Google was ordered to pay Aus$200,000 (U.S.$208,000) in damages to an Australian man Monday after a jury found the Internet giant defamed him by publishing material linking him to mobsters.

Milorad Trkulja, an entertainment promoter who is now 62, was shot in the back in 2004 in a crime that was never solved.

Britain's Prince Charles needed an umbrella Friday on Australia's famous Bondi beach as a tropical storm hit during the royal visit.

The downpour scattered the waiting crowd as the official cavalcade drew up at the Bondi Surf Club.

Researchers from Australia and Saudi Arabia launched a project Thursday which they hope will help them understand the genetic makeup of corals and how they react to climate change.

Reefs around the world are under threat from bleaching due to climate change, as well as storms and predatory starfish, and scientists want to learn more about coral resilience to help head off further destruction.

A 25-year-old man died and another was recovering in hospital Wednesday after they became stranded in the harsh Australian Outback, prompting warnings about the risks of the desert.

The pair had been on a routine morning check of a spring near Ethabuka cattle station, near the Simpson Desert in southeast Queensland state, on Monday when their four-wheel-drive vehicle became bogged on a sand dune.

Anti-whaling activists began their annual campaign against Japanese whalers Monday with the Sea Shepherd's flagship, the Steve Irwin, leaving its Melbourne dock to pursue the harpoonists.

The group's ninth campaign, named Operation Zero Tolerance, is its largest against Japan's whale hunt and involves four ships, a helicopter, three drones and more than 100 crew members.

Australia on Wednesday moved to extend punitive refugee policies to any asylum-seeker who lands on its mainland, allowing for them to be banished to remote Nauru or Papua New Guinea for detention.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen introduced a proposal to expand the government's powers to send boatpeople for indefinite detention in the Pacific across the entire mainland, not just the remote islands where most land.

Scientists announced Monday the discovery of a new species of lizard fighting to survive among the sand dunes outside Perth in Western Australia.

They fear it is only a matter of time before the six-centimeter (two-inch) long Ctenotus ora, or the coastal plains skink, will be extinct with urban sprawl rapidly closing in.

Two-thirds of Australia's adult population are overweight or obese, a key study found Monday, with rates continuing to climb despite a drop in smoking and drinking.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said people were continuing to pile on the kilos despite other findings indicating a switch to healthier habits.

Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan Saturday welcomed a decision by ratings agency Fitch to affirm the country's AAA credit rating, days after his mid-year economic review lowered this year's growth forecast.

The affirmation overnight of the AAA rating with a stable outlook comes after the government last week cut its growth and budget surplus forecasts as worsening global conditions hurt revenues in the mining-driven economy.

Australia on Monday cut its growth and budget surplus forecasts as worsening global conditions hurt revenues in the mining-driven economy.

In a mid-year economic review, Treasurer Wayne Swan said real GDP growth was forecast at 3.0 percent this fiscal year -- from 3.25 percent predicted in May -- while the surplus will shrink to Aus$1.1 billion (U.S.$1.13 billion).