A conservation group has launched an appeal into a NSW court decision that's allowing a coal mine to release contaminated water into Sydney's drinking catchment. A court decision earlier this year allowed the Springvale mine west of Sydney to continue to pump waste water into a river that flows through the heritage-listed Blue Mountains. There's a plan to send the water to a nearby power plant for cooling, but environmentalists say overflows can still find their way into rivers that feed Sydney's water supply.

A Queensland man has become one of only a few in Australia to be sentenced for supporting foreign fighting. Former Islamic bookseller Omar Succarieh was arrested during counter-terrorism raids south of Brisbane in 2014. Today he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years' jail for supporting 'hostile activity' in Syria. Dr Rodger Shanahan of the Lowy Institute prepared a report for the prosecution in the case, and he spoke today to PM.

It's been almost exactly 11 years to the day since the then 25-year-old Teresa Halbach went missing in Manitowoc county in Wisconsin in the United States. It was early evening on Halloween. When Teresa Halbach's charred remains were found on Steven Avery's property, he was arrested and charged with her murder. Steven Avery's story is the subject of the real life crime documentary Making a Murderer. Now, thanks to an overwhelming response from the global audience, lawyers for Steven Avery think they might have new evidence that will finally be able to prove that Steven Avery was framed.

Cartel violence in Mexico is once again on the rise, with homicide numbers reaching levels not seen since the height of the country's drug war five years ago. More than 17,000 people were murdered in the first nine months of 2016, up 20 per cent on the same period last year. Many are pointing to the re-arrest of Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán in January as a possible cause of the violence. The most powerful drug lord since Pablo Escobar, Guzman is perhaps most famous for escaping from maximum security prisons, not once, but twice. He's now in prison once again is expected to be extradited to the US by February. But the power vacuum his absence has created is said to have emboldened his rivals. But others say that the Mexican government needs to do more to address the systemic problems that allow the cartels to operate in the first place.

Former senior Coalition minister Andrew Robb has defended his decision to work for the Chinese company that controls Darwin Port. Mr Robb has been appointed as an economic consultant with the Landbridge Group after resigning as the trade minister in February. Concerns have been expressed that the former minister could use sensitive information gathered while he was a minister of the Crown, in order to benefit himself and his clients. Andrew Robb says it wouldn't be in his business interests to disclose sensitive information to the Chinese.

The Latrobe Valley in Victoria's east is braced for the announcement that the aging Hazelwood power plant will be shut down. The State Government has promised to look after workers, but unions say a transition plan should've been in place years ago.

A serial paedophile sex abuser is a free man in Ireland after an apparent oversight being blamed on Victoria Police. At the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse he was identified as BIM, and he'd been jailed already in Queensland on separate sex offences. But before Victoria Police made moves to arrest BIM he'd already been deported back to his native Ireland.

The Opposition is continuing to pile pressure on the Government over former senator Bob Day's financial arrangements. The High Court is set to judge his eligibility to sit as a senator over matters which go back to 2013 when he was first elected. Labor's mounting the case that the Government's known for years the senator's financial interests could be in breach of the Constitution.

The makeup of the Senate is in further doubt tonight. First came the departure of Family First senator Bob Day and a prospective High Court case - now the Attorney General has flagged the possibility of taking the election of WA One Nation senator Rod Culleton to the same court.

The Tasmanian Government is allowing logging inside forest that was set aside under a peace deal between environmentalists and the timber industry in 2012. Environment groups are vowing to oppose the plan while it's being welcomed by the Tasmanian Special Timbers Alliance.