POLITICS & POLICY

Canada may have been ranked as the 14th globally competitive economy by the World Economic Forum (WEF), but Canadians aren't happy about it. For one, it just maintained status quo from last year. Moreover, the government hardly spends on research and development.

The TV ad of Getup has been banned in local networks because it criticises media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The activist group has lodged a complaint with the consumer watchdog Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for the refusal of Channels 7, 9, and 10 to play its advertisement on air.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has extended its rally, and maybe heading toward USD 0.9200 after GDP data showed local economic growth was solid in the June quarter.

Appearing in ABC 1’s "Kitchen Cabinet" show, Tony Abbott shares that all is well between him and Julia Gillard.

With President Barack Obama on Wednesday gaining a vote of support over his bid for military action against Syria, should the world already cower and start digging underground hideouts in preparation for the apocalyptic doomsday WW3?

Quebec’s proposed ban on religious headwear faced another opposition when one of the major teachers’ unions has publicly expressed its views on the issue.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called John Kerry a liar

Data released based on a Freedom of Information request disclosed that over 300,000 attempts were made in 2012 from the British Parliament, particularly the House of Commons, to access pornographic Web sites.

Amid widespread speculation among Filipinos that detained pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles is laying the groundwork for hospital detention with her recent bouts of hypertension and anxiety attack, her lawyer, Lorna Kapunan, assured that her client won't join the notorious St Luke's gang.

Kim Dotcom seems to have a few more surprises up his sleeves. After his tweet about plans to launch a political party in New Zealand - a leak which he attributed to “whistleblower”- picked up storm, it is now known that he quit as director of Mega, the cloud hosting service that he launched with much fanfare in Jan 2013, after his previous file sharing venture Megaupload was shut down in a U.S. driven operation, following allegations of mass copyright infringement and money laundering