Sydney news

Southern Stars include young guns Beth Mooney and Lauren Cheatle in their 15-player squad for the Twenty20 women's World Cup.

Patients are sent to publically-funded private theatres for surgery, while public operating theatres lie dormant at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital.

Low genetic diversity threatens the survival of large-scale tree plantings, with evidence emerging a lack of genetic diversity is threatening the trees' ability to reproduce.

A once-in-100-year rain event hits Townsville in north Queensland, with some parts receiving 91 millimetres in just 30 minutes as a coastal trough combined with a band of severe thunderstorms.

A Newcastle church leader admits churches may have no legal power to offer sanctuary to asylum seekers, but insists it is an important message to send to the community.

People in the village of Mullaley, near Gunnedah in northern New South Wales, say they are becoming increasingly frustrated with ongoing Telstra phone outages.

Southern New South Wales Police appeal for public assistance following the disappearance of a man after he went for a swim in the Murrumbidgee River near Wagga Wagga.

The former Solicitor-General of Queensland is facing criticism for representing Brisbane Grammar school at the child abuse Royal Commission while previously advising a victim over a possible lawsuit against the school. The news has been welcomed by child abuse campaigners.

The Lyndon community says a funding boost from the State Government will allow for more comprehensive treatment in remote communities of people affected by the drug ice.

Melbourne medical researchers believe a new device could help people with paralysis to walk again by recording brain activity and converting it into electrical signals.

A truck carrying 26 tonnes of cheese overturns, prompting the closure of part of the Princes Highway south of Sussex Inlet.

The death of the favourite in yesterday's Hobart Cup horse race prompts renewed calls from an animal advocacy group for an end to the sport.

It is hoped medical imaging clinics will be able to improve their services after being spared from a Commonwealth review.

The head of Victoria's regional rail operator, V/Line, is set to appear before a Victorian parliamentary committee to answer questions about ongoing disruptions to the network.

ABC South East's resident cricket blogger Rob Courtney swaps his banking clothes for cricket whites and a baggy brown each weekend and writes about the experience.

Lake Macquarie Mayor Jodie Harrison says council's hands were tied in relation to ensuring the Pelican marina was structurally safe.

The World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park is suffering through one of its driest wet seasons on record.

More than 400 cyclists are fined or cautioned for failing to wear a helmet during South Australia police's Operation Safe Cycling, while only three drivers were cautioned for failing to keep a safe distance from cyclists.

A truck driver is missing after a fiery crash that killed a man and seriously injured a teenager near Hamilton in Victoria's south-west.

Kakadu Cultural Tours manager Liam Maher says it has been too dry to run wet season tours.

The school has lost its funding due to a failure to address concerns about its financial management, Education Minister Simon Birmingham says.

A new bill cracking down on dodgy health practitioners, including gay conversion therapists, will be introduced to the Victorian Parliament.

The Greens say any merger between Dungog and Gloucester Shire Councils would be one by stealth.

The NRL is unlikely to hand down any punishment to Mitchell Pearce for his Australia Day antics for at least six weeks but has cleared other Sydney Roosters players who were out with him that night.

The bankrupt founder of an expanding Tasmanian whisky brand rejects claims some investors in a barrel scheme have been "conned".

Premier Jay Weatherill makes personal contact with each of the crossbenchers in the Legislative Council, as Labor hopes to push reforms through SA's Parliament this year.

Crews battling a bushfire in Western Australia's South West manage to get the upper hand, with the warning for the Shire of Harvey downgraded to a watch and act after firefighters contain the blaze.

Hundreds of firefighters are working through the night trying to contain a bushfire threatening homes in Western Australia's south west, but are facing challenging conditions.

Jocelyn Elliott returns to Burkina Faso's capital after a kidnapping ordeal involving Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists, and says she hopes her husband is soon released so they can continue their medical work in the country.

Young K-Pop hopefuls line up to audition to become the next big music star, like former Sydney man Henry "Prince" Mak, in South Korea in an industry that is booming.

Jocelyn Elliott returns to Burkina Faso's capital after a kidnapping ordeal involving Al-Qaeda-linked jihadists, and says she hopes her husband is soon released so they can continue their medical work in the country.

A second bushfire, which authorities are treating as suspicious, is threatening the West Australian town of Harvey, with firefighters now fighting two fronts.

An emergency warning issued for a bushfire in the Shire of Harvey, south of Perth, widens to include the town of Wokalup.

The Federal Government has decided to walk-away from the GST political hot potato, saying the tax system can be reformed in other ways.

Locally trained Up Cups has beaten home a strong field to win the $200,000 Hobart Cup.

A security guard shot in the leg during a scuffle with a violent patient at Sydney's Nepean hospital says after almost three decades in the job, he might never return.

Reduced licensing hours for nightclubs should be evaluated after 18 months, a parliamentary committee rules. But the Opposition vows to vote against the proposal.

A man accused of murdering a two-year-old girl in her mother's home in Victoria's north-west had earlier told a neighbour the toddler was always crying and he "felt like belting her", a court is told.

Queensland's corruption watchdog tells candidates at Queensland's local government elections to avoid the mudslinging that has accompanied recent polls.

The MP known as 'the father of the house', former Liberal minister and long-serving MP Philip Ruddock, has announced he will be leaving the Federal Parliament. The Turnbull Government has given him a new job to go to, as Australia's first 'Special Envoy for Human Rights'. At the same time the Opposition is pushing for another Liberal to go, over a trip to China in 2014.

More than 100 workers in western New South Wales are to lose their jobs because of production cuts at a mine in Cobar. The Endeavour Mine is a zinc and lead operation owned by CBH Resources. The company's been hit by low prices in both commodities.

Victoria Police is considering changes to its policy on pursuits after a survey finds it is deeply unpopular with serving officers.

The reported rape of a six-year-old girl in state care was categorised as "minor" by an initial investigator, a royal commission sitting in Adelaide hears.

The State Government's decision to name Stadium Australia Operations as preferred operator of the new Perth Stadium plunges the future of community football into doubt, the West Australian Football Commission says.

Western Australia's water utility says Perth is feeling the effects of climate change more than anywhere else in the world, and it is bringing forward its planning to ensure there is enough water to go around.

An Indigenous cattle company in the far north of Western Australia has its sights set on becoming a major player in the live export industry.

Reduced licensing hours for nightclubs should be evaluated after 18 months, a Queensland parliamentary committee recommends.

A Sydney woman who asked her friend to drive her car, minutes before it was involved in a fatal accident in 2014, says she did not know the friend was unlicensed.

Police defend their scrutiny of an inner Sydney restaurant over its wine list, after responding to reports of a heavily intoxicated woman outside the restaurant.

A rare albino green turtle has hatched on the Sunshine Coast