World leaders have congratulated the first American pope - Chicago-born Robert Prevost on his election as Pope Leo XIV.

Cardinals in the Vatican will continuing voting for a new Pope, after their first attempt to elect the next Pontiff was unsuccessful.

Indian missile strikes hit nine sites in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, killing eight and injuring 35, in major escalating tensions on the subcontinent.

The only guest left alive after the fatal mushroom lunch takes the stand in Victoria's triple murder trial.

The Coalition has been left reeling without a leader after a major election defeat on the weekend.

Queues have formed outside many early voting centres again today, as Australians choose who will sit in the next Federal Parliament.

Erin Patterson's estranged husband, whose parents both died after the fateful meal, has given emotional evidence in the triple-murder trial.

New figures show the RBA's preferred measure of inflation has fallen within its target band for the first time in more than three years.

A lunch of Beef Wellington, allegedly laced with poisonous death cap mushrooms, is at the heart of a triple murder trial which began in Morwell, Victoria today.

With just five days to go until election day both leaders have stepped up the tempo of their campaigns, in the hopes of winning over millions of undecided voters.