Al Qaeda in Iraq's ability to carry out large-scale attacks against civilians, and on US and Iraqi forces, has been "dramatically reduced," a US general has said.

The RSPCA has attacked a British celebrity TV show set in Australia for making its contestants eat insects and swallow kangaroo testicles.

A suicide car-bomber has killed nine people and wounded 16, including two US soldiers, in an attack on a government compound in eastern Afghanistan, a government official said.

A senior official in Iraq's health ministry says 800 doctors have returned to the country this year because of the improved security situation.

Australian shares have fallen about 3 per cent in early trade after another big plunge on Wall Street.

The Clean Energy Council is calling for a national scheme that would see people paid for generating solar energy.

Stallholders at this year's Taste of Tasmania in Hobart have been warned to pay their workers properly.

The Minister for the Environment, Donna Faragher, says she is still considering a plan by the mining company Magellan Metals to transport lead through the Port of Fremantle, but she has noted the strong community opposition.

Older women are doing more to get fit than ever before, with a new report showing more than half of females over 45 now meet exercise recommendations.

A new test is meant to be able to predict when menopause will begin, providing women more insight into their reproductive life.

A doctor from outback Queensland has received a national award for her work to improve medical services in regional and remote areas.

Sunshine Coast Regional Councillor Jenny McKay has been diagnosed with an invasive form of breast cancer and will be off work indefinitely.

The New South Wales Government says it would have no objection to publishing information on the performance of its public hospitals in return for an increase in federal funding.

A senior official in Iraq's health ministry says 800 doctors have returned to the country this year because of the improved security situation.

The risk of infections and other problems from body piercing are being taught in a program directed at young people in Adelaide.

The military in the Philippines says medical teams have been mobilised to help fight an outbreak of typhoid fever that has left more than 100 people in hospital.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's special envoy on the Kokoda track is calling on tour operators to introduce a code of conduct to preserve the historic World War II path and lessen the impact on locals living alongside it.

The Prime Minister's special envoy to Papua New Guinea says the terrain surrounding the Kokoda Track could provide a healthy income for PNG if global forest carbon trading is introduced.

The Federal Government has reopened a health clinic on the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, as part of Australia's aid commitment to the country.

Resource rich Papua New Guinea has shown it is not immune to the global financial crisis after its Treasurer handed down the country's 2009 budget today.