Melbourne Victoria

Police say they have smashed two movie piracy rings and seized 35,000 pirated DVDs in Sydney.

A $5 million free bike scheme for Melbourne proposed by the State Government will have too few bicycles, according to the world's biggest provider of public bicycle systems.

Some taxi drivers are telling passengers the cab's electronic banking machine is not working because of last week's Silver Top Taxi fire, in an attempt to either take cash fares only, or to take manual swipes of credit cards.

Melbourne's historic lanes are being auctioned, with sections of eight lanes sold to private developers in the last three years.

Police last night refused to rule out a link to this week's terrorism raids after a bullet was found lodged in a front window at Fawkner police station.

Curtis Levy took his love of Waltzing Matilda into a race for a Senate seat, and filmed it for our benefit, and amusement.

Decades of fighting and the absence of any true government in Somalia have bred a society based on the rule of the gun.

A review of security at Australian military bases will examine whether unarmed civilians can provide adequate protection against terrorists with automatic weapons.

Somali community leaders have attacked the Australian Federal Police, while otherwise strongly supporting law enforcement agencies.

Three inquiries are under way into how details of a secret investigation into an alleged Melbourne-based terrorist group were leaked to the media.

They stood among dozens of other supporters who had come to see the accused terrorists. With them in line outside Court 11 stood men dressed in suits, teenage boys with iPod earplugs glued to their ears, teenage girls furiously texting on their mobile phones and older women with headscarves.

A magistrate has warned five accused terrorists and their supporters to behave themselves in court, after a second day of fiery hearings.

Kevin Rudd yesterday baulked at calling for rebellion against Fiji’s military Government after another Pacific leader suggested Fijians should ‘‘rise up’’ to restore democracy.

As Pacific nations plead for help dealing with rising sea levels and savage storms brought by climate change, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has offered to help build sea walls and assist in rehousing those driven from their homes.

Two MPs who have emerged as kingmakers in the Northern Territory have indicated they will vote to topple the embattled Labor Government next week.

Pauline Hanson and former governor-general Peter Hollingworth were treated harshly and unfairly by the Australian media, former prime minister John Howard says.

The government is expected to keep up its attack on Malcolm Turnbull over the Ozcar affair, with suggestions he could have treated the Senate with contempt.

Vern Axup, the oldest member of the Melbourne Cricket Club, who never missed a Boxing Day Test at the MCG from 1946, has died peacefully aged 105.

Christopher Stewart, who was instrumental in forming one of Victoria’s biggest banks and became a respected figure in Australia’s banking industry, has died following a stroke at his Mornington Peninsula farm.

Paramedics will not work on their days off, in a move to escalate their push for longer breaks between shifts.