The World Today

The latest figures on property prices show a huge divergence in house prices across Australia. Melbourne is clearly the hottest real estate market, while prices in Perth and Darwin went down by as much as 2 per cent over the year. And in a surprise move, Canberra has now joined the list of Australian cities with the fastest growing property prices.

He was a Pulitzer prize-winning playwright who wrote uncompromisingly about modern American life. He was also a Hollywood actor regarded by his fans as having the 'the right stuff'. Sam Shepard, the star of the film of that name and many others, has died at the age of 73.

Airports around Australia are on high alert as more details emerge about the alleged plot by four men to bring down a plane at Sydney Airport. The men were arrested in counter-terrorism raids in Sydney on Saturday night and are now being detained under special terrorism powers. Police say they are confident they now have all members of the alleged terrorist cell. In inner-city Surry Hills, which was the scene of one of the five raids, locals are coming to terms with the fact their suburb is now the focus of Australia's latest counter-terrorism operation.

Australia's political leaders have joined together to praise the way security agencies foiled the alleged terrorist plot to bring down a plane. But the sophistication of the apparent plan has raised questions about whether changes are needed to better protect the public.

Jacinta Carroll, head of the Counter-terrorism Policy Centre at the Australian Strategic Policy, says agencies 'have responded extremely well' to the weekend aviation threat. Ms Carroll says there is 'some concern' that there was only three days in which to find the plot and thwart it, and a home affairs ministry could free agencies up to look for threats and allocate resources.

A Victorian Coroner has found police officers cannot be criticised for their handling of 18 year-old radicalised youth Numan Haider in September 2014. Haider was shot dead by police after he stabbed two officers who had arranged to meet him in a police station car park.

The Federal Government is under increased pressure to hold a judicial inquiry into allegations of water theft from the Murray Darling Basin. Allegations were aired on the ABC's Four Corners program last week that some irrigators in NSW are taking more water than they should. Mr Turnbull says if the states and territories agree, a review should be conducted by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. But a number of senators have banded together against that idea, arguing that the authority itself is potentially part of the problem.

Political donations are back in the spotlight today, with Labor being urged from within its own ranks to give up the party's traditional funding sources. The call is being made by Labor Senator Sam Dastyari who was himself forced to resign his opposition frontbench job last year after he accepted money from a Chinese donor. He's told the ABC's Australian Story program that donations should be banned because they're sometimes part of 'the murky world of access... for outcomes.' It comes as new questions have emerged today about donations to the ALP, this time from the director of a Chinese tobacco company.

Nearly 12,000 refugees who were invited to Australia in 2015 are finally here. Then prime-minister Tony Abbott announced a special intake for the desperate asylum seekers fleeing Syria and Iraq nearly two years ago. The Government has faced criticism about the length of time it has taken to bring them here.

The US is warning that all options are still on the table to rein in North Korea's nuclear threat. President Donald Trump has expressed disappointment that China isn't doing more to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its ballistic missile tests. The US has responded to the latest missile launch on Friday, by increasing its military presence in the region and testing an anti-missile system.