Drivers get the green light to put the petal to the metal

LEADFOOTS beware! Car makers have singled out the driver as the next frontier for saving fuel and reducing CO2 emissions, and they're introducing technology to make people think twice before they floor the throttle.

Collaroy Plateau

At Collaroy Plateau on the northern beaches, the market for houses priced between $800,000 and $1.2 million has been steady this year but higher-priced properties have been slow to sell.

Brock Clarke

A lover of literature hopes his fictional world provides an escape from - and a better understanding of - the real one, writes CATHERINE KEENAN.

Residents see the light, but it's just too bright

AT 11 o'clock every morning, Wendy Foley begins her daily ritual of hanging old tea towels and pillow cases over her collection of Judith Nicholls landscape paintings.

Tea and the mystery girl

After a chance meeting, Gary Newman is smitten in Shanghai.

VERBATIM

In their own words

The stage is set

Can Sydney's arts supremos turn Walsh Bay into a theatre district to rival London's West End, asks ELISSA BLAKE.

Wipe out

They were just a bunch of Aussie friends on a surfing trip to Indonesia when the tsunami struck the Mentawai Islands, slamming another boat into theirs, setting it on fire and sweeping them into the jungle. What followed is an extraordinary tale of mateship and survival. Mark Dapin reports.