POLITICS & POLICY

Canada has admitted it will fail meeting its carbon emissions target by 2020 due to the continued growth and development of its oil and gas sectors.

Prince George did not get but seven godparents. Kate Middleton and Prince William announced the name of those seven godparents who would be assisting them in bringing up the future England King.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has denied 25 years of climate change research and accused a UN executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change of "talking through her hat." Al Gore has criticised Tony Abbott for dismissing evidence provided by climate change scientists. He said in an interview on Oct. 23 that the Abbott government should not be misled by groups with special interests that also do not believe in climate change evidence.

As the New South Wales fire rages on, with some relief to firefighting efforts due to the weather conditions, Australian government’s climate change policy seems to have come under some intense fire. The United Nations (UN) climate chief Christiana Figueres in an interview with CNN, said that NSW bushfires were absolutely linked to climate change. She noted that the Tony Abbott government in Australia will end up paying a heavy political and economic price for walking away from Labor's commi...

If you are wondering what Australian Prime Minister Tony Abott was doing over the weekend as Australia fights back the worst wildfires, you would be surprised that the head of the country was busy doing his work in the battlefield.

Confirming weeks of speculation, and planning to "reinvent" himself as an expert on Asia, former Foreign Minister Bob Carr said he will be resigning from this Senate post for a life in academics. He will be submitting his resignation on Thursday. Post-retirement, Mr Carr will take up two part-time academic positions. He will join the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre as a professorial fellow and also join the University of New South Wales as an adjunct professor.

Muslim sectarian antagonism was reported in the Holy City of Mecca in Saudi Arabia Oct. 16 when a group of Lebanese-Australian Sunni Muslims allegedly attacked men and threatened to rape women of an American Shiite Muslims group from Detroit.

Despite China's contentious reception of its iPhone 5C in Sept., Apple still holds favorably the country as a prime market. It has included China in the list of select markets that it intends to launch the iPad Air with on Nov. 1.

The Rural Fire Service’s investigation found out that Defence training exercise started State Mine fire at the Blue Mountains

The Thai government may begin charging foreigners up to 500-baht ($16.13) to enter the country starting from January next year, said authorities this week, in the hopes of attracting a better "quality" of holidaymakers and, at the same time, pay for tourists who seek treatment at local hospitals but can't afford the bill.

For over six decades, they courted the West as their closest allies, and now left in the cold; the Saudi’s are desperately attempting to flash the Arab card. Having rejected the UN Security Council seat, on high moral grounds, Saudi Arabia is attempting to break away from the U.S. and reaffirm its place in the Arab world.

A woman in New Zealand was told to find a full-time job after giving birth to her baby eight weeks after. The single parent failed to attend to her scheduled Work and Income appointment. According to the Child Poverty Action Group, 1,310 parents had their benefits cut in in the first three months after parents with children aged 6 and above were required to find part-time work after Sept. 2010. The number grew from 5,074 in 2011 and 6,418 in 2012.

It may be difficult to believe, but a team of Australian researchers from CSIRO has found that in dry conditions, eucalyptus trees, as they search for moisture, can actually point to miners the location of massive gold deposits just by looking at their leaves.

Students from third grade through junior high in Fukushima who are unable to attend school because of their parents' lost income and job opportunities when the nuclear power plant got crippled in 2011 may now be able to renew their education in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto.

James Roy, a senior analyst with the Shanghai-based China Market Research Group, told AFP that the price difference in China was understandable, given the different market positioning of Starbucks in the Chinese market.

In the US on Friday, the S&P500 surged to a new record high, presumably because there's not a lot to worry about. The Fed looks like maintaining its US$85 billion per month liquidity pump and the US government is without debt limit for a few more months at least. It's party time.

And how do you like that? Mr Market was right all along. He knew the fix was in. This is an economy - and a society - that depends on easy credit. No way were the politicians going to stop the credit from flowing. When they threatened to cut it off, Mr Market ignored them. Stock prices kept going up. Turned out, he was right again.

With a key group in Syria's main opposition threatening to boycott next month's talks in Geneva, Arab and Western foreign ministers are expected to meet Syrian opposition members in London in a bid to convince them to participate in the peace talks. With both sides narrowing their perspectives, last month's hope for peace in Syria is receding; Geneva II is expected to enter rough weather.

The Australian Capital Territory's (ACT) provincial parliament approved on Tuesday same-sex marriage, however, the federal government is threatening a court challenge.

The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) has put an end to the debate as the same-sex marriage bill passes into law. The bill will allow gay couples to marry in the country. Lawmakers supporting the bill were confident it will pass with the help of the Australian province's ruling party. The same-sex marriage was made into law despite the opposing lawmakers vowing to vote against the bill. The same-sex marriage bill has passed 9 votes to 8.

Russia and Netherlands seem set on a diplomatic collision course on the recent detention of a ship used by Greenpeace International and its 30 crew members of various nationalities who attempted to stage a protest against the offshore ice-resistant fixed platform ‘Prirazlomnaya’ in the Barents Sea. Netherlands has approached the United Nations-backed International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, requesting provisional measures - for the Greenpeace International ship, ‘”Arctic Sunrise” which fi...

Aggressive firefighting strategy seems to be yielding “positive results” in the raging inferno that have enveloped Blue Mountains of New South Wales (NSW). The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) had started backburning in an effort to contain the spread of the fire front.

Chinese customs officials have finally given clearance to Rio Tinto to ship out its copper concentrate products from its massive Oyu Tolgoi mine to target customers in China.

India and Russia, on Monday, reaffirmed their strong bilateral relations and pledged to “resolve all outstanding issues” related to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu. Russia has been opposing the liability clauses which India is seeking to apply to nuclear power plants under its new Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act.

Japan is now in a frenzy to hunt and rescue more survivor's from last week's Typhoon Wipha amidst warnings of another potentially disastrous strong Typhoon Francisco could strike the country in a few days.

Kate Middleton and Prince William are reportedly planning an informal tea party for Prince George's christening. The tea party will be held at Kensington Palace before the auspicious ceremony. This event highlights the baby's formal welcome to the royal family.

Ahead of the Czech Republic's Parliamentary elections this week wherein the Communist Party is tipped to win and return to power almost 25 years after their ouster, a local sculptor expressed his anti-communist sentiments through a controversial art piece.

HMAs Melbourne intercepted suspected pirates off the coast of Somalia

Christine Forster, the lesbian sister of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, is engaged to her girlfriend Virginia Eduards. She popped the question in March on a trip to Broken Hill.