Australia's highest court has dismissed a challenge by the tobacco giants to a law requiring all cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging. The government hailed the ruling as a "watershed moment" in the global fight to cut deaths from smoking.

A group of 67 asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat are feared to have drowned at sea, the government said today, as it prepared to re-open detention centres on the remote Pacific island of Nauru and in Papua New Guinea.

The Prime Minister wants to make the 'Pacific Solution' even tougher

The wreck of a 19th-century pirate ship believed to contain a hoard of treasure may finally have been found off Tonga, according to officials on the South Pacific island.

The art historian renowned for his acerbic wit and a personal life blighted by tragedy, has died aged 74

It may be painful for Australia to be languishing in the Olympic medal table, but it is torture to be overtaken by its pipsqueak neighbour New Zealand. Fortunately, the Australian media has found ways to soften the blow. Cheekily announcing the birth of a new nation, the Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid, showed "Aus Zealand" at ninth place in the league table yesterday.

Australia, which tries to tread a fine line between supporting its closest ally, the US, and not upsetting China, its biggest trading partner, yesterday rejected a proposal to base a US nuclear aircraft carrier group near Perth, saying it did not want American bases in the country.

Some schools bake cakes to raise money. Others hold jumble sales. The Uruti School in New Zealand's North Island staged a best-dressed dead possum competition, encouraging pupils to deck out the furry corpses in costumes such as wedding dresses and bikinis.

Australia has repeatedly flouted international law by locking up dozens of Indonesian teenagers in adult jails after they arrived as crew members on boats carrying asylum-seekers, according to the country’s Human Rights Commission.