Cardinal George Pell will be released from prison after the country’s highest court quashed his child sexual abuse convictions. The decision has been handed down less than a month after the High Court of Australia heard two days of intense legal arguments from the Cardinal’s lawyers and Victorian prosecutors. The full bench’s ruling was handed down by Chief Justice Susan Kiefel …

A 21-year-old has been charged after an alleged COVID-19 ‘prank’ on a police officer on the NSW mid-north coast. Police allege a man entered Coffs Harbour Police Station and approached a 71-year-old female general station officer about 2.30pm on Tuesday. The man is accused of deliberately coughing on the woman while pretending to be infected with COVID-19. Police allege his friend …

The global outbreak alert for coronavirus has been raised to its highest level amid increasing fears of a pandemic and new cases confirmed in six countries. Mexico announced its first two cases of the deadly respiratory illness as coronavirus took hold in the highly populated Latin American region and officials confirmed a growing number of discharged patients testing positive again …

A 39-year-old woman has died after an elderly driver crashed over a wall and into a table at a Sydney café. Liz Albornoz was with a group of other mums who had dropped their children at North Epping Public School before heading to the Sizac Cafe at North Epping Shopping Village on Malton Road. About 10am, a Holden Commodore careered …

The deaths of a Brisbane mother and her three children have prompted an outpouring of anger, sadness and disbelief among family members, politicians, domestic violence advocates and the Australian community. Hannah Clarke, 31, also known as Hannah Baxter, and her children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3, died after the family car was set alight on a street in …

Police have confirmed two people have died after a train derailed north of Melbourne. A Transport for NSW spokesperson confirmed the train had come off the rails near the town of Wallan, 45 kilometres north of the Victorian capital. The train was the Sydney to Melbourne XPT service with around 160 passengers on board. There are five passenger cars derailed, …

A man has died and a woman has been injured after being washed off the rocks by powerful waves at Bondi Beach. Emergency services were called to Mermaid Rocks after reports of two people in distress in the water around 5:30pm. The man, aged in his 40s, was pulled to shore with the help of bystanders but couldn’t be revived …

The mother of the three Abdallah children says she has forgiven the alleged drunk driver who killed her three children in Sydney’s north-west. Just before 8pm on Saturday, Anthony, Angelina and Sienna Abdallah were walking with four other children along a footpath on Bettington Road, Oatlands, when police allege Samuel Davidson’s Mitsubishi Triton mounted the kerb and hit the group. The three …

There are calls for people to stop eating bat meat from an “extreme” animal market in Indonesia, amid fears over the coronavirus. WARNING: This story contains images and descriptions that some people may find distressing. The self-proclaimed “extreme” market — officially named Beriman — sells a variety of animals for food, including bats, rats, snakes and dogs. Syerly Sompotan, Deputy …

The father of three children killed by an alleged drink-driver last night has bravely spoken of his loss. Seven children were struck by the 4WD on Bettington Road in Oatlands, in Sydney’s north-west, just before 8pm yesterday. The group were riding their bikes to get ice cream when they were hit. Three of Danny Abdallah’s six children were killed: Anthony, …