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Organ scandal sparks Australian review

The scandal of stored children's organs in Britain has set the hares running here.

There are state and federal reviews going on autopsy practices in Australia and some Australian families are considering legal action after organs were taken from their children's bodies without consent.


The numbers game

If you want to see your doctor tonight, just hope you're not patient number 81.

Doctors say they are being forced to turn away sick people because of a Commonwealth regulation that prevents them from seeing more 80 patients a day on 20 days in a year.


Backdown on BAS

Intense pressure in the partyroom and the electorate at large has seen the Prime Minister back down on the controversial GST Business Activity Statement.

Mr Howard told his MPs this afternoon that the government would make some changes to the BAS.


Guessing games again for One Nation

The media are back in the game of guesstimating the potential polling power of One Nation.

One Nation for the guest work, the party's appeal can be patchy and local, so support can be exaggerated or under-estimated by particular opinion polls, but the major parties feel that they have to get an answer at the beginning of an intense year of campaigning ahead of a Federal election.


One Nation looms in Qld poll

In Queensland One Nation hasn't released any of its policies but the Labor government and the Coalition opposition believe the minor party is a major.

The ALP is even claiming internal polling that shows One Nation may grab the balance of power in another hung parliament.


Court courting rural WA

In the west both major parties are stamping the bush for all their work to squeeze One Nation out ahead of Saturday's State election.

The Premier Richard Court has been in Broome in the seat of Kimberley today and our reporter David Weber has been with him.


Aftermath of Indian quake

In India, the victims of the devastating earthquake which has rocked the western state of Gujarat are beginning to scrape out a new future for themselves.

Some are starting to rebuild their homes but for many the way forward is to leave the chaos, perhaps forever.


Son of Star Wars

The US military calls it National Missile Defense, or NMD; everyone else, just about, calls it "Son of Star Wars". And the plan to make video games come true, with a missile designed to hunt and destroy other missiles in flight, is getting closer to reality, under the new Bush administration in Washington.


Oz-US bilateral trade agreement would disappoint WTO

The head of the World Trade Organisation admits he'd be disappointed if Australia pursued a bilateral trade agreement with the United States. The government has signalled that it's considering the idea after raising it with the new Bush administration last week. But with the World Trade Organisation's latest round of talks stalled, the head of the WTO, former New Zealand prime minister Mike Moore, is urging Australia not to reduce its commitment to the multilateral trade process. And on the question of when the next round of WTO talks will eventuate, Mike Moore believes the economic downturn that's hit the US might just be the kick-start the process needs.


Shark attack research

Australians are having more close encounters with sharks but we still don't have the research to explain why. A New South Wales surfer is now lying in hospital bearing the scars of a shark attack yesterday. Three people have been killed by sharks over the past few months. While numbers of encounters are up, shark researchers say they don't have the money to work on basic questions like what sharks do after they attack humans.