THE driver of a car that had five passengers inside climbed out the window and stood on the roof of his moving car on a major Melbourne freeway, police allege.
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FOUR hikers have been found after a search and rescue was held in Tasmania's south.
The group, which included three teenagers, had been walking since Saturday morning (AEST) and became lost on the Snug Tiers track near Pelverata Falls.
A search and rescue team from Tasmania Police found the party and they were transported via helicopter.
The group is being checked by ambulance personnel but there are no injuries.
A dog was also rescued in the party.
A TRAIL bike rider has been killed after hitting a tree south of Newcastle in NSW.
The man, 21, was riding in bushland at Freemans Waterhole when he lost control of the bike and smashed into a tree about 2.15pm (AEST) on Saturday, police say.
Police did CPR on the man, from Beresfield in Newcastle, but he died at the scene.
Muslim community spokesman and polygamy supporter Keysar Trad is releasing a book of love poetry. Source: AAP
OUTSPOKEN Muslim community spokesman Keysar Trad is making a foray into the literary world, releasing a book of love poems.
Mr Trad, who has previously said polygamy should be recognised, will launch his book Forays of the Heart at Glebe, in Sydney's inner-west, on Sunday.
The poems are described as "paeans of unrequited love directed at women other than his wife".
The well-known Australian Muslim said the poetry was written in a "sense of fantastical lyrical compulsion".
"I felt the need to share them so that others can benefit from these journeys," Mr Trad said.
The book is due to be launched by Liberal MP Philip Ruddock.
The government will decide on the takeover of Australia's largest grain handler by December 17. Source: AAP
TREASURER Joe Hockey has given the new federal government more time to consider the implications of a takeover of Australia's largest grains handler, GrainCorp.
A decision on a $3.4 billion offer from US grain giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) will now be made by December 17, Mr Hockey said.
"Given the size of this transaction and the complex nature of the issues involved, I have decided to extend the statutory time period," he said.
"This will allow sufficient time for the new government to carefully consider all the relevant issues and advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board before making a decision."
The Nationals are opposed to the sale, as it would mean ADM, Cargill and Glencore would control almost 60 per cent of Australia's wheat shipments and put most of the nation's grain export infrastructure in foreign hands.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said in June it would not oppose the $3.4 billion takeover.
IT'S a business model, bikie-style. First, sell you drugs to get you hooked and in debt.
SERIAL rapist Robert John Fardon could be back in jail tonight after a Court of Appeal Judge granted a stay of an order that released him.
YOU know you're a Brisbane local when you nod along to this funny video and can name half the places on this list of hidden gems.
CORONER says fatal pilot shouldn't have been in air, but it's cold comfort to passenger's partner.
A SECURITY guard was injured, an attendant locked himself in an office and a suspect was chased by residents in separate robberies overnight.
AN out-of-control bushfire burning near a small town on the NSW mid-north coast has been downgraded, the Rural Fire Service says.
The scrub fire is burning in the Crowdy Bay National Park, north of the town of Harrington in the Greater Taree region.
The RFS late on Thursday night downgraded the blaze from "watch and act" to "advice".
Earlier, the blaze crossed containment lines and was burning close to properties at Coralville and Diamond Head Roads.
More than 80 firefighters and six aircraft battled the blaze through the day.
The fire has so far burned through around 3000 hectares of scrub, the RFS said on its website.
Firefighters are back-burning where they can, including at the back of some streets in the township.
About 40 holidaymakers had to be evacuated from a camping area at Diamond Head earlier on Thursday due to the blaze.
A number of roads in the area are closed.
AN early morning stroll and an unfortunate encounter with a sprinkler has sparked a huge claim against a Queensland council. Find out where, and how much.
SECOND man charged with planting a golf ball bomb that maimed a teenager's hands near Brisbane. He was charged after coming out of a coma.
BUDGET cuts and changes to Australia's official aid program to Asia threatens to undermine child vaccination programs in the region, a senior children's health advocate warns.
Helen Evans, deputy chief executive of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), says the recent federal government decisions to restructure the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) raises fears over future support for programs in the region.
"Australia has had for a long time a very strong investment in the region and AusAID has been a very strong supporter of the development of health services," Ms Evans said.
"It's been a very strong supporter of the GAVI Alliance that I work for because it sees the obvious value in immunisation," she told AAP.
