A GROUP of liberal Catholics has lodged a complaint with the Vatican about Cardinal George Pell's doctrinal teachings, saying they are inaccurate and misleading.

OPENLY gay independent MP Andrew Olexander has hit out at his former party, the Liberals, for questioning him over his sex life.

AUSTRALIA rugby union player Wendell Sailor has reportedly been involved in an incident at a South Africa nightclub while touring with the NSW Waratahs.

SYDNEY Ferries boss Sue Sinclair has quit after a spate of breakdowns and accidents involving its fleet of commuter vessels.

A FORMER One Nation state president who resigned over reported links to a white supremacist movement is among the candidates vying for the West Australian state seat vacated by former premier Geoff Gallop.

FIVE police officers were injured and five people arrested when police were attacked after being called to a noisy party in a suburb of Newcastle overnight.

POLICE have arrested a man after a car ploughed into a group of teenagers, killing five and injuring at least seven near Mildura in Victoria's north-west.

FIVE teenagers were killed and seven injured when they were hit by a car in Victoria's north-west tonight.

ONE man died and another two were hurt when they were caught in rough surf on the NSW mid-north coast today.

A BRISBANE truck driver drove his way into the Guinness Book of World Records after hauling almost 1.5km of road train for charity.

STAFF at Sydney's Long Bay jail didn't know a prisoner had escaped today until a motorist called police about seeing a man in green running near the prison.

VICTORIAN Opposition Leader Robert Doyle today announced 14 female Liberal candidates to contest the November 25 state election.

TASMANIA'S economy and health system were the major issues as the state's politicians hit the hustings for the first day of the March 18 election campaign.

HUMAN rights advocates and the federal Opposition have commended the government for successfully appealing for clemency in the case of two Australian drug traffickers on death row in Vietnam.

A WOMAN and her three-year-old son have been freed from wreckage after their car rolled in central western New South Wales.

A SOCIALIST youth organisation wants to sell hundreds of flag burning kits to university students next week .. to highlight anger at the Federal Government.

ONE of Australia's most popular celebrity doctors, James Wright, has lost more than $51 million to a New Zealand fraudster who convinced him to invest in his companies, US court documents show.

THE New South Wales Government will consider selling state-owned assets in addition to trimming expenses to meet growing demand on the next budget from essential services such as health.

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with grievous bodily harm after a 16-year-old girl was shot in the head at a remote Aboriginal community in the West Australian Goldfields.

A VICTORIAN woman is still missing after two weeks, despite a sighting in Western Australia.