Brisbane: Senior officials and administrators of the Brisbane Bolts were meeting in emergency session behind closed doors late last night following the shock news that one of their high-profile players randomly tested recently for banned performance drugs had returned a negative result.

Melbourne: Senior Victorian police have launched an urgent high-level internal inquiry into why a young constable's service revolver jammed twice yesterday afternoon outside busy Flinders Street railway station during a routine jaywalking arrest.

Sydney: Scientists at a major international natural disaster conference being held here have warned that if a tsunami the size of the one that devastated north-west Papua New Guinea recently had hit the New South Wales steel city of Wollongong, it would have done almost $12 billion in improvements.

Adelaide: Albert Simmons, 83, the man who invented Australia's talking clock telephone number 1194, died here suddenly last night after the third stroke at nine sixteen precisely.

Perth: Prime Minister John Howard has suffered his first major stumble in his cross-country blitz to sell his GST Tax package. Confronted by a local TV reporter brandishing an average sized birthday cake, the PM said he had no idea as to how many cups of flour would have been needed to bake such a cake.

Hobart: Mixed press reviews and a small but vocal group of demonstrators outside the Tasmanian Concert Centre has marred the opening night here of Martin Bryant: the Musical.