"I'm certainly aware of the fact that the new Prime Minister (Tony Abbott) has made an announcement in terms of reducing AusAID's budget and we're waiting to see the impact of that," she said.
AusAID has played a key role in the GAVI Alliance initiatives in Indonesia under a pentavalent vaccination program to protect children against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis, and influenza.
The GAVI Alliance partners developing countries, donor governments such as Australia, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Children's Fund, World Bank, the vaccine industry, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In Myanmar, AusAID had earlier this year committed more than $82 million in 2013-14 and had been set to grow the assistance to more than $100 million a year by 2015-16, prior to Australia's federal election in September that swept Mr Abbott and the coalition to power.
But Ms Evans, an Australian, says she remains hopeful the federal government would continue "to see the value (in) making an investment in these sorts of health initiatives".
But she acknowledges the challenges in delivering programs if the budget cuts to Australia's aid program are carried through.
"It would certainly make it harder if there is a reduction; yes, there's no doubt about that," she said.
The GAVI Alliance programs have supported the immunisation of about 370 million children in developing countries since its inception in 2000 amid signs of flagging support for vaccination programs and has helped prevent more than 5.5 million deaths from diseases ranging from hepatitis B to polio.
"Vaccination is perhaps the best investment a country can make in their children's health," and seen as supporting healthy development towards adulthood, Ms Evans said.
"So it's (about) poverty reduction, it's social, economic development investment."
In Laos this week, Ms Evans oversaw the launch of a new GAVI Alliance program to vaccinate girls against the human papillomavirus (HPV) to curb rising rates of cervical cancer in the country. Each year in Laos about 500 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer triggered by HPV. As many as half are expected to die from the cancer.
"This is a vaccine that's incredibly effective and can prevent about 70 per cent of the cancers," she said. Cervical cancer is now the leading killer of women globally as maternal mortality rates decline.
MICROSOFT handed Australian government agents personal information about more than a thousand users in the first half of 2013, a transparency report reveals.
Between January and June, authorities made 1219 requests for access to data relating to 1462 accounts.
Microsoft granted 1050 (86 per cent) of those requests - handing over information such as email addresses, names, locations and internet protocol (IP) addresses.
However, the company did not disclose user-generated "content data" - which includes emails, documents and photographs.
Six requests did not meet legal requirements and were rejected, while the company was unable to find the requested data in 163 cases.
The report is the second Microsoft has released on government data requests.
The first revealed the company received 2238 requests from Australian authorities last year.
Globally, 64 governments made 37,000 requests concerning 67,000 accounts. More than 70 per cent came from the US, UK, France, Germany and Turkey.
Microsoft provided information 80 per cent of the time but only one in fifty requests led the company to release sensitive "content data".
The requests usually relate to criminal investigations but some involve "imminent emergencies" such as suicide threats.
The company sought to reassure users, stating on its website that fewer than one in every 10,000 users were affected by law enforcement requests during the reporting period.
Microsoft was unable to confirm the number of active Australian users.
"We place a premium on respecting and protecting the privacy of our users," the company said in the report.
"At the same time, Microsoft recognises that law enforcement plays a critically important role in keeping our users and our technology safe and free from abuse or exploitation."
Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo! have all released similar reports in recent months.
Transparency has emerged as a sensitive issue this year in the wake of leaks by former US government contractor Edward Snowden, which revealed that nine companies had turned over user data to the US National Security Agency.
Last month, Yahoo! released its first global transparency report, which revealed it had received 704 requests from Australian agents in the first six months of 2013, regarding 799 accounts or users.
The company granted full access to "content data" in response to 11 requests - handing over information such as the content of emails, uploaded files and Yahoo address, calendar and notepad entries.
It handed over "non-content data" in response to 305 of the requests, rejected 242 and found no data in 146.
Facebook's first transparency report, released in August, reported the social networking site received 546 requests regarding 601 Australian-held accounts in the first six months of 2013.
It granted information in response to 64 per cent of the requests.
In the same month, Twitter revealed it received 58 information requests from Australian authorities in the first half of the year, compared to fewer than ten in the second half of 2012. The microblogging site responded with information in a quarter of cases.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) recently confirmed to AAP that it made requests for data from Facebook but would not disclose the number or their nature.
