Australians are set to welcome in 2017 with a bang, with tens of thousands already in position around the country.

Britain's High Commissioner to Australia defends Sir Kim Darroch, who resigned as British ambassador to the United States after criticisms he made about Donald Trump were leaked.

Hawthorn midfielder Tom Mitchell wins the 2018 Brownlow Medal, edging out surprise contender Steele Sidebottom of Collingwood.

Nick Kyrgios is determined to keep calling out poor behaviour from Novak Djokovic, saying no other tennis players have been holding the world number one to account.

A free and accessible coronavirus vaccination program has been key to Australia's chart out of the pandemic, but some patients say they have been asked to attend paid appointments before accessing the vaccine.

ASADA will limp into the most important prosecution in the organisation’s eight-year history without its two key witnesses.

THE Abbott government has ­quietly agreed to suspend a ban on broadscale land clearing in Tasmania.

GINA Rinehart’s Roy Hill mining company has told caterers to tighten food security after a worker bit into a poisoned kiwi fruit.

A FORMER key policy adviser to Labor has urged the party to abandon its opposition to higher education fee deregulation.

Australia must vocally oppose the execution of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, says a lawyer who represented Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

A reading of evidence from Senate estimates yesterday paints a very different picture of the security implications of last week's debate about medevac legislation than the one generally reported, writes Laura Tingle.

THE editor-in-chief of The SMH Darren Goodsir openly declared he wanted to run headlines attacking Joe Hockey.

THE US is facing calls to prosecute CIA agents for running an interrogation regime that was “far worse” than the agency admitted.

THE last of the asylum-seeker families held on Christmas Island began leaving for the Australian mainland yesterday.

Germany stepped up security around Christmas markets because they were considered to be targets for terrorist attacks.

A FORMER Guantanamo Bay inmate says the US is finally admitting the truth about the torture after September 11.

At least 60 federal MPs are holding assets behind the veil of private trusts.

Defence Minister Marise Payne plays down Australia's military exercises with Saudi Arabia, amid urges to suspend all involvement with the Arab nation as it continues to enforce a devastating blockade on Yemen.

FOR every three people that have found a job since April, another two people have joined the unemployment queue.

EIGHT children, between the ages of 18 months and 15 years, have been found stabbed to death at a house in suburban Cairns.

Patti Smith needed two attempts to get through a performance on behalf of no-show Bob Dylan at the Nobel Prize | WATCH

The number of displaced people worldwide hits a record high of 70.8 million, with developing nations bearing the brunt of an influx of refugees fleeing conflict and political oppression, according to a UN report released for Refugee Week.

More than half of Australian nursing homes are understaffed, with residents having less access to qualified nurses than ever before, the aged care royal commission hears.

AOC boss and IOC vice-president John Coates says he expects the Japanese public will get on board with hosting the Olympic Games again once the country boosts its vaccination numbers.

Restaurant critic AA Gill, described as “a giant among journalists”, has died just weeks after revealing he had cancer.