From Reuters:
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian authorities believe they have foiled a major terrorist attack, arresting 15 people on Tuesday during raids in the country’s two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
The arrests come less than a week after Prime Minister John Howard said Australia received intelligence about a “terrorist threat.”
“We believe … we’ve disrupted a large-scale operation which, had it been allowed to go through to fruition, we certainly believe would have been catastrophic,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney told Australian television.