LAW

Samsung plans to launch an upgraded version of the 7-inch Galaxy Tab in Australia before Christmas, Smarthouse reports.

Former Apple Chief Patent Counsel Richard Lutton told the Sydney Federal Court on Thursday that ex-Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs personally contacted Samsung in 2010 to fix their patent row.

A 16-year-old girl sued her parents in a bid to escape an arranged marriage. Court orders were made just two weeks before the planned wedding in the Middle East in April, but details of the case have been revealed in a judgment published only this week.

A convicted armed thief has robbed a bank for a second time, slipping past the security assigned to him at the hospital.

Australia had extradited to New Zealand alleged fraudster Loizos Michaels who is wanted for multimillion dollar fraud.

Justice Mordecai Bromberg found on Wednesday newspaper columnist Andrew Bold guilty of violating Australia's Racial Discrimination Act. Bolt, who writes for Herald Sun and Weekly Times, published two articles on racial identity which have errors in fact, distorted the truth and used inflammatory and provocative language.

China's security officials headed by Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu have visited Islamabad on Tuesday to pursue Pakistan's cooperation in seizing Chinese Muslim extremists who may be seeking refuge in the Muslim territory, reports said.

Amid allegations that it is invading the privacy of its members by tracking where they go next after logging out, Facebook releases official statement. Facebook engineer Gregg Stefancik says the social network is not violating user's privacy.

As South Korea gears up for economic advancement, the South Korean government seems to be overlooking a domestic issue-the protection and welfare of the elderly.

Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett hinted Monday that she may grant a brief injunction on sales of Samsung tablet while studying arguments from Samsung and rival Apple, a development that would likely delay the Australian debut of Samsung's 10.1 Galaxy Tab.

Thousands of farmland owners staged a massive riot against the authorities in Guangdong province last week in protest for forcibly selling the farmers' lands for a commercial complex, New York Times reported.

Motivated to put an end to incessant speculations about Dalai Lama's reincarnation, the Tibetan's supreme spiritual leader, 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, finally issued a declaration on Saturday clarifying that only he has the legitimate authority to decide how and where his reincarnation shall take place.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will allow women to vote and run in the next election. Human Rights Watch says the reforms are significant, but such promises have been made before, and now women still have to wait four years for the announced reforms to take effect.

An unidentified 19-year-old boy was shot in his own home by policemen who responded to a call at about 1 a.m. that three prowlers had broken in at a house in Holmes Street, Colyton, Sydney.

A New Zealand ex-couple faces animal cruelty charges after police found 38 frozen cat bodies in a man's home. The couple pledged not guilty, saying they are cat lovers.

Is there really finality in death? Two days after Troy Davis was executed via lethal injection close to midnight on Wednesday, the controversy surrounding his death still goes on. Can death really give both defendant and accused and all concerned parties the closure they need? Hardly it seems.

After the devastation left by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan,part of the Japan's rehabilitation efforts is to build fire-resistant homes in local communities especially in crowded districts.

Chinese authorities arrested Li Hao, a former civil servant of the Technological Supervision Bureau, for kidnapping six women and confining them in an old basement, where they were forced to become his sex slaves for two years.

South Korea and Washington stand firm on their stance on North Korea's denuclearization process, reiterating that North Korea should first comply with a preemptive measure demanded by South Korea and the United States before the communist country can enjoy economic assistance again.

US ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas claims 40% of foreign men visiting the Philippines are sex tourists, which actually dismayed Philippine tourism officials.

The Strategic Review of the Student Visa Program, conducted by former Olympics Minister Michael Knight on behalf of the Commonwealth Government was released Thursday by Ministers Evans, drawing mixed reactions.

The US state of Georgia executed Troy Davis on Wednesday despite high opposition and an international outcry due to considerable doubts about his guilt over the 1991 murder conviction.

A principal of Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School, in Tweed Heads has used his school newsletter to lash out against global social networking sites, in particular Facebook.

Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.'s CEO, stood up to U.S senators Wednesday to defend his company against allegations that it skews search results in favor of its own online services.

The convicted killer of James Byrd Jr., a Black Texas man dragged to death in 1998, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

A suspected grenade exploded early Wednesday inside an Amsterdam courthouse shattering its windows, but no one was reported hurt.

Federal prosecutors said on Tuesday that one of the biggest online poker sites, Full Tilt Poker, was taking in millions of dollars in bets, and was claimed to be misusing the players' money.

A 54-year-old homeowner in Sydney stabbed on death on Wednesday afternoon a 30-year-old intruder armed with a stun gun.

A trial started in Italy on Tuesday for seven scientists charged with manslaughter for apparently predicting that no major earthquake will hit L'Aquila one week after the deadly temblor struck the city in 2009.