POLITICS & POLICY

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.

China's desire to curb the country's production of air pollution and clean the environment will be beneficial to many of its gas distributors. China Gas Holdings Ltd, the country's biggest distributor by a number of networks, said China's reduced coal consumption plan will help boost earnings by 2020 to about five-fold over the current figures.

Hyman Minsky was an economist who pioneered analysis of debt bubbles. Charles Ponzi was an Italian businessman turned con-artist in the US. Barack Obama is a 'community organiser', also turned con artist in the US. The US debt ceiling debacle is the story of what you get when all three go into the opium business together...

U.S. banking giant JP Morgan Chase will reportedly pay $13 billion to end federal and state investigations into mortgage-backed securities it sold before the financial crisis, marking the largest civil penalty ever levied onto a U.S. company and wiping out more than half of the bank's 2012 profits.

If you thought Fortescue Metals Twiggy Forrest's bank account could fill up fast, check out the People's Bank of China. Data revealed this week that China's foreign exchange reserves increased $US160 billion to hit US$3.7 trillion. That's some serious money.

More than 100 people residing in Edmonton in Canada's rural area of Alberta have been forced to evacuate after 13 cars owned by the Canadian National Railway Co (CNR) derailed on early Saturday morning. No injuries were reported. Two cars, which form part of a trainload carrying crude and liquefied petroleum gas, remain on fire.

The number of billionaires from Canada has grown by 33 per cent from a decade ago, according to the latest global wealth report by Credit Suisse. Retaining this number, however, is an altogether different story for the country.

Mapping Social Cohesion report reveals that Aussies racism is higher within the past seven years; Immigration minister Scott Morrison wants asylum seekers to be called as “illegal”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada reports that Canadian immigration programmes reached a record high in 2012.