An Australian teenager who was allegedly planning a bomb attack has appeared in children’s court charged with terrorism offences. The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested in a raid on his home in Melbourne’s northern suburbs on Friday. Police said his arrest halted a plot to detonate three homemade bombs in the city. He was remanded ...

Victoria is set for a day of wild winds across the state, blizzards in alpine areas and possible flooding in Melbourne, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned. The BOM has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds and blizzards for people in the North Central, North East, South West, Central, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland forecast ...

On May 12 the Federal Government will unveil its second budget — one that is expected to be far different from last year’s “budget repair job”. While Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have stressed the new budget will be “dull and routine”, there are several areas which are expected to see significant changes. Below are nine things ...

More than 100 houses have been left uninhabitable in Queensland following a super storm that killed six people. A number of places in the state recorded their wettest May days since 1996, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. The state now faces a massive clean-up and insurers say they have received thousands of claims. The government has offered support to ...

China’s slowdown has gouged a big hole in the Australian government’s budget, a new report said. Slower wages growth in Australia has also hit government revenues hard, said Deloitte Access Economics. It has forecast massive budget blowouts for both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 financial years. The budget looks like it was “written by Stephen King and painted by Edvard Munch”, thanks ...

Australia’s PM Tony Abbott says there has been “contact” between Australia and European officials over the Mediterranean migrant crisis. Mr Abbott said contact was at an “official level”, however an EU spokeswoman said she was unaware of it. Europe has recently seen a sharp increase in deaths among migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean. Mr Abbott has said Europe should ...

Europeans grappling with mass migration from Libya were seeking information about Australia’s controversial success in stopping asylum seeker boats reaching its shores, the Australian prime minister said Monday. Refugee advocates and human rights groups have criticized Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative government over drastic tactics it has used under its Operation Sovereign Borders policy to stop the flow of people-smuggling ...

Filipina maid Mary Jane Veloso was saved from the firing squad in Indonesia at the eleventh hour after her alleged human trafficker surrendered on the day of her execution. Veloso, who was escaping a desperately poor life in the Philippines, was arrested in 2010 in Yogyakarta with 2.6 kilograms of heroin in the lining of her suitcase. The mother of two ...

Eight prisoners, including Bali nine organisers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, have been executed in Indonesia. The ninth condemned prisoner, Filipina maid Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, was given a last-minute reprieve from the firing squad. The executions were carried out at 12.35am local time (3.35am AEST) on Nusakambangan prison island. But it took up to 27 minutes for all the prisoners to die, ...

SYDNEY’S stellar run of double-digit home price growth looks set to run out of steam next year. HSBC Australia chief economist Paul Bloxham says he expects the Reserve Bank to hike interest rates in 2016, a move that will cool Sydney’s booming property market. “Sydney house prices are running at an unsustainable pace,” he said. “Purchasers need to be very ...