NOTHING has changed in Tasmania to warrant the State Government decriminalising brothels, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) says.

FORESTRY workers have told Tasmanian anti-logging campaigners they risk violence if illegal road blocks are used in a planned week-long protest.

A MAN who gouged out his girlfriend's eye with a cattle prod has had his prison term increased.

SHANE Warne says the creator of a musical chronicling his cricket career hit a bad note by not asking him for his approval.

LOCAL chief executives' salaries have risen three times as fast as the average wage since 2001.

CORPORATE Australia is failing women, with the number of females on boards and in top executive positions in sharp decline.

CORPORATE high-flyers who rip-off consumers by fixing prices could be jailed for up to 10 years under proposed new federal laws.

A REPEAT of the Great Depression is highly unlikely, largely because of the massive rescue plans now in place, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) chief economist Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel says.

AUSTRALIAN soccer's governing body has denied it ever intended to ban Melbourne Victory fans flying the Eureka flag at matches.

A MELBOURNE university researcher was fatally attacked and driven head first into the ground by a group of youths looking for money to get to Adelaide, a court has heard.

THE global sharemarket rout means superannuation has suffered its worst year since the start of compulsory retirement savings in 1992.

OIL prices have sunk to $US59 today hitting a 17-month low on worries that a global recession will sap energy demand.

THE share market has closed at a fresh four-year low after falling just over one and a half per cent on renewed recession fears.

MORE than 20 police who were on Palm Island during the riot in April 2004 will receive bravery awards.

A HIGH school teacher and a female student regularly met in secluded parks for sex, a court has been told.

A 20-YEAR-old man who allegedly took a loaded semi-automatic pistol into a crowded Brisbane nightclub forcing the evacuation of 1000 people, has received bail.

NINE young men accused of the fatal bashing of rugby league player Johnathan Thurston's uncle are now facing charges of murder.

ELEVEN people will face court following an operation targeting illegal prostitution conducted on the Gold Coast.

QUEENSLAND police are working to quell tensions between Aboriginal and Pacific Islander communities following the bashing murder of the uncle of rugby league star Johnathan Thurston.

IN the end, Grant Hackett's body could only take so much.