POLITICS & POLICY

Even in times of economic well-being, nearly 600,000 or 17.3 per cent of Australia’s children continue to live in poverty, says a updated report released by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). As the new session of Parliament opens on Tuesday, the UNICEF and child rights activists called on the government to accord top priority to tacking the issue of child poverty.

Even as several other rebel groups declared their opposition to the Geneva talks on Syria, the main Western-backed Syrian National Coalition declared their conditional decision to participate in the international discussions on finding a way to end the two-and-half-year-old civil war.

Facing a major cash crunch, the United Nations agency working among Palestinian refugees has warned that its operation could come to a standstill. Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi, chief of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, has appeals to both traditional and new donors to step up support to help the agency sustain its operations.

A survivor recalls the horrific situation as typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines.

The Philippines’ delegate to the UN climate summit in Warsaw, Poland has delivered an emotional plea on Monday. Yeb Sano, the counrty’s climate change commissioner, broke down at the conference, linking the recent super typhoon tragedy that has befallen his home nation to climate change.

Filipino netizens have warned government officials to stow away their twitching palms as an influx of financial aid and other assistance from the international community poured into the country following the destruction and chaos brought by Category 5 super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda).

The Roast Busters investigation will be led by an experienced female detective, according to New Zealand authorities. Police have appointed Detective Inspector Karyn Malthus to head the newly-established body Operation Clover.

Newspoll revealed that Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s personal support decrease into the first sitting week of the 44th parliament

France has started what analysts call an ambitious new legislation - to penalise those who pay for sex. France is finally saying "non" to those who pay for sex instead of penalising prostitutes.

After looting the Gaisano Mall in Tacloban City on Saturday at the height of super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) battering central Philippines, residents are now filching fuel from a gasoline station in the city, ABS-CBN reported.

South Korea on Monday rejected North Korea's claim that it had arrested a South Korean citizen on spying charges and demanded that Pyongyang reveal the arrested man's identity. North Korea had on Thursday said that it has arrested a South Korean spy for using "dishonest elements" for a mission seeking to destabilize the country's social system. Media reports had said that the arrested man was a missionary.

The New Zealand government has to seriously make a commitment against climate change or risk tainting the country's international image, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The lack of government action on the part of New Zealand will reflect badly on the country.

Israel is making an all out effort among world powers to ensure, a deal on the nuclear issue that it considers bad, is not reached with Iran. Reports say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken to leaders from the U.S., Russian, French, German and British leaders in a attempt to convince them that the deal under discussion in Geneva is a bad deal. Israeli officials are also seeking to lobby with the U.S. Congress in a attempt to block efforts to ease sanctions against Iran.

After growing hopes that a deal on Iran’s nuclear programme seemed plausible, the talks in Geneva have ended without an agreement on convincing Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment programme in exchange for temporary relief from sanctions. Earlier, on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had cut-short his Middle East trip to attend the Geneva Conference. With Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reaching Geneva on Saturday, speculation grew that a deal with Iran might be imminent.

The Indonesian government denied Australia’s requests to send asylum seeking boat people back to Indonesia on two occasions since the launch of Operation Sovereign Borders, according to Australian government reports. Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday that his government had made four requests to Indonesia to accept asylum seekers whom the coastal patrol had found in Indonesia's search and rescue region.

The geometric expansion of the reported number of fatalities caused by super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) has alarmed Philippine President Benigno Aquino III that he has requested more prudence among media when it comes to publishing the number of dead people.

Just days after the Pakistan Prime Minister said, his government was in the process of holding talks with the Pakistani Taliban, the militant group has rejected the idea. This announcement by the Pakistani Taliban comes after its leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Nov 1. It paved the way for the election of hardline commander Mullah Fazlullah as the new leader of the group on Thursday.

Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will be losing scientists as Prime Minister Tony Abbott implements a public service jobs freeze. The country's premier science institution will lose a quarter of its researchers, scientists and staff.

The ruthless terrorist who gave the killing orders of a 14-year-old school girl and almost killed her is now the chief of Pakistan Taliban.

Navy members on board HMAS Ballarat experience anal hazing with carrots, pens and bananas

Since March 2013, news has been going around that the Obama administration was planning to shift its lethal targeted killing drone programme from the CIA to a more transparent Department of Defence (DoD). But as it turns out now, the shift of operational control has been stalled, at least for the time-being. Reports say it is not expected to happen any time soon. The reasons: operational efficiency and flexibility to carry out covert deployment.

M23 rebel group in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which at one point occupied a regional capital of Goma, have announced an end to its almost 2 years of insurgent struggle stating that they are ready to search for a political solution to the root causes which led to its creation. The end of the rebellion, however, came just hours after the government forces claimed total victory after driving the rebels from their last two strongholds.

The U.S. military and intelligence agencies directed doctors and psychologists working in U.S. military detention centres violated their ethical agreements when dealing with terror detainees. These charges have been made in a taskforce report released by the Institute on Medicine as a Profession. The independent taskforce included a panel of military, ethics, medical, public health, and legal experts.

Egypt's first freely elected President Mohamed Morsi trial on charges of incitement of violence and murder began Monday but will be adjourned until Jan. 8, 2013.

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has nothing but contempt for the "alarmist" scientific reports on global warming and climate change in a speech before an audience of climate change skeptics in London, England.

Brazil’s government on Monday admitted that its top intelligence agency spied on diplomatic targets from countries including the U.S., Iran and Russia. Brazil’s Institutional Security Cabinet, however, clarified that the spying operation conducted a decade ago, were relatively basic and “in absolute compliance” with the country’s legislation.

Japan has launched its largest 70 megawatt (MW) capable solar power plant, two years after radiation problems have gone overboard at the Fukushima power plant which was crippled by a tsunami in March 2011, following a magnitude 9 earthquake.

They might just be kids but there is no mistaking that these young children provide the most honest and truthful reactions and opinions to just about any subject matter presented to them under the sun. In the latest installment from the Kids React series, American filmmakers Benny and Rafi Fine delved on gay equality and same-sex marriage. The reactions they got from the kids were, basically, overwhelmingly positive.

Burmese opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will visit Australia from Nov 27 to Dec 2. This will be her first visit to Australia. She will attend a host of public events in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne and also hold meetings with the Burmese community in Australia.