Australia's top spy warned of the "very real threat" from extremists on Thursday, in the first public address by the head of the country's Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) in its 60-year history.

Nick Warner said the security challenges for agents had dramatically changed over the past decade, as he provided a rare glimpse into the agency's work in a speech designed to raise public awareness about the intelligence community.

American country music star Glen Campbell has cancelled a farewell tour of Australia and New Zealand due to worsening Alzheimer's disease, his promoter said Thursday.

Campbell, whose hits include "Rhinestone Cowboy" and "Southern Nights", was due to play six shows next month with Kenny Rogers and one solo performance in what would have been the final overseas concerts of "The Goodbye Tour".

Teen heartthrob singer Justin Bieber admits it is not easy staying grounded amid huge wealth and adoration from screaming fans, but says he is determined to remain humble.

The 18-year-old Canadian, in Australia on a tightly-controlled promotional tour where he has been mobbed by fans, shot to fame in 2009 after posting several homemade music videos on YouTube and has now sold 15 million albums.

An Australian woman born without arms and legs after her mother took thalidomide during pregnancy, on Wednesday won a landmark multi-million dollar settlement in her class action against drug firms.

Lynette Rowe, 50, is leading a mass lawsuit on behalf of people born with congenital defects in Australia and New Zealand between 1958 and 1970 whose mothers took the sedative thalidomide, made by German chemical firm Grunenthal.

The resource-rich Australian city of Brisbane was Wednesday selected to host the G20 summit in 2014, drawing stinging criticism from officials in Sydney.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who announced last year the country had been picked as host nation, said the Queensland capital would hold the summit of the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi expressed hope that officials would agree on a modern electoral law that provides the best representation and achieves the ambitions of all Lebanese.

“The participation of Lebanese expatriates in the elections consolidate their ties and belonging to the nation,” al-Rahi said during a meeting with Australian speaker Peter Slipper in the presence of ambassador Lex Bartlem at his north Lebanon summer residence in Diman.

Jessica Kahawaty, a Lebanese, has won the 2012 Miss World Australia crown at a ceremony held at Uluru over the weekend, news reports said.

Jessica, 23, a former Miss Lebanon 2010 candidate and Miss Lebanon Emigrant, beat 23 other stunning Australian beauties.

Rescuers plucked 130 people from the ocean Wednesday after an asylum-seeker boat sank en route to Australia, barely a week after another vessel went down in the same area, killing up to 90.

The rickety ship capsized 107 nautical miles north of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said, adding that one person was confirmed dead so far.

Police in East Timor have uncovered a mass grave of 52 people at the government palace in Dili, with initial examinations suggesting the bodies are not Timorese, an official said Tuesday.

Construction workers discovered the remains last week in a garden outside the beachfront government palace, which houses the office of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, and contacted police.

Australia Monday announced fresh sanctions against Syria restricting or prohibiting trade across entire sectors as Foreign Minister Bob Carr urged Russia to take a lead role in regime change.

The new measures affect trade between Australia and Syria in oil, petroleum, financial services, telecommunications and precious metals and are in addition to an existing arms embargo and sanctions against individuals connected to leaders in Damascus.