Sydney - The 700-billion-US-dollar bailout package being thrashed out in the US Congress is more likely to reinforce rather than curb the risky financial dealings of investment bankers, Australia's stock exchange head said Sunday.

Maurice Newman, the chairman of the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), warned that the government paying top-dollar for worthless assets would worsen the predicament of Wall Street.

"The moral hazards which are being created in the United States right now - the idea that more oversight, more regulation, the automatic default whenever there's a problem will get you out of trouble - will only make the problem worse," Newman told local television.

Sydney  - The flow of money out of Australia to pay for illicit drugs could exceed 12 billion Australian dollars (10 billion US dollars), the Australian Crime Commission
(ACC) estimated Saturday.

ACC chief executive Alastair Milroy told The Sydney Morning Herald that the figure dwarfs estimates by Austrac, which monitors money laundering, and by the Australian Institute of Criminology.

"Certainly we think that current estimates of the size of (drug) money leaving Australia might be conservative," he said.

Sydney- The flow of money out of Australia to pay for illicit drugs could exceed 12 billion Australian dollars (10 billion US dollars), the Australian Crime Commission
(ACC) estimated Saturday.

ACC chief executive Alastair Milroy told The Sydney Morning Herald that the figure dwarfs estimates by Austrac, which monitors money laundering, and by the Australian Institute of Criminology.

"Certainly we think that current estimates of the size of (drug) money leaving Australia might be conservative," he said.

Sydney, Sept. 26 : Acting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has admitted she smoked dope while in university, but adds that she didn''t like it.

"At university, tried it, didn''t like it," she said on the Fairfax Radio Network.

"I think probably many Australian adults would be able to make the same statement so I don''t think it matters one way or the other," she added.

Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull has also admitted that he smoked marijuana in the past.

Reacting to Turnbull’s revelation, Gillard said she did not think it mattered that he had confessed to smoking dope in the past.

Sydney - The argy-bargy over the US government's planned rescue package for financial institutions erased recent gains by Australian stocks Friday.

The ASX 200 had fallen 87 points, or 1.7 per cent, to 4,839 by mid-afternoon.

Prices were dragged down in thin trading as investors waited for US politicians to thrash out the terms of the bailout package worth up to 700 billion US dollars.

Sydney - With Australia's greenhouse gas emissions still rising by 2 per cent a year, it's going to be difficult for one of the world's biggest per-capita emitters to meet even the most modest reduction target, a leading climate change scientist said Friday.

"Australia's position remains unique as a developed country," Michael Raupach told The Sydney Morning Herald. "Since 2000, Australian fossil fuel emissions have grown by 2 per cent a year."