thinktime

Across Australia farmers and landowners are increasingly fearful of the growing menace of wild dogs.

A man is in a stable condition in Royal Darwin Hospital after losing his leg in a machinery accident in Kununurra, Western Australia.

A Malaysian wildlife trafficker has pleaded guilty to smuggling 95 endangered boa constrictors and could face up to seven years in jail, officials said.

The Coalition has done away with the niceties in a last-ditch effort to take office, embarking on a fear campaign to win the support of the independents that can deliver it a parliamentary majority.

One way to start every morning with your team is to have them check in. Go around in a circle and let people update and contribute. It's not a silly exercise, in that it helps people speak up and it communicates forward motion.

Another way, probably a better one, is to have each member of the team announce what they're afraid of. Two kinds of afraid, actually. Things that might fail and things that might work.

What are you, chicken?

Yes, we're chicken. We're afraid. The lizard has us by the claws.

So, tell us. What are you afraid might happen that would destroy, disintegrate, or dissuade--that would take us down? And what are you afraid of that might work, thus changing everything and opening up entirely new areas of scariness?

Oil giant BP says the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has cost the British company $US8 billion ($8.79 billion) so far.

The weather bureau is warning that approaching storms could be the most significant weather event in Victoria for the past 15 years.

Angry outbursts by flood victims reliant on scarce aid are hampering relief work in Pakistan, as the nation struggles to cope with its worst natural disaster, the Red Cross (ICRC) says.

Lindsay Tanner has officially resigned as the federal finance minister.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have refused to explain why Indonesian crew members being investigated for people smuggling have been held without charge for up to nine months.

New South Wales Treasurer Eric Roozendaal and Primary Industries Minister Steve Whan will take over the portfolio responsibilities of Paul McLeay as part of a parliamentary reshuffle following his resignation.

It was a cautious day's trade ahead of employment figures out in the US tonight, but the chance of increased poker machine regulation and various shareholder legal actions drove some stocks lower.

Six international airlines including Qantas have lost a last-ditch legal bid over years of underpayments to travel agents and will soon be facing multi-million-dollar payouts.

Five executives of the company that operates Brisbane's Clem7 tunnel have received bonuses totalling more than $1 million despite the company posting a $1.67 billion loss last financial year.

At least five corrective services officers have had to restrain a man on remand after he threw a water jug at a judge in an ACT court room.

An Indonesian volcano has spewed ash thousands of metres into the air in its most violent eruption since rumbling back to life earlier this week for the first time in 400 years.

Paul Hogan has reached an agreement with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) that will allow the actor to return to the United States.

A mentally ill Perth woman who drowned her twin babies has been given a three-year jail term.