Refugee advocates have asked the Northern Territory Child Protection Department to investigate whether a group of Vietnamese asylum seeker children are at risk of harm in detention.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has hit back sharply at the Opposition's latest attempt to raise questions about the Fair Work Australia investigation into controversial backbencher Craig Thomson.

The Federal Government appears to have won a $2.4 billion budget reprieve by gaining enough support in Parliament to means test the private health insurance rebate.

City Rail says it is launching an investigation into how a train derailed in southern Sydney this afternoon.

A one-off loss at Rio Tinto's aluminium business has halved the company's full-year profit.

Harry Redknapp has remained tight-lipped about becoming the next England manager despite being installed as the overwhelming favourite to succeed Fabio Capello following the Italian's shock resignation.

England fast bowler Chris Tremlett has undergone back surgery following the injury which cut short his participation in the Test whitewash by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

Retired former Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich has been found guilty of a doping offence in relation to a blood-doping scandal and banned for two years.

New Zealand has completed a 3-0 whitewash over Zimbabwe in their one-day international cricket series, helped by a century from captain Brendon McCullum.

After more than three years of speculation, hand-wringing and boardroom wranglings, the long-awaited Australian Rugby League Commission will finally see the light of day on Friday.

The former president of the Maldives faces arrest after being ousted from his post earlier in the week in what he said was a coup at gunpoint.

The Papua New Guinea government says a retired Australian judge will chair an inquiry into last week's ferry disaster.

Authorities in New Zealand are considering criminal prosecution, including manslaughter, in the wake of a report on the Christchurch earthquake.

China's annual inflation rate hit a three-month high of 4.5 per cent in January after consumers splashed out on food and gifts during the Chinese New Year holiday.

Russian scientists in Antarctica drill through nearly 4km of ice to reach a vast freshwater lake that has lain untouched for at least 14 million years.