A 14-VEHICLE convoy is on its way to the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine to recover bodies and personal items after a safe route was found.

A THAI woman who acted as a surrogate mother for an Australian couple says she will love the seriously ill boy as if he's her own after they abandoned him.

SYDNEY'S Sexpo makes for an eye-opening day out. But the most thing striking of all - everyone's actually quite normal.

FOR the first time, official war artists Ben Quilty and Shaun Gladwell will exhibit their works from the war in Afghanistan together.

ABOUT 2300 personnel from seven countries will join together in the NT for three weeks of Australia's largest air force exercise, Pitch Black.

AUSTRALIAN Motoring Enthusiast Party's Senator Ricky Muir has dismissed "preference whisperer" Glenn Druery from his staff, but won't reveal the reasons.

Comment: A group of dutiful voters has been radicalised by outrage and grief. Nuns are being arrested. Priests are occupying MPs' offices.

An Israeli airstrike was about to unfold. The target: a grey, concrete building of moderate height in the heart of Gaza City. Children gathered on balconies. Young men congregated at an intersection. Others placed bricks and tyres blocking off a section of the street that ran past the building. A man in a tank top and shorts served as a traffic officer, directing vehicles to take a detour. Cars stopped. More people stepped out, their eyes glued to the ill-fated building.

As abandoned child came to Australia's attention, he became so unwell his surrogate mother fears he will die.

Palestinians under fire issue cry for help as Israel says one of its soldiers has been kidnapped.

Communications Minister tells the film studios to toughen up in the battle against piracy.

Chemotherapy will be obsolete within 20 years, scientists have predicted.

Young men in PNG are using sorcery-related violence to gain status and power, says expert.

Up to 12,000 people donating to charities through an Australian website have had their credit card details stolen and used for thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent charges.

Some Sydney homes may have also been insulated with the same dangerous form of asbestos that was pumped into the so-called Mr Fluffy homes in Canberra.

Evidence, contained in a newly-unearthed government report, suggests that for years, another company might have been using similar methods in Sydney homes.

Rolf Harris has applied for permission to appeal against his conviction for indecent assaults against four girls, a British Judicial Office spokesman said.

The Thai surrogate mother of a Down Syndrome baby who was abandoned by his Australian parents says she has been left to provide for the child who also suffers from a life-threatening heart condition.

In an exclusive interview with the ABC's Samantha Hawley, Gammy's mother Pattaramon Chanbua described how she loves the baby boy as if he was her own, but cannot afford the medical treatment he needs.

The 21-year-old impoverished mother fell pregnant with twins but the Australian parents abandoned Gammy and only took his healthy sister home with them.

"Why does he have to be abandoned while the other baby has it easy? ... I feel sorry for him. I don't know what to do," she told the ABC.

The Tasmanian company that applied to trial medicinal cannabis in the state has been given the go-ahead elsewhere.

Norfolk Island has given Tasman Health Cannabinoids (THC) approval to grow medical cannabis.

"We are open for investment, we are open for business on Norfolk Island," the island's Health Minister Robin Adams said.

THC had wanted to conduct its trial in Tasmania, with the view to it becoming a multi-billion-dollar export industry.

The Tasmanian Government knocked them back and Mr Adams said Norfolk Island leapt at the chance.

SYDNEY - Australian police have issued arrest warrants for two Australian Islamic State fighters after one of them is pictured online brandishing the severed heads of Syrian government soldiers. ...

Experts from the Netherlands and Australia tried on Thursday to reach the crash site in eastern Ukraine of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 after several failed attempts this week. Members of the ...

India went down to England 12-14 in the semi-finals of the men's fours lawn bowls in the 2014 Commonwealth Games here Thursday and will face Australia for the bronze medal Friday. India had made it ...

The Australia government failed to make India take 157 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers while they were being held on high seas, media reported Thursday. The asylum seekers, including at least 37 ...

Australia's head coach here at the Commonwealth Games Eric Hollingsworth has been suspended by Athletics Australia (AA) after his outburst at Olympic gold medallist and team captain Sally Pearson. ...

The family of an Indian delivery van driver, who has been missing in Australia for the last three months, has publicly appealed for help here. Shiva Chauhan, 27, had gone missing after carryout his ...

A Melbourne man is dead after a garbage truck collided with his car.

Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Dutch and Australian experts finally arrived at the site of downed Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in east Ukraine on Friday, after clashes between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian rebels killed 14 combattants.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal , the world's largest steelmaker, said on Friday it had signed deals to purchase stakes in an iron ore project in Guinea as it pushes to raise its mi...

Some Sydney homes may have also been insulated with the same dangerous form of asbestos that was pumped into the so-called Mr Fluffy homes in Canberra.

Washington (AFP) - Large, meat-eating dinosaurs shrank over a period of 50 million years of evolution to become today's modern birds, a study showed Thursday.

The Tasmanian company that applied to trial medicinal cannabis in the state has been given the go-ahead elsewhere.

Labor can defeat Abbott at the next election, Gillard says

A woman who fell from a cliff in southeast Queensland may have tumbled 40 metres.

Halfway through the media launch of Sydney's first connection to the network, it cut out.

British actress Keira Knightley has married singer James Righton in a discreet ceremony in the southern French village of Mazan, according to the mayor.

A fun day at the beach turned sour for a Sydney grandfather and his six-year-old granddaughter after somebody saw the little girl swimming naked and called police.