CANCER victim wins payout after tribunal rules he was peer pressured into smoking.

Gordon Tisdell is a broken man. For a decade he has been the public face of Anzac and Remembrance Days. His photograph has run in Life magazine; in the Australian , where he claimed to be a Vietnam veteran; in the Herald , as a survivor of Long Tan.

Chris Womersley ’s debut novel, The Low Road , won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Book in 2008. His latest, Bereft has just been released by Scribe and will be launched at Readings on September 15. Spike sat down with him across the digital divide to talk about ghost stories, Tom Waits and what it would be like to have an army of trained typing monkeys.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Sept 6, 2010 (AFP) - The rubble-strewn heart of Christchurch resembled a ghost town Monday as troops took control of the city centre to enforce a no-go zone in the wake of Saturday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

Army called in, with floods yet to peak in state's north-east.

Rising floodwaters across Victoria's north of Australia are threatening hundreds of homes after the state's worst floods in 15 years, local media reported on Monday.

The Australian army has been on stand-by to help evacuate residents in northern Victoria, if, as expected, flood waters continue to rise.

Australian charities are preparing to assist after the earthquake in Christchurch.

Australian charities were busy preparing to assist their brother and sister organizations in New Zealand after an earthquake caused massive damage on NZ's South Island area.

A MORE dangerous Afghanistan might be causing wobbles in the Australian political landscape, but Chief of the Army Lt-Gen Ken Gillespie says it is also making the diggers serving in Oruzgan Province more determined to see the job through.