Madinah, December 22, SPA -- According to a report released by Hajj
committee in Madinah, the number of pilgrims who arrived in Madinah

Former Socceroo Ross Aloisi has defended his misfiring brother John, saying he should not be made a scapegoat for Sydney FC's dismal form.

Households earning less than $100,000 have just six months to install solar panels or they will probably pay thousands of dollars more.

People aren't buying new cars but that hasn't stopped the federal government giving Holden $149 million to build more of them.

The national holiday road toll remains at 14, with no deaths on the country's roads reported on Monday, so far.

The corporate watchdog's legal action against the former board of James Hardie is likely to continue well into the new year, a court has been told.

Operators of the latest round of childcare centres to close say they were deceived by management who had told them they were not connected to the troubled ABC Learning.

Three asylum seekers who were being held at the Phosphate Hill detention centre on Christmas Island have escaped.

Australian Andrew Hood says he's devastated by the prospect of life in a Thai jail after being arrested at Bangkok's international airport allegedly carrying three kilograms of heroin.

Establishing personal relationships with the new Obama administration will be the Rudd government's top foreign policy priority in 2009.