A lofty battle of measurements.

The specialised unit’s 22 investigators spend their days online, impersonating children or paedophiles before a sting. They have never lost a case in court.

Johannesburg: “Like falling in love” is how Archbishop Desmond Tutu described voting in South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994, a remark that captured both his puckish humour and his profound emotions after decades fighting apartheid.

The state recorded 1479 new cases during the Christmas weekend, but only seven patients are in hospital.

Masked-up and sanitised shoppers flocked to Sydney’s biggest retail centres on Boxing Day, while online sales rose by 25 per cent from last year.

Travel agents say increasing COVID-19 case numbers, which have forced thousands to isolate, have led to people cancelling bookings across the state.

Ben Luzz has the martinis ready for a street party in the city this New Year’s Eve which he says is going to be bigger and better than last year. 

As public health experts race to study the virulence and severity of the new Omicron strain, here’s what we know so far.

High vaccination rates have ended lockdowns on Australia’s east coast, but shortcomings within our testing and isolation systems have been exposed by the current outbreak.

A 25-year-old French tourist has been charged by police after allegedly failing to comply with directions while in hotel quarantine.

Five vans used to transport guide dogs in training have been stolen overnight, in what has been described as a “devastating blow” for those with low vision.

According to the Royal Life Saving Society Australia, the eight days from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day are the deadliest period for drowning.

Exposure sites include Westfield Garden City and Westfield Chermside, as well as a retail and hospitality venues in Brisbane City.

St Vincent’s Hospital has admitted more than 400 COVID-19 positive people were incorrectly notified that their PCR test results were negative on Saturday night.

Western Australia has recorded one new local case of COVID-19.

Thousands of homes across Perth suburbs affected by network outages are still without power this Boxing Day as temperatures are expected to reach a record-breaking 44-degree maximum.

After days of waiting I finally got the result: I am a fully-fledged member of a club I had no aspiration to join.

Queensland recorded 714 new cases on Sunday, NSW had 6394 and Victoria reported 1608.

Cricket fans turned up in their tens of thousands for day one of the Boxing Day Test.

It was a sought-after commodity last year, but supermarkets, pharmacies and distilleries now give away hand sanitiser.

Twenty years ago, Daniel Benson was named the NSW Gymnastics Coach of the Year. At the same time, he was allegedly sexually assaulting four young gymnasts.

Illingworth could also punch the ball aggressively through the covers or over the bowler’s head.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is calling on people entering high-risk environments such as household visits to get rapid antigen tests instead of PCR tests to lessen the strain on the health system.

However, Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said Sunday’s case decrease will not last, and he expects cases to climb again.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll directed her 17,200 staff to get a second dose by December 17.

The federal government will rush an extra 800,000 booster jabs to GPs and pharmacists across Australia in the first week of January, as demand for the third vaccine dose skyrockets.

“We were hoping for Boxing Day so we could open presents – so it changed the family’s plans for Christmas!”

A Muslim friend once told me that, according to Islamic tradition, the patriarch Abraham never dined alone but always waited on the road to invite travellers to share his meal.

Many testing sites across Melbourne were closed before 9am on Boxing Day, some reached capacity as they opened or even before.

Shoppers are expecting to set spending records this Boxing Day despite rising coronavirus case numbers.

We got vaccines and said goodbye to Donald Trump, but then it turned out that the pandemic and the ex-president weren’t done with us yet.

The artist at the centre of the controversy is a prominent critic of Israeli government policies in the occupied territories.

At the Sydney Aquarium, the only other person I could see wearing a mask was cleaning the shark tank.

Far from considering it the eighth deadly sin, I consider regifting to be a stairway to heaven.

If the purpose of New Year’s resolutions is to scrutinise personal shortcomings, to make solemn promises of change, why defer the cleansing of the soul?

The federal government will throw an extra 800,000 booster doses at GPs and pharmacists in the first week of January, as medical practitioners say they are rapidly exhausting their vaccine supplies.

The risk of catching COVID-19, or simply being caught out by shifting rules and regulations, has forced many travellers to choose the open road over the skies this festive season.

No matter what the cause of illness, when people are chronically sick, doctors do not tally the expenses before delivering first-class treatment.

In 2021 we said goodbye to royalty and giants of television, fashion and sport.

If people from the Voices work hard enough, they can get independents elected in Liberal seats that Labor could never win.

The final report was handed to the federal government in April but released just few days before Christmas.

Local politicians have for years lobbied the NSW government to take back control of the controversial site, which has a chequered past.

A prominent epidemiologist questions the point of a “half open” international border amid surging numbers of domestic COVID-19 cases.

Trivia buffs: test your knowledge with today's interactive superquiz and target.

The coronavirus testing sites were swamped on Christmas Day with queues hundreds of metres long at some sites.

Emergency services were called to Burraneer Bay on Christmas Eve at 7.30pm, when three men were jet skiing and were thrown into the water, police said.

WA has dodged the Omicron variant as a French backpacker who entered the state and tested positive to the virus during the week was confirmed to have the Delta variant.

The 52-year-old woman was rushed to Royal Hobart Hospital but could not be saved.

While thousands of people lined up outside testing stations on Saturday, time-honoured Christmas traditions went ahead – in a COVID-safe way.

The 25-year-old woman has been charged with two counts of failing to comply with a direction under WA’s Emergency Management Act and her test results were still pending as of Saturday afternoon.