​Western Australia's police commissioner has questioned Premier Colin Barnett's claim that drug use is rife in the state because of high incomes.

For how long can NSW and Queensland produce enough players to support Australian rugby's national footprint? Not long, according to Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson.

Football Federation Australia fined Western Sydney Wanderers $20,000 for an offensive banner raised by their fans, but will not penalise the club by docking competition points.

Big games demand big performances from big players.

Western Force coach Dave Wessels is confident former NRL star Curtis Rona can handle a head to head battle with Wallabies ace Israel Folau in his Super Rugby debut.

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They came by the hundreds, in big cities and rural hamlets, to heckle, plead, badger and, in some instances, to protest the protests themselves.

US-backed Iraqi security forces captured Mosul airport on Thursday, state television said, in a major gain in operations to drive Islamic State from the western half of the city.

Pakistan has been struck by a wave of militant attacks in recent weeks which have killed at least 130 people. One attack at a Sufi shrine in southern Sindh province killed 90 people.

The last time Malcolm Turnbull spoke with one of the handful of world leaders Australia might consider among its closest friends, the verbal stoush that ensued ended up becoming a global story.

The male passenger asked a Pakistani man and woman if they had a bomb in their luggage.

There have been another 231 reports of Ross River virus infections in a week as the outbreak that has already caused some Victorians months of pain and fatigue continues to grow.

A former war correspondent arrested in Bali for allegedly possessing hashish has revealed his former employer has agreed to pay for his PTSD treatment when he is released from the notorious Kerobokan jail.

The Canberra Fisherman's Club is calling for more bins along the territory's waterways to prevent dead fish and other material from endangering wildlife and repelling visitors.

The career of embattled speaker Telmo Languiller is hanging in the balance as Victoria's parliament begins a forensic audit into whether he rorted a "second residence" allowance worth almost $40,000.

A teenage girl with autism facing deportation after eight years living in Australia has been granted permanent residency, following an eleventh-hour intervention by the Assistant Immigration Minister.

Basketball has plummeted into an abyss, in terms of attractiveness to Australian women, compared to the sporting steam train launched by the behemoth AFL.

Hit TV mini-series House of Hancock will not be broadcast or streamed again after Channel 9 made a grovelling apology for its portrayal of mining magnate Gina Rinehart and her family.

Industry heads cite global factors for surge; see the currency reaching $US2000 by the end of the year.

Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has no plans to cut interest rates, and worries that he did he would make an already indebted nation "more fragile".