POLITICS & POLICY

Pressure from the Roman Catholic spiritual pontiff to clean its coffers and get its act together had taken a toll on the 2013 profits of embattled Vatican Bank, more formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is confident Malaysia will send back the accused diplomat Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail. Although the government has not yet received any update, Mr Key assured reporters that Malaysia will comply with New Zealand's request to return Rizalman so he can face charges.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has traded overnight above .9400 as the latest local business confidence and conditions were better than expected.

The UK government has announced on Tuesday, July 8 to erect a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s “Father of Nation”, opposite the House of Parliament.

While Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott may have won crossbenchers to his side to rush the repeal of the Labor government's carbon tax, he was condemned in the international arena for his move to remove the tax.

Australia has admitted having 153 asylum seekers from Sri Lanka in custody as it plans sending them back to their home land after winning the High Court case against it.

After Australia returned a group of asylum seekers to Sri Lanka, the country has been accused of breaking international refugee convention. A group of 41 Sri Lankan asylum seekers had attempted to reach Australia by boat. The refugees' attempts to seek asylum in the country did not succeed as they were intercepted and handed over the Sri Lankan navy.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced recognition of same-sex marriage among couples at its secretariat

More than 8,000 children under the age of 18 years old had been accused of sexual offences against other children in the United Kingdom in the last two years alone, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said.

As New Zealand awaits the return of the accused Malaysian diplomat, Malaysian doctors of Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail has warned he may not be "well enough" to travel. According to reports, Rizalman has been in the hospital since July 1 and he was supposed to be released soon after his medical tests.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has issued what could be its highest alert to warn residents of Okinawa and the rest of the country to relocate to higher grounds in anticipation of massive wind damages and localized flooding brought by super typhoon Neoguri.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is sitting comfortably around the mid-high 0.93's and it will be hard to see us break out of this until the jobs numbers on Thursday.

At least three people have died, among them a newborn boy, after a strong 6.9-magnitude shook the border between Guatemala and Mexico on Monday. The temblor injured 32 others, damaged dozens of buildings, toppled down power lines as well as triggered landslides.

The newbie senator of the Australian Parliament, Jacqui Lambie from the Palmer United Party, finally met on Monday the man she just described as a psychotic politician, Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's Direct Action policy may be more expensive than buying carbon permits. Australia's Climate Change Authority has advised the Abbott government that it would be "cheaper" to achieve the country's carbon emissions reduction target by purchasing permits overseas as part of climate change policy.

U.S. President Barack Obama is gay and his wife Michelle is a transgender, according to Joan Rivers.

Residents of Japan's Okinawa are being advised to take all necessary precautions as Neoguri has strengthened to become the world's first super typhoon of 2014.

Crews of power supply utility firms on Monday are racing to restore electricity to more than 250,000 homes and businesses groping in the dark in Atlantic Canada after tropical storm Arthur lashed through the area on Saturday morning.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar opens this morning little changed from Friday's levels as trading was very quiet due to the US Independence Day holiday.

New Zealand's booming economy has attracted more migrants to the country. It also gave citizens overseas to return home. As a result, the country is currently experiencing its strongest influx of immigrants in more than 10 years.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott believes his government's budget reforms will "ultimately" pass the Senate but admits he may encounter difficulties ahead. He said the budget will be approved since there is "no credible alternative" for controlled spending.

At least three people remain trapped when a gold mine in southern Honduras caved-in on Wednesday. Eight have been successfully rescued.

Regulatory controls laid down by the Chinese government on gold financial deals will mostly curb the country's imports of the yellow metal, a consultant told Reuters on Thursday.

U.S. President Barack Obama, the 44th president of his country, has been voted as the worst first citizen of the country since the World War II.

Climate change action is at risk of not being a priority in the G20 agenda as Australia "sees little consensus" among the group of leading economies. According to senior official Heather Smith, who is also the personal representative of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said G20 countries have yet to agree on taking major new steps to address climate change.

Before then Prime Minister Julia Gillard stepped down from power, she accused former Opposition leader Tony Abbott a misogynist. Now the PM, Mr Abbott was called by an incoming senator, Jacqui Lambie, a political psychopath.

The New Zealand government welcomed the decision of Malaysia to send back the diplomat accused of sexual assault. According to the Malaysian authorities, it would allow Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail to "cooperate fully and assist" authorities in New Zealand.

June has become the deadliest month in Iraq with 2, 400 death recorded according to the United Nations

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has retreated from the 0.9500 level of yesterday after a poorer than expected trade deficit figure pushed our local currency down.