Firefighters in New South Wales are continuing to battle two large bushfires, one of which has been declared an emergency situation.

 

Two workers have been suspended over leaving a newborn with a stranger during a hospital transfer in South Australia.

 

German billionaire Adolf Merckle has committed suicide after his business empire ran into trouble in the global economic slowdown.

 

One of the UK's biggest retailers, Marks and Spencer, is set to slash its workforce as the recession takes hold.

 

US President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to speak out about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict once he takes office, but insists until then, only President George W Bush can speak for the US.

 

Ron Asheton, a guitarist and founding member of the influential rock band The Stooges, was found dead at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Tuesday, police said.

 

The Australian Tax Office has warned there is a fraudulent email being circulated which offers people tax refunds.

 

A nine-year-old boy has drowned in his family's backyard swimming pool in the Upper Hunter.

 

The United Nations has demanded an investigation into Israeli attacks that killed more than 30 Palestinians at UN-run schools in the Gaza Strip overnight.

 

The Department of Defence has released the name of the Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan on Sunday evening.

 

Japan said it would ask Australia and other nations to refuse port calls for refuelling by anti-whaling activists who have been dogging its whaling fleet in the Antarctic.

 

The onus is on Australia's fledgling attack to stand up and be counted on the final day of the third Test as the home side seeks to keep its world number one ranking.

 

US President George W Bush will grant former prime minister John Howard the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, in one of his final acts in his time at the White House.

 

A 78-year old-man caught speeding 70 kilometres per hour over the limit has become the oldest Victorian to have his car impounded.

 

Two German children aged five and six have been stopped by police from travelling to Africa to elope.

 

The Reserve Bank is keeping with tradition and not meeting today, despite the economic downturn.

 

Israeli troops battled Hamas fighters house-to-house in the outskirts of Gaza City this morning after dozens died in a day of heavy clashes in the coastal enclave.

 

The Federal Opposition says Environment Minister Peter Garrett is trying to hide the fact he has approved construction of the Gunns pulp mill in northern Tasmania.

 

At least 55 people have died over the past four days in northern and eastern India as a spell of cold weather swept the region, officials said.

 

A search is underway in the Southern Ocean after a sailor was reported missing from a Japanese whaling vessel.

 

Peter Siddle took a maiden five-wicket haul before Australia safely negotiated six overs to take a stranglehold on the third Test against South Africa at the SCG.

 

Barack Obama and his family are moving to Washington today, two weeks before his inauguration as the 44th President the United States.

 

University graduates and school leavers will find it harder to find work this year, according to new job advertisement figures.

 

The Federal Government is today expected to announce a decision on whether Gunns' controversial $2 billion northern Tasmanian pulp mill will get the go-ahead.

 

Seven people, including five police officers, have been killed in a suicide bombing in Pakistan.

 

Israeli troops and tanks split the Gaza Strip and ringed its main city overnight in an offensive against Hamas that has killed more than 500 Palestinians, many of them civilians.

 

The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said.

 

Thai police said they will press charges against one of the main shareholders of a Bangkok nightclub where 62 revellers died on New Year's Day after a fire tore through the upscale venue.

 

Zimbabwean rights campaigner Jestina Mukoko, who is to appear in court Monday on charges of plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, is being poisoned and tortured in custody, the country's Sunday Independent newspaper reported.

 

Police in far north Queensland are speaking to the parents of a baby girl who is in a critical condition in hospital after swallowing an unidentified drug.

 

A Michael Clarke century and injuries to influential South African pair Graeme Smith and Dale Steyn tipped the scales in Australia's favour after two days of the third Test at the SCG.

 

Israeli ground troops have entered the Gaza Strip, clashing with Hamas fighters as they crossed the border under the cover of darkness.

 

Two people have been killed in separate road accidents in New South Wales.

 

South Korean opposition lawmakers scuffled with security personnel as guards tried to end their blockade of the assembly that has paralysed parliament and delayed voting on a US trade deal and reform bills.

 

John Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has won Ghana's presidential election, the electoral commission said.

 

Adelaide United's quest for a second A-League minor premiership gathered pace with a convincing 2-0 victory over competition strugglers Sydney FC at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday evening.

 

A judge in Canada has ordered the release of the last remaining Canadian terrorism suspect held under a controversial national security certificate.

 

The Sri Lankan military says it is continuing its offensive against Tamil Tiger positions in the north, a day after capturing the rebels' administrative headquarters in town of Kilinochchi.

 

Two more Thais who were severely injured in a New Year's fire at a Bangkok night club have died in hospital, taking the death toll in the tragedy to 61, medical officials said.

 

Police have released an artist's impression of a tattoo on a man's decomposing body which was found in Park Orchards, in Melbourne.

 

Five beaches on Queensland's Sunshine Coast were closed yesterday because of rough surf conditions.

 

Michael Clarke was dropped twice as Australia's vice-captain played a defiant innings on the opening day of the third Test against South Africa at the SCG.

 

The world's oldest person, a Portuguese woman, has died at the age of 115.

 

A suicide bomber struck a lunch gathering of Sunni Arab tribal leaders in a town south of Baghdad, killing at least 23 people and wounding 42 others, security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said.

 

Thousands of Palestinians have been taking part in demonstrations across the West Bank in response to a call from Hamas for what it called a day of wrath against the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

 

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has announced that Government troops have captured the northern town of Kilinochchi, which is the headquarters of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

 

Homicide squad detectives are investigating the discovery of a decomposing body found off a dirt road at Park Orchards in Melbourne's east.

 

Police are working to retrieve the body of a rock climber who died after plunging 100 metres to his death in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

 

Melbourne soared three places on the A-League ladder to assume the competition leadership with a gritty 2-1 win over Queensland Roar at Docklands on Friday evening.

 

Police in Thailand are investigating reports that a Bangkok nightclub which caught fire in the early hours of New Year's Day had safety problems dating back several years.

 

Police are trying to identify a young man whose body washed up on a Victorian beach dressed only in a pair of socks.

 

The Palestinian Hamas movement said it was accepting quot;under conditionsquot; an EU proposal for a ceasefire with Israel around Gaza.

 

Firefighters say a fire at a chocolate factory in Sydney's west is burning out of control, threatening a neighbouring power sub station.

 

Helen Suzman, one of South Africa's foremost anti-apartheid campaigners, has died at the age of 91, the SAPA news agency reported.

 

A large storm has left more than 8,500 homes and business without power in south-east Queensland.

 

Up to 20 Afghan police have been killed in a Taliban attack on a local politician.

 

Fire officers in Thailand are investigating claims that fireworks were the cause of a blaze inside a Bangkok club, where 58 people were killed.

 

The United States has handed over security control of the Green Zone, a symbol of the US-led occupation, to Iraq, as a UN mandate for foreign troops ran out and bilateral military accords took effect.

 

Mistakes by the crew of a plane that crashed in Nepal's Everest region caused the accident which killed 18 people, including two Australians, officials said, as a report into the accident was released.

 

A new law banning the purchase of sex has come into force in Norway.

 

The Queensland Government has ordered a full investigation into a collision between a passenger train and a truck in the state's far north that has killed one man and injured six people.

 

Injured all-rounder Andrew Symonds has lashed out at the media's treatment of embattled Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden.

 

At least 53 people are reported to have been killed and more than 100 injured at a nighclub fire in a popular tourist district of the Thai capital Bangkok.

 

There are reports this morning that Israeli ground troops have briefly entered the Gaza Strip, after Israel's Government rejected calls for a 48-hour truce.

 

Pakistani troops say they have captured up to 40 militants and destroyed several Taliban training camps in a major military operation in the Khyber Pass.

 

The New Year ushers in a range of new and increased charges from the Federal Government, as well savings for some.