVALANCHE of selling at the close left Wall Street's main index, the Dow, below 8600 for the first time since May 2003.

VICTORIAN MPs have voted to allow lesbians, single women and infertile couples greater access to fertility treatment in a historic sitting of parliament.

POLICE are angry they will be made to provide a VIP escort for a motorcycle gang set to swamp city streets this weekend.

A VICTORIAN judge has cleared the way for Melbourne's Crown Casino to access some financial records of a gambler suing the venue and its operators for $30 million, but denied it access to his tax records.

ZIMBABWE'S annual inflation soared to 231 million per cent in July, confirming growing hardship in the southern African country.

LIVES are being put at risk by "festering" cells of corrupt police leaking information on confidential investigations to criminals, a police corruption watchdog has warned

A BODY found in the sea has key similarities to missing backpacker Britt Lapthorne, a Croatian newspaper says.

THE mother of missing backpacker Britt Lapthorne today provided DNA samples to the Australian Federal Police for comparison with a body found in the sea off the Croatian city of Dubrovnik.

KEVIN Rudd has left the door open to an extension of government protections on bank deposits and superannuation reform.

NEARLY 30,000 homes and businesses lost power in Adelaide's northern suburbs after thieves risked their lives to steal copper wiring from an electrical substation.

A man has been jailed for stomping on an unconscious pub patron's face.

THE Catholic Church has warned that Victoria's contentious abortion legislation could create a dangerous precedent for the rest of the country.

WORLD stock markets mostly rebounded today, with London, Paris and Hong Kong rallying 3 per cent following a round of emergency interest rate cuts and after share prices had dived a day earlier.

AS Australia struggles to conserve water, reduce waste and find new ways to become sustainable, a seaside Melbourne suburb has been rewarded for leading the way.

FIVE men have been charged over a house fire at a beachside home south of Melbourne that left a man in a critical condition.