US stocks enter the new year next week on a cautious note, as investors face rising concerns about the economy and a raft of economic data, including the important monthly employment report.

IN an age of global warming and $1.50-a-litre petrol, the much-loved, grunt-tastic Aussie V8 should be going the way of the dinosaurs.

CRIMINALS are using wireless technology to skim personal identification numbers from bank cards at ATMs while sitting up to 100m away, police have warned.

IT costs less to house two juvenile prisoners in the best room in the five-star Hilton hotel in Sydney than it does to keep them in a Territory detention centre.

THE Territory may get its first cyclone for 2008 on New Year's Day - and a severe weather warning has been issued for northern Arnhem Land.

FEDERAL MPs have scrapped plans for a childcare centre in Parliament House, saying $80 a day is "astronomical", even though many ordinary parents pay more.

POLICE divers have found the body of the pilot of a helicopter that crashed into the Yarra River in Melbourne.

Hicks vows not to let Australia down Video: David Hicks walks to freedom Bidding frenzy begins

AN international bidding war for the rights to David Hicks' story is set to erupt.

Australian David Hicks was released Saturday from Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide , South Australia .

TWO men have survived a car crash in Tasmania's north after a four-wheel drive flipped three times, ejecting the driver as it rolled.

A PILOT is feared dead and a co-pilot has been rescued after their helicopter crashed into the Yarra River at Port Melbourne.

QUEENSLAND Police expressed amazement at the speeds at which some motorists were travelling, including one driver clocked at 170km/h.

A TWO-YEAR-OLD girl has been bitten on the ear and head by a long-haired labrador after she took away his bone on a country property in Victoria's north.

A HELICOPTER has ditched into the Yarra River at Port Melbourne and rescue divers are searching for a missing passenger.

A SECOND man has been charged over an alleged bashing on Christmas Day north of Perth that left one man dead and his daughter's fiance with serious injuries.

A statement by David Hicks, read by his lawyer David McLeod

THOUSANDS of campers have evacuated Fraser Island's east coast as southeast Queensland prepares for an onslaught of strong winds and wild seas in coming days.