Sydney news

Traffic lights are out, cars have been damaged by falling debris, and some properties will remain without power for 24 hours after a powerful storm rolled through Adelaide overnight.

As music lovers pack their sleeping bags and tents for the annual Falls Festivals around Australia, some parents are wondering if it is a safe environment for children.

The search has resumed for a teenage boy who is missing after swimming at Maroubra Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

An all-rounder who is a quality bowler is what the Australian cricket team needs in the side, says bowling coach David Saker.

The actress discussed her recently revealed affair with Harrison Ford on The Graham Norton Show just weeks ago.

Police in the Indonesian capital found on Tuesday six people, including a nine-year-old child, dead from suffocation in a tiny bathroom where armed robbers had locked them the previous day.

More than 55,700 Queenslanders were caught driving unregistered cars in 2015 – an extra 10,000 - in the first year that registration stickers were removed from Queensland cars, according to figures released this week by the Main Roads Department.

A 14-year-old boy has disappeared while swimming at Maroubra Beach in Sydney's east on Tuesday night.

After a 2 1/2-day break over Christmas the ASX looks set to open flat after very light trade in the few financial markets open.

The year will not end in the way in which Serena Williams might have hoped.

People across the world are mourning the loss of Carrie Fisher, the actress beloved internationally for her role as Princess Leia of Star Wars.

A woman has drowned following a boat capsizing in Queensland's north.

The hunt is underway for a red-headed sex pest who exposed himself to a 9-year-old girl earlier this month.

Woman charged after she allegedly ran down a man with a car, pinning him against a fence in a domestic violence incident in Goulburn on Christmas Day.

Fisher died on Tuesday morning after suffering what was described as a massive heart attack on Friday while on a flight from London to Los Angeles.

Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel's government says it will move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not "turn the other cheek".

Star Wars icon's death comes like a final stamp on an already brutal year.

The weather system that flooded central Australia, prompting Uluru to be evacuated, has brought heavy rain to Victoria.

The Grand Tour host Richard Hammond is facing a backlash from fans and the gay community, after saying he doesn't eat ice-cream "because I'm straight".

The dream of being able to 3D print human tissue to help repair cells damaged after heart attacks is a big step closer, with a breakthrough by scientists at Sydney's Heart Research Institute.

All the action you might have missed overnight.

Australian supermaxi Perpetual Loyal has won the Sydney to Hobart yacht race in a blistering race record time.

A young boy has died in hospital after he was struck by a car as he looked at Christmas lights near Brisbane.

A decision in the UK to allow three-parent embryo experiments to go ahead is raising concerns over moral issues.

Will an unusually rancorous election be capped off by an unusually tense inaugural week in Washington?

There are 365 (sometimes 366) possible days each year on which a baby can be born. As birth dates go, mine is definitely one of the great undesirables.

Police have detonated a bomb found near a food stall in a street in Magelang in Central Java as Indonesia continues to be on tenterhooks over a possible terror attack over the holiday period.

All you need to know to get your day started.

As heartbroken friends and fans continued to mourn George Michael online and at his homes across Britain, questions swirled about the health and final weeks of the electrifying pop singer before his death on Christmas Day at the age of 53.

Australian supermaxi Perpetual Loyal has won the Sydney to Hobart yacht race in a blistering race record time.

As music lovers pack their sleeping bags and tents for the annual Falls Festivals around Australia, some parents are wondering if it is a safe environment for children.

A Polish truck driver whose hijacked vehicle was used to crash into a Berlin Christmas market was shot in the head several hours before the attack and could not have attempted to foil it as previously thought, Bild newspaper reported on Tuesday.

NSW supermaxi Perpetual LOYAL storms across the Sydney to Hobart finish to take out line honours, smashing the previous race record by nearly five hours.

Russian divers on Tuesday morning retrieved the main black box data recorder from the wreckage of a Russian military jet that crashed mysteriously en route to Syria on Christmas Day, killing all 92 aboard.

US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that Thomas Bossert, former deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush, would be his White House adviser on security and counter-terrorism issues, according to a statement.

Police are searching for an American tourist, who failed to return from a five-day hike on South Australia's Kangaroo Island.

Victoria's horror 2016 road toll has continued to worsen, rising to 286 after a crash in country Victoria on Tuesday evening.

Victoria is expected to be hit by a blast of tropical weather, bringing heat, humidity, thunderstorms and the risk of floods. 

While various pundits have claimed we are living in a post-fact and post-truth world, those slaves to reality - scientists - have been busy discovering facts and explaining the world for anyone who cared to listen.

Hundreds of police surrounded Thailand's largest Buddhist temple on Tuesday seeking the arrest of its charismatic 72 year-old leader Phra Dhammachayo. 

The hotel sector is preparing for a busy few years with the construction of new sites and the increased demand.

A tourist who went missing after a car washed off a causeway at the flooded Hugh River near Alice Springs has been found, Northern Territory police said.

Russia threw its weight behind a powerful Libyan army commander, Khalifa Haftar, who's in conflict with the UN-backed government there, saying he must have a role in the leadership of the crisis-wracked state.

A man is dead after a car struck a tree in Victoria's south-east.

Last week, during an otherwise unremarkable meeting at one of the fastest-growing councils in the state, a decision was made which positions the many suburbs of Casey as Melbourne's new bible belt.

What a Christmas cracker of a match this was -  a game that began at a furious speed and only picked up the pace from that point onwards before ending in high drama and controversy with Melbourne City missing a second penalty in stoppage time, and with it the chance to snare a last-gasp winner.

It was the romance made... on TV. But, now, the Bachelorette Sam Frost and Sasha Mielczarek have ended their relationship.

The Sydney Sixers have won their second Big Bash game this season, proving too good for the Perth Scorchers.

Jakarta: There has been a new twist in the blasphemy saga gripping Indonesia with Islamic hardliner Habib Rizieq reported to police for allegedly insulting Christianity during a sermon on Christmas Day.

Commuters abandoned Queensland Rail in the three months leading up to the opening of the Redcliffe Peninsula Line, with a half a million fewer trips.