BP says the cost of the company's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
has reached about $US1.25 billion ($A1.52 billion).

Adriana Xenides, once the glamorous hostess of television game show Wheel of
Fortune, has died in a Sydney hospital.

With a dramatic slide in the opinion polls, Kevin Rudd is reminding the public a
protest vote against Labor could install Tony Abbott in The Lodge.

Honda rider Bryan Staring has moved to the top of the points table in the Australian
Superbike Championship after winning both races at the third round of the series at

A Queensland state politician who defected from the opposition to become an
independent is set to start his own political party.

Changes to Victoria's Electoral Act to relax identity checks for those enrolling to
vote in future state elections risk opening the system to vote-stacking and rorts,

The first cracks in Queensland's greatest Origin dynasty have begun to appear with a
broken jaw to centre Brent Tate and question marks over player loyalty leaving

Collingwood have survived a late Western Bulldogs charge to notch a 17.11 (113) to
16.7 (103) AFL victory at Etihad Stadium.

People are being encouraged to report acts of violence within families after police
identified an increase in family-related assaults and murders in Victoria.

A surfer was knocked off his board and bitten badly by an unidentified shark on a
remote beach on Western Australia's south coast on Sunday.