Your personally curated news with six things you need to know before you get going.

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".

Boris Johnson works hard to appear as if he has just got out of bed after a rough night. Enter Australia's Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop.

Staff at Essendon Airport, and friends of some of those who died in Tuesday's plane crash have gathered for a memorial service within the shopping centre where the accident happened.

The bend was bigger than he thought. All he could see were trees. He pulled hard on the wheel and the military truck left the road. He hit his head and everything went dark.

She has done it once but Jane Hiatt has pledged to run seven marathons in seven days in seven states again this year.

US President Donald Trump declared himself among friends as he began speaking Friday at an annual gathering of conservative activists and told the crowd that he would serve them well.

A shooting in a Kansas bar on Wednesday that left one Indian engineer dead and another injured has escalated into an international incident amid fears the attack was motivated by race.

Leicester City should honour sacked title-winning manager Claudio Ranieri by naming their stadium after him, says Manchester United's Jose Mourinho.

Do we have record low interest rates? Tick. Stagnant wages and chronic underpayment of workers? Definite tick. Added to that, wages for many actually will fall thanks to the Fair Work Commission decision on Sunday penalty rates ("Paying the penalty: thousands face wage cuts", February 24).

A judge will let only one other accuser testify at Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial to support charges the comedian drugged and molested a woman at his estate near Philadelphia.

President Donald Trump has lashed out once again at US intelligence agencies, calling out the Federal Bureau of Investigation over leaks that have hobbled his administration amid reports of pre-inauguration contacts with Russia.