Australia's jobless rate fell 0.1 per cent in September in a move that surprised economists and signaled a recovery in the Australian economy.

Economists had expected the September figures to show unemployment rise from 5.8 per cent to 6 per cent. The Bureau of Statistics announcement Wednesday that the jobless rate had fallen to 5.7 per cent sparked a sudden rise on the stock market and a rise in the Australian dollar.

The good news came two days after Australia's Reserve Bank raised interest rates to damp down the rate of economic recovery.

Police on Monday raided the Sydney office of a migration agent they believe is exploiting young Indians who come to study in Australia.

The raid followed claims on national television that a young Indian reporter posing as a student to expose scams had been assaulted in Sydney.

An Australian jailed for murder fathered a child by smuggling his sperm out of prison, news reports said Saturday.

The semen was spirited out 10 months ago and his girlfriend gave birth to a boy a month ago, the Daily Telegraph reported.

A spokeswoman for Corrective Services Minister John Robertson said an investigation was under way.

Two Australian scientists, Sydney-based Dr. Jennifer MacDiarmid and Dr. Himanshu Brahmbhatt have developed what they call the ‘trojan horse’ therapy, for combating cancer.  A two-pronged approach, a bacterially-derived nano cell penetrates and disarms the cancer cell, before it is killed by a second nano cell with chemotherapy drugs.
 

Australia's great crop-circle mystery has been solved: wallabies dizzy after eating opium poppies are hopping round and round in the poppy fields of Tasmania forming odd formations in the crop.

"We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high," Tasmanian Attorney General Lara Giddings told the state Parliament in Hobart on Thursday.

A 26-year-old man from a remote Aboriginal community who had tested positive for swine flu died Friday in an Adelaide hospital.

Almost twice as many Australians support gay marriage as oppose it, an opinion poll released Tuesday showed.

Although legislation gives same-sex couples many of the same rights as opposite-sex couples, neither of the two major parties is in favour of gay marriage.

An amorous emu called Edward that made repeated sexual advances towards his frightened female owner looks set to get a proper mate after a chivalrous fellow Australian offered to play matchmaker, news reports said Friday.