LAW

Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney, was present when a Grade 3 male student in a Ballarat school, recounted he was raped by a Christian brother in the late 1960s.

Another Australian couple is facing genital mutilation charges after they were accused of organising the illegal circumcision of their baby daughter in Bali.

A landmark Australian High Court ruling released on Wednesday ruled against Qantas's pocketing $34 million in general sales tax (GST) that passengers forfeited when they did not push through with their flights.

A doctor and his pharmacist-wife from Sydney, New South Wales, denied participating in the genital mutilation of their two daughters. The couple, who belong to a small Islamic sect, appeared on Wednesday at the Parramatta Local Court to face two charges of female circumcision.

The Anglican Church in Newcastle has imposed punishment on four priests for engaging in sexual trysts with a teenage male in the 1970s and 1980s. The New South Wales (NSW) police initially investigated the charges but filed no charges; however, the church held its own probe which led to the defrocking of the clergy.

Some 40,000 teachers took part in what could be Victoria state's biggest teachers' strike that forced 400 schools to close and left thousands of school kids to stay home these past days.

The South Australian police busted the illegal operation of a group believed to be responsible for the $2 million theft of car parts owned by GM Holden, which were pilfered from the carmaker’s Salisbury East assembly facilities in Elizabeth.

Online job trends now favor what the technology landscape dictates, according to the latest Freelancer.com data collating some 190,000 jobs posted on its site creating some 2.3 million projects in the first six months of 2012.

In spite of promises by Coalition leader Tony Abbott to repeal the carbon tax if the Opposition wins in the 2013 election, big polluters in Australia believe otherwise.

There is another apparent cover-up in an investigation made by three senior Catholic clergy of a sexual abuse complaint at a priest in New South Wales. The priest was accused of sexual assault by five young altar boys in the 1980s.

Fifteen days to the carbon tax's implementation, its $23 per tonne price is being used as scapegoat by different groups for pending increases in prices such as rent and electricity prices.

The government does not intend to hide from the public eye wrongdoings, past and present, committed by officers of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), as alleged in the review conducted by law firm DLA Piper.

Courage was the main armour that Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton had relied on for the past three decades that her family lived in fear and anxiety following the mysterious disappearance of her infant daughter Azaria back in 1980.

The Coalition assailed the incompetence displayed by the Labor-led government in handling the latest human smuggling controversy that led to the shocking flight of an Iraqi national tagged by media reports as a major operator in the illegal activity.

The long-arm of the law triumphed anew as Japanese authorities revealed on Monday the arrest and detention of a female suspect tagged as one of the principal perpetrators in the 1995 nerve gas attack that killed 13 people in Tokyo.

While many motorists have been fined by different police forces in key cities for using their mobile phones while driving, a 25-year-old Brisbane man was penalised $250 for eating McDonald's hotcakes while behind the wheels.

A Chinese woman residing in the New South Wales has admitted before the state Supreme Court that she had indeed castrated her former boyfriend last year, in an apparent pit of rage following their breakup.

China has announced over the weekend the arrest of a murder suspect, who local media reports have tagged as responsible for the brutal killings of at least 11 individuals, most of them young men residing in and around Yunnan, a province located southwest of the country.

A former Mac Robertson Girls' High School female student in Melbourne whose face was disfigured in a camp fire filed a lawsuit against the federal government of Australia, the school and the Victorian government.

A father threw himself on top of his son to shield him from an onslaught of knives and bats from a gang of thugs who eventually killed him outside a pub in Dollis Hill.

Rebekah Brooks, the Former News International Chief was charged by British prosecutors for obstruction in the ongoing investigation about phone hacking in the British newspapers owned by media mogul by Rupert Murdoch.

Gay marriage has won the unconditional backing of U.S. President Barack Obama last week and Argentine President Cristina Kirchner is sending an appeal letter to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, all representing the series of events that marriage equality advocates hope would prompt the Australian government to rethink its position on the controversial issue.

Claiming adherence to the rule of law, lawyers for Labor MP Craig Thomson asked the Australian Senate on Thursday to keep the Fair Work Australia (FWA) report on the alleged wrongdoings committed by Thomson while serving as top-ranking Health Services Union (HSU) official private.

The courtroom drama pitting Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, and her estranged children will continue playing out before the public as the New South Wales Court of Appeal has thrown out on Friday her court plea for private arbitration of the case.

Less than three months before the Gillard government starts to collect the carbon tax on July 1, the measure continues to generate criticism from various sectors of Australian society. A tax expert questioned the carbon tax's constitutionality on Tuesday and charities warned on Wednesday of its impact on the services it provides poor people.

It is high time for the Australian government to reconfigure its strategy in neutralising the illegal drugs trade, a new report said, which also highlighted the seeming successes that organised crime groups have achieved against legal efforts to stem their operations.

As the 2012 NRL and AFL seasons get ready to kick-off, business information analysts at IBISWorld reveal how much Australians are spending on sports betting - the fastest growing gambling segment.

Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer said that he would launch a legal challenge against the carbon tax before the Australian High Court. The basis of his planned challenge is a legal advice that the tax, slated to take effect July 1, is not constitutional.

The Rinehart legal tussle rages on as two of Gina Rinehart's children continue the mudslinging that started last week, with the latest rants provided by John Langley Hancock, who accused his mother of setting off the dispute.