Melbourne Victoria

POLICE have arrested a man after a car ploughed into a group of teenagers, killing five and injuring at least seven near Mildura in Victoria's north-west.

FIVE teenagers were killed and seven injured when they were hit by a car in Victoria's north-west tonight.

ONE man died and another two were hurt when they were caught in rough surf on the NSW mid-north coast today.

A BRISBANE truck driver drove his way into the Guinness Book of World Records after hauling almost 1.5km of road train for charity.

STAFF at Sydney's Long Bay jail didn't know a prisoner had escaped today until a motorist called police about seeing a man in green running near the prison.

VICTORIAN Opposition Leader Robert Doyle today announced 14 female Liberal candidates to contest the November 25 state election.

TASMANIA'S economy and health system were the major issues as the state's politicians hit the hustings for the first day of the March 18 election campaign.

HUMAN rights advocates and the federal Opposition have commended the government for successfully appealing for clemency in the case of two Australian drug traffickers on death row in Vietnam.

A WOMAN and her three-year-old son have been freed from wreckage after their car rolled in central western New South Wales.

SOUTH Australian Labor MP Terry Roberts died today after a battle with cancer.

A SOCIALIST youth organisation wants to sell hundreds of flag burning kits to university students next week .. to highlight anger at the Federal Government.

ONE of Australia's most popular celebrity doctors, James Wright, has lost more than $51 million to a New Zealand fraudster who convinced him to invest in his companies, US court documents show.

THE New South Wales Government will consider selling state-owned assets in addition to trimming expenses to meet growing demand on the next budget from essential services such as health.

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with grievous bodily harm after a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head at a remote Aboriginal community in the West Australian Goldfields.

A VICTORIAN woman is still missing after two weeks, despite a sighting in Western Australia.

QUEENSLAND Labor MP Robert Poole is to have a knee replacement operation in Thailand and will spend three months in the country recovering under the care of his Thai wife.

A PERTH man who was caught trying to import eight child porn magazines into Australia has been jailed for 12 months.

THE lawyer for the Muslim cleric accused of inspiring the terrorists who carried out the 2002 Bali bombings expects his client Abu Bakar Bashir to be released from prison on June 1.

BHP Billiton will investigate building a $300 million desalination plant off South Australia to provide the water needed for its $5 billion expansion of the Olympic Dam mine.

WHEAT exporter AWB may have claimed up to $90 million in tax deductions for its kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime.