Australian (International News)

THOUSANDS of jobs in the components industry are at risk in the wake of Ford's decision to close its Australian manufacturing operations from 2016.

THE two men who beheaded a soldier in southeast London were known to the security services, senior Whitehall sources have confirmed.

INDEPENDENT schools have struck out against the Gillard government's proposed Gonski education funding changes.

RECOGNISING the first Australians in the Constitution will help close the indigenous disadvantage gap and herald an era of unity.

PETER Costello, the former Liberal treasurer, will tonight praise the Opposition Leader's budget reply speech as "the best in decades".

ONE of the architects of Labor's car industry reforms has likened government handouts to prop up the sector to "putting cash into a black hole".

HAZEL Hawke has been remembered as a first lady "free of any airs and graces" and blessed with guts, compassion and fierce intelligence.

BOTH Labor and the Coalition say the collapse of the Nauruan government will not impact on their ability to send asylum-seekers there for processing.

Tasmania has committed to funding the Gonski reforms in its budget, despite Lara Giddings's insistence she has not yet formally agreed to any deal.

CULTURAL immersion programs, like the Yiriman project in the Kimberle,y could be rolled out in other communities.