A woman who blackmailed a grieving couple over a lost phone containing photos of their dying daughter will stay behind bars, after Victoria’s highest court knocked back her appeal. Siti Kamal, a 26-year-old Malaysian national, was jailed last year for blackmailing Jay and Deanne Windross while their 11-month-old daughter, Amiyah, was dying in the Monash Children’s Hospital. Days earlier, Ms …

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 …

Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial could conclude on Saturday, leaving a divided U.S. Senate to decide whether the former president incited his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a last-ditch effort to stay in power after his November election defeat. Trump is the first U.S. president to be impeached twice and the first to face trial …

A woman is recovering from surgery after she was seen desperately waving her hand through a broken taillight at the back of her own car as two other women allegedly drove along a NSW highway. A kidnapping investigation was launched after a truck driver saw a hand protruding out the boot of a white Holden Commodore travelling along the Hume …

The bodies of a woman and three children have been found following a house fire in Glen Waverley, in Melbourne’s south-east. Firefighters were called to Tulloch Grove about 1:40am on Sunday after receiving multiple calls about smoke coming from a two-storey townhouse. Crews found the garage on the ground level well alight and the home filled with smoke. “Sadly, a …

A young man who was shot dead by police on the Logan Motorway on Thursday has been “directly linked” to the double murder of an elderly couple, with officers describing the incident as a “terrorism event”, Queensland police say. The bodies of Maurice and Zoe Antill, both in their mid-80s, were found at a house in the southern Brisbane suburb of …

A Greek Orthodox priest has been shot and badly wounded at a church in the French city of Lyon by an assailant who then fled, police and witnesses say. The priest was fired on twice at about 4:00pm (local time) as he was closing the church, and was being treated for life-threatening injuries, the police source said. Witnesses said the …

The chief executive of Australia Post has been ordered to stand aside as Scott Morrison orders an independent investigation into the organisation spending $12,000 on gifts of designer watches for bosses who stitched up a deal with big banks. The Prime Minister blasted the spending decision as “disgraceful”, the latest scandal to prompt outrage at the embattled organisation’s spending. Already …

A love affair that rocked politics to its core and blindsided the entire nation was known for “some time” by the estranged wife of Daryl Maguire. A love affair that rocked politics to its core yesterday blindsided the entire nation, but it was known for “some time” by the estranged wife of NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire. In a day …

Lawyers for a Darwin man accused of trafficking his wife to India say the allegations are false and part of a bid by the woman to remain in Australia. Pratap Singh, 28, appeared via video link in the Darwin Local Court to apply for bail after being charged last month with trafficking in persons, which attracts a maximum penalty of …