The brother of a New Zealand nurse who disappeared from Sydney in 1980 had no idea about his sister's secret life as a prostitute and heroin addict.

More than 700 speeding drivers will dodge their fines because of an operational bungle.

A Melbourne chef, once known as the risotto king, sexually exploited vulnerable underage girls, a court has heard.

A Sydney man convicted of public nuisance for mooning the Queen during her visit to Brisbane last October, says US President Barack Obama is next on his list.

A Kiwi accused of smuggling $A3 million ($NZ3.8m) worth of cocaine into Australia is far from a lowly pawn in the drug ring, a court has been told.

A NZ nurse who became a prostitute was one of several women who disappeared from Sydney's north shore in the 1980s, an inquest has heard.

A friend of a young American woman whose body was found in a tree 10m off the ground in Sydney says she was the ''sweetest, nicest person''.

A large hailstorm in the Blue Mountains has caused the roof of a sports centre to partially collapse.

Qantas pilots have come out swinging against chief executive Alan Joyce after he remarked that grounding the airline's fleet had been "positive for the brand".

A Kiwi who choked and bit his girlfriend has beaten a bid to deport him from Australia.

Qantas pilots on an Australian domestic flight wrestled with shaking joysticks during two botched landing attempts after they unwittingly programmed the flight computers with wrong data.

A Sydney housewife who stole NZ$59m from a major finance company then went on a massive shopping spree has been jailed for 15 years.

Son taken as links to child pornographers in NZ and other countries are investigated.

A catalogue of communication errors led to a NZ track cleaner being fatally hit by a train in Sydney.

An Australian magistrate has praised the actions of a man who stole a wallet and two mobile phones, then turned himself in to police when he found images of what he thought was child pornography on one of the phones.

Heavy rain has caused flash flooding in New South Wales, as fears for the stability of a weakened Queensland dam ease.

A python snatched from a store in rural Australia has exacted its own form of justice on the thief, biting him several times.

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, mother of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is turning 103 this week.

DEBRA JOPSON

Rocket launchers stolen from the Australian military 10 years ago are thought to be in the hands of an alleged terrorist cell leader.

St George evacuees may have to wait until next week before they can return to their homes in the southern Queensland town.