Luxury Webblog Spot

LOS ANGELES – Just days before her death, Hollywood star Brittany Murphy spoke excitedly about plans to fly to Australia to work again with director George Miller on the sequel to their Oscar-winning animated blockbuster, Happy Feet. (US Murphy Aust)

LOS ANGELES – A Los Angeles reptile salesman facing up to 20 years’ jail for allegedly smuggling 15 protected lizards from Australia to the US by strapping them to his chest is “hoping for a favourable outcome”. (US Plank)

SYDNEY – Australian actress Rebecca Gibney admits she doesn’t mind a bit of Botox, tiffany jewelry the anti-ageing treatment to getting a facial. (Gibney – embargoed until 0001 AEDT Wednesday Dec 23)

CANBERRA – Punters have turned on Tony Abbott, with the odds of the coalition winning the next federal election widening after a recent plunge on Labor to retain office. (Election Betting)

CANBERRA – The federal government should step in swiftly to ensure NSW’s ailing red gum forests are protected, the Australian Greens say. (Gums Greens)

SYDNEY – Six months after the death of a man whose vision it was to open such a facility, work has begun on a specialist cancer care centre in Sydney. (Health Rudd to come)

SYDNEY – Three weeks into her position as NSW premier, Kristina Keneally has crossed paths with Kevin Rudd for a third time and won praise from the prime minister. (Leadership NSW Rudd)

SYDNEY – Shipyard workers have welcomed the NSW government’s decision to keep Sydney Ferries in public hands, but tourism and infrastructure groups are deeply disappointed. (Ferries Update)

Ferries Wrap to come

SYDNEY – Punched in the face and surrounded by an angry crowd, a Sydney police officer tasered his attacker during a Christmas carols event. (Carols)

SYDNEY – Eric Thomas Turner murdered four people, became NSW’s longest serving tiffany necklaces and, at 80, was baptised on his jail deathbed in July 2008. (Turner)

SYDNEY – Unions are urging festive season workers in NSW to check their pay packets and ensure proper penalty rates are being honoured. (Xmas Pay)

SYDNEY – Authorities are bracing for a spike in domestic violence across NSW this festive season. (Domestic NSW)

SYDNEY – NSW skippers planning to hit the water over the festive season are being reminded to keep their alcohol consumption in check. (Skippers)

MELBOURNE – Holiday shoppers have been sickened by the “malicious” vandalism of one of Melbourne’s most loved holiday icons three days before Christmas. (Myer Wrap)

MELBOURNE – Victorian police will next year have the power to automatically suspend a driver’s licence if a laboratory drug test shows the motorist was affected by illegal drugs. (Motorists)

MELBOURNE – First it was hoon drivers that had their cars confiscated. Now, hoons in boats can be forced off the water. (Hoon)

MELBOURNE – Mobile phones are at the top of the Christmas list for gorillas. (Gorillas)

BRISBANE – A truck driver likely had a heart attack before running off the road and crashing his tanker into a Brisbane CBD building, authorities say. (Truck Wrap)

BRISBANE – A Queensland man who headed up one of the world’s largest online spamming tiffany accessories has been given a $210,000 penalty. (Atkinson)

BRISBANE – A Brisbane employee who stole almost $3 million from the Bank of Queensland (BOQ) and then spent it like “Monopoly money” on cars, jewellery and holidays has been sentenced to nine years’ jail. (Denford)

BRISBANE – The Queensland attorney-general has successfully sought a harsher sentence on appeal for a former sex educator who paid teenage boys to inject medication into his penis. (Wharton to come)

BRISBANE – DNA material used to convict Queensland man Shane Davis of murder almost two decades ago will be retested in a Queensland first. (DNA to come)

BRISBANE – Federal Environment, Heritage and Arts Minister Peter Garrett has confirmed the Centaur is fully protected as an historic shipwreck. (Centaur to come)

BRISBANE – Federal Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor has opened a purpose-built Customs house at Brisbane Airport. (Customs to come)

BRISBANE – Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has unveiled the architect’s impression of the new ABC studios at Southbank. (ABC to come)

BRISBANE – Police investigating the suspected murder of a southeast Queensland woman have found evidence that may lead to a breakthrough. (Birt)

BRISBANE – A Brisbane man has been rescued by water police after his boat sank in deep water in Moreton Bay. (Sunk)

BRISBANE – A woman and her three young children have escaped safely from a fire that destroyed their home in central Queensland. (Fire)

BRISBANE – Health authorities are nervous an outbreak of dengue fever during the Christmas holiday season will be difficult to contain. (Dengue)

ADELAIDE – Adelaide United defender Robbie Cornthwaite has pleaded guilty to assault after an incident at an Adelaide nightclub earlier this year. (Cornthwaite)

ADELAIDE – A $24 million redevelopment of Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital will include tffany keys pulmonary medicine clinics and gene therapy laboratories, the state government says. (Hospital)

PERTH – The West Australian holiday road toll stands at five after police included the deaths of an elderly couple on their family property in the state’s midwest. (Toll WA)