Sydney news

The United Kingdom's decision to vote to leave the European Union was one motivated by emotion and fear, Australian business leaders say.

Seven Indonesians believed to have been kidnapped by the notorious Abu Sayyaf militant group are being kept as hostages.

Jo McManus lost her son Max in August last year, after he had seizure in a bath at home, but she's still waiting on a report to find out what happened.

The great production line at the foot of the mountains shows no signs of slowing down as Penrith Panthers' young guns guide the club back into the top eight.

The question was not why only 20,320 people turned up to the MCG on Friday night, but why that many went.

The under-fire Magpie veteran had 14 disposals, took seven marks and kicked 2.2 against Fremantle.

He was described as a "court jester" by his Tory opponents during the bitter referendum campaign. But when he walked out of his north London home, just an hour after David Cameron had resigned as Prime Minister on Friday, Boris Johnson did so as the most powerful Conservative in Britain.

If the response on social media to a truck spilling a load of beer is any guide, trouble could be brewing in Western Australia's bustling boutique beer industry.

Global stock markets lost about $US2 trillion ($2.7 trillion) in value overnight after Britain voted to leave the European Union, while sterling suffered a record one-day plunge to a 31-year low and money poured into safe-haven gold and government bonds.

Australian currency shops are experiencing "mayhem" after Britain voted to leave the European Union and the Pound Sterling fell to its lowest point in more than 30 years.

Oil futures dropped 4.9 per cent in New York and London, the biggest decline in four months.

Australian top economic forecasters expect living standards to fall in the year ahead as economic growth weakens and the budget deficit blows out.

If Australia's leading economists were deciding the election they would vote for Labor's cuts to negative gearing.

There's an awful lot our panel got wrong about 2015-16.

The mid-year Scope BusinessDay economic survey - Australia's longest running - predicts economic growth of just 2.6 per cent in 2016-17.

Bank stocks plunged worldwide and finance chiefs were stunned by the UK's vote to leave the EU.

Dealing with climate change will be as important a challenge for the next Australian government as dealing with the deficit according to the BusinessDay Economic Survey.

A man is missing feared drowned after falling overboard from the Spirit of Tasmania ferry in the Bass Strait early this morning.

US stocks plunged the most in 10 months, joining a selloff in global risk assets.

A grief-stricken couple have spoken of the devastating moment their three-year-old son was killed in front of their eyes.

The richest people in the UK lost big after the country stunned markets by voting to leave the EU.

As panic set in among institutional and private investors, the American political and pundit classes spun the shock referendum outcome defensively and cautiously, save for Trump,

Conditions in Sydney right now conspire toward a perfect planning storm of unprecedented ferocity, and the power tie-ups across three levels of government are critical enablers.

A secret push is under way within the Coalition party room to hobble any positive public vote in favour of same-sex marriage equality by giving conservative MPs and senators permission to vote in parliament against a national "yes" outcome if their individual electorates have voted majority "no".

The US Fed may have to hold interest rates near zero for a lot longer than it expected.

Global markets buckled on demand for haven assets. $A pares loss. ASX futures up 31 points.

There are 'great similarities between what happened here and my campaign,' Trump said in Scotland. 'People want to take their country back.'

The polls had long closed and the result had already been announced: the UK had opted out of the European Union in a landmark referendum.

The pound made history, plunging with UK stocks after the nation voted for a Brexit.

After the Panama Papers toppled their president, Icelanders were looking for something different. And they found it.

As global markets convulse, the stunning outcome of the UK's referendum begs ever more questions.

When Paul Cox was moved from hospital into palliative care, we prepared ourselves for tough news.

Three years after the US Supreme Court forced the federal government to recognise same-sex marriages, LGBT Americans are taking advantage of their new rights.

A growing disquiet in Western democracies illustrated by the Brexit movement in Britain and the Trump phenomenon in the US are expressions of growing discontent.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull "consoled" counterpart David Cameron before his resignation on Friday.

The man who led the Leave campaign to a convincing win, and who may be the prime minister that takes the UK through Europe's exit door, has called for calm.

In 1999, the historian Norman Davies predicted the breakup of the UK.

Nicola Sturgeon raises the spectre of a new independence vote and the possible dissolution of the United Kingdom.

London: The man who led the Leave campaign to a convincing win, and who may be the prime minister that takes the UK through Europe's exit door, has called for calm.

Britain has voted to exit the European Union. Now begins a protracted political and legal mess.

There was no lack of doomsday rhetoric before Britain's referendum on E.U. membership.

Ship crews pulled more than 2,000 migrants from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean on Friday, Italy's coastguard said.

Snow has fallen on the Blue Mountains and the NSW central west as the state braces for a frigid weekend.

Britain has voted to leave the European Union, in a shock referendum result that defied late polls and is predicted to hurt the global economy.

Ten days on a rickety boat couldn't extinguish Mustafa Karimi's hope to lead a life without fear.

Dragons back-rower Tyson Frizell has backed the NSW development player strategy amid calls for Blues coach Laurie Daley to hand debuts to a host of young players in the Origin III dead rubber.

The British singer is one of a number of industry heavyweights who are resisting the platforms in favour of traditional sales.

Two men have been charged with attempted murder over an incident in Melbourne's west in 2011.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we have a post-war record.

This is a country whose citizens kill one another at a rate unmatched in the western world.