Afghan and NATO-led forces have killed 65 Taliban militants overnight near the provincial capital of the southern province of Helmand, the provincial governor's spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.

Ford duo Craig Lowndes and Jamie Whincup won their third straight Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar crown with another dominant performance at the Mount Panorama circuit on Sunday.

Heavy-handed police tactics, including using tear gas canisters that explode on impact, have left a toll of horror injuries from street clashes in Bangkok, investigators and rights activists say.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced that the Government will guarantee all deposits in Australian banks, building societies and credit unions for the next three years.

Hundreds of people have gathered in Bali and Sydney to mark the sixth anniversary of the Bali bombings.

Two children have died in a fire in Western Australia's north.

South Korea's nuclear envoy said he expected six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear programs would resume soon after the communist state was taken off a US terrorism blacklist.

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says he hopes the actions taken by governments will be powerful enough to persuade banks to start lending again.

Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters on Mexico's pacific coast after a powerful hurricane made landfall.

The Greens have warned that ignoring the threat of climate change will send the world into an economic tailspin far greater than that of the global financial meltdown.

A war of words with racial undertones has reverberated through the White House race after civil rights icon John Lewis accused Republican John McCain of sowing "hatred" against Barack Obama.

Mitchell Johnson claimed three wickets in a crucial spell of bowling to leave India facing an uphill battle at lunch on the third day of the first Test in Bangalore.

Police have recovered a body found floating in Hobart's Derwent River in Tasmania.

An international criminal law conference in Sydney has heard that reforms are needed to make juries more representative of the community.

The 83-year-old founder of Aceh's rebel movement has returned to the tsunami-scarred Indonesian province for the first time in almost 30 years.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin acted "within proper and lawful authority" in removing the state's public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin Republican presidential ticket has said in response to a state report.

A spokesman for the Northern Territory's former Education Department chief says it is not true she left the job voluntarily, and that she was sacked yesterday without explanation.

Two Roman Catholic nuns whose non-violent action against nuclear weapons landed them with prison sentences returned home to Baltimore to learn they had been listed as terrorists, they said.

Far-right Austrian leader Joerg Haider has died in a road accident at the age of 58.

Finance ministers from the G7 group of rich industrialised countries have announced a five-point plan to counter the world financial crisis.