POLITICS & POLICY

Corruption and bribery are becoming more widespread globally, said a survey of 114,000 people across 107 countries made by Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International.

Fukushima's highly radioactive groundwater could already be spreading out to the Pacific Ocean, Japan's nuclear watchdog, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said on Wednesday.

Apart from his birthdate, July 11, 2013 could well become one of the unforgettable dates in the life of the juvenile implicated in the December 2012 gruesome gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical female student in Delhi, India. On July 11, either the juvenile goes scathe-free and resumes life as always or serves time for the next three years at a reformatory home.

More than a million of Australia's youth feel that no political party best represents their needs based on the research study of the Australia Institute. More than 800 respondents between the ages of 17 to 25 participated in the survey and 47 per cent of them believe no political party represents their best interests not even Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Australian Labor Party which also the same party vacated by former prime minister Julia Gillard.

Concerned for the waning morale of its members, not to mention how the dwindling membership numbers are affecting the organization and its varied activities, the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan's biggest crime syndicate, has published a magazine exclusive for its legion. Yep, it is not available on news or magazine stands for everyone to see.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar has a wild night. After breaking the 0.9200 range in early London, it fell to below 0.9100 at one point after the release of the FOMC minutes (around 4:00am). Then another bounce after Bernanke's Q&A session, where his comments were taken as a little more dovish that expected, has seen it back above 0.9200.

According to recent reports, Edward Snowden, ex-U. S. National Security Agency agency has not formally accepted Venezuela's offer for asylum. The White House says he should return to the U.S.

If you set your mind to something, no one can stop you, the mother told the young heroine in 'Wadjda,' the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia. Coincidental or not, those words may have also served as the filmmaker's guiding light to plan, execute and finish the movie, for it was a woman, Haifaa Al-Mansour, who actually directed the film amidst the kingdom's many stiff rules against women working in public.

Tony Burke calls for no-advantage policy over asylum seekers coming to Australia

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd backs Nova Peris as the Australian Labor Party's candidate for the Senate in the Northern Territory after local officials approached Rudd and told him the indigenous Olympian can unite the party.

According to a top Kremlin official, Edward Snowden, who leaked sensitive U.S. intelligence information has decided to accept asylum in Venezuela.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar holds ground despite International Monetary Fund's China forecast.

The Coalition is offering senior bureaucrats paid bonuses under an Abbott government. The move is seen as an effort by the Opposition to counter the strong performance of Prime Minister and Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd in the latest poll.

New Zealand shows its support to Australia's anti-whaling action against Japan by visiting Hague for the fourth consecutive time. Australia is currently in a court battle against Japan's alleged scientific whale hunting in the Southern Ocean.

Five months after the case hit the nerves of Chinese netizens, the son of a Chinese general is finally going on trial to face the gang rape allegations hurled against him and his friends.

Governor Ibrahim Gaidam has ordered the closure of all secondary schools in the Nigerian north-eastern state of Yobe, following the senseless massacre on Saturday by suspected Islamist extremists in a boarding school that killed at least 42 people, including 22 students.

Google decided to celebrate the 66th anniversary of the Roswell UFO incident in a fun way with the creation of an interactive Google Doodle. The black-and-white Google Doodle video game allows the Internet users to aid an alien search for the missing parts of his spaceship.

A U.S. consular official posted in Guyana has been sacked following allegations he had been selling visas for sex and money in what was believed to be a massive human trafficking operation. The U.S. State Department has confirmed it is now currently investigating the claims.

A confidential NSA map exposed four additional Australian sites aiding the U.S. for its spying activities

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has recovered back above USD0.9100 overnight, after a fairly quiet trading session Monday.

The recent Newspoll published Monday showed that Australian Labor Party is the preferred party over the Coalition

Cuban leader, Raul Castro has expressed his support for granting asylum to U.S Fugitive Edward Snowden, who has fled the country after exposing sensitive information about a surveillance programme.`However, he has not offered details on a safe passage or if Cuba would offer refuge to the embattled former National Security Agency contractor

Australian Labor Party leader and second-time Prime Minister Kevin Rudd continues to reap the benefit of his return to power with the latest poll as proof that he is indeed a threat to Opposition leader Tony Abbott's ambition to be Australia's 29th prime minister.

Protests from civil service employees, such as firefighters and union activists came to life after a 41 percent pay hike for MPs after Queensland acting premier Jeff Sweeney announced it a week ago.

For three days now, five Indonesians have managed to hold on for life perched atop on one of the trees in Gunung Leuser National Park located on Sumatra Island. Not that they got lost in the wilderness. The men scrambled for refuge among the tree's top branches to risk being devoured by the giant Sumatran tigers down below.

The Australian dollar decline is seen to improve manufacturing and bolster export returns as global prices for coal and iron ore continue to slump. Treasurer Chris Bowen says that despite the weakening Australian dollar, it still provides some level of support for buyers. Bowen says this is a good thing for the Australian economy.

Kiwis appeal for an immigration law change that will promote equal rights for Kiwis living in Australia

About 1,300 containers of New Zealand meat exports were again held up by Chinese customs barely two months after the Kiwi government made a mistake in the issuance of their export certification. This time the cause of the delay was China's new sudden change of rules.

President Evo Morales of Bolivia has made a move signalling that the U.S embassy in his country be shut down after an embarrassing situation when he was refused entry into European air space. The incident was brought on by suspicion that Edward Snowden, wanted by the U.S. for charges of espionage, was on board his plane.