National

SYDNEY — Australia on Monday axed 20,000 migrant applications in a major overhaul aimed at clamping down on foreign students gaining permanent residency through courses such as hairdressing and cookery.

Two farming regions in Australia’s eastern state of New South Wales have been declared natural disaster zones after days of torrential rains caused major flooding and cut off hundreds of residents.

SYDNEY — An Australian nun who died 100 years ago looks set to become the nation's first saint, after the Pope recognised a miracle in which she apparently cured a woman of cancer, officials said Sunday.

Australia's prime minister has made a personal plea to the Indonesian president to prevent a boatload of Sri Lankan migrants reaching Australia.

Tim Holding, the Australian lawmaker missing for two days in alpine territory in the country’s southeast, was found by police this morning and winched by a helicopter to safety.

PERTH, Australia — Plugging a leak at an offshore drilling rig that has caused an oil slick off Australia will take weeks, the operator said Sunday, though officials said there was little threat of environmental damage.

A group of pro-China activists scuffled with supporters of exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer as she arrived in Melbourne on Saturday for the screening of a documentary on her life, witnesses said.

SYDNEY — An official inquiry on Tuesday cleared Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of influence peddling as a top civil servant reportedly admitted forging the email that sparked the allegations.

British survival experts have joined the doubters who have questioned how backpacker Jamie Neale survived for 12 days lost in the Blue Mountains bushland.

An investigation is under way in Australia into claims that navy sailors competed with each other to bed their female colleagues for cash prizes.