A criminal gang spent months terrorising the Sydney family of a senior Iraqi politician in an attempt to extort up to $10 million from him, police say. Authorities in NSW and Canada have arrested four people over a series of attacks on the Chester Hill home of Ahmed Al-Asadi’s wife and five children. Mr Al-Asadi is a dual Iraqi/Australia citizen …

The federal government has announced the base rate of its JobSeeker unemployment payment will rise by $50 a fortnight. It means an individual gets $615 a fortnight, which equates to about $44 a day, while a single parent will get about $58 a day. So how many people does this affect? The latest figures from the Department of Social Services show …

The federal government is pulling all its advertising campaigns from Facebook, as the social media platform continues to block Australians from accessing news. On Sunday, Health Minister Greg Hunt said his department would not be using Facebook for advertising campaigns. Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, who oversees public expenditure, said on Monday that the ban would be extended across the government. …

Australia’s top nurse is putting the Northern Territory’s Howard Springs quarantine facility’s capacity under the microscope, as the nation’s coronavirus vaccine rollout gets underway. Freshly vaccinated chief nursing officer Alison McMillan is travelling to the Top End to see whether more people can quarantine at the hub. “She is looking at the maximum safe capacity for expansion of Howard Springs,” Health …

A fourth woman has come forward to allege she was sexually assaulted by the same political staffer accused of raping a colleague inside Parliament House. The woman alleges the former Liberal Party staffer reached under the table to stroke her thigh at a Canberra bar in 2017. She has filed a report at a police station in Canberra and will …

An Australian infectious disease expert says Chinese authorities refused to give raw data on early COVID-19 cases to a World Health Organization-led team probing the origins of the pandemic. The team had requested raw patient data on the 174 cases of COVID-19 that China had identified from the early phase of the outbreak in Wuhan in December 2019, as well …

Victoria’s hotel quarantine authority denies it knew a man took a nebuliser into the venue at the heart of the state’s current coronavirus outbreak. The use of the air compression device by the man for his asthma has been blamed for spreading the UK strain of COVID-19 through the Holiday Inn hotel at Melbourne Airport, leading to a five-day lockdown …

Ash Barty’s tilt at becoming the first Australian since 1978 to win the women’s singles championship at their home major has gained momentum courtesy of a straight-sets defeat of Ekaterina Alexandrova. Barty, again wearing a bandage and tape on her left thigh, was down a service break in both sets but recovered each time on her way to recording a …

Women’s world number one Ash Barty has sent a statement to her rivals with a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Danka Kovinić in the first round of the Australian Open. In a remarkable start to Tuesday night’s match at Rod Laver Arena, Barty won the first 16 points to race through the first set against the world number 82 in just …

Former Aussie player Sam Groth has hit back at tennis stars claiming their two-week hotel quarantine period affected their opening round Australian Open performances. Frenchman Benoit Paire and former Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, who both lost their first round matches on Monday, each claimed hotel quarantine periods played a role in their exits, with their warm-ups for the event severely disrupted. …