Sydney  - Australians were warned of higher taxes to pay for the cash hand-outs they began receiving Thursday from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's
42-billion-Australian-dollar (26-billion-US-dollar) stimulus package.

"They've got to understand that the cheques that are going out now are borrowed money," former treasurer Peter Costello said. "No one's going to turn back a cheque are they? But remember this: it's borrowed money."

Sydney  - A container vessel lost half its load of industrial chemicals Wednesday in rough seas off Australia's east coast.

The Hong Kong-owned 180-metre Pacific Adventurer was brought to anchor in Moreton Bay near Brisbane.

Authorities in Queensland said more serious than 31 containers of ammonium nitrate falling overboard was a fuel oil spill when one of the tumbling boxes punctured a fuel tank and caused marine diesel to flood into the bay.

Aerial searches had failed to locate any of the containers.

Sydney  - The big bounce

Sydney  - Australia's last s

Sydney - The Australian government laid out plans Tuesday for a carbon-emissions trading scheme that industry critics said would cost jobs and environmentalists said would not save the planet.

The cap-and-trade scheme, to begin in July next year, includes the energy and transport sectors but excludes agriculture. The targets a 5 to 15-per-cent reduction in emissions on 2000 levels by 2020.

Sydney, Mar. 9 : Test umpire Darryl Hair has labeled ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat a bully for telling on-field officials caught in the recent Lahore attack to be "more rational" about their experience.

Australian umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis have complained that Pakistan failed to protect them when gunmen opened fire as they travelled behind the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore on February 2.

Lorgat, the umpires'' boss, suggested on Sunday that they were overwrought and needed to reflect on events calmly.