A service station worker in Cairns is in a bit of strife for suggesting a man leave his four-year-old boy and two-year-old girl as collateral to ensure he came back to fix up the $5 he owed.

Britain's Got Talent runner-up, Susan Boyle, has been involved in an emotional tirade at Heathrow Airport after a long flight from Tokyo.

Canberra and the unions are at war again, and this time the battleground is the schoolyard.

Almost half a decade after John Lennon claimed they were "more popular than Jesus", the Vatican has put aside its differences with the Beatles and heaped praise on the band - but is staying quiet on child sex abuse allegations levelled against it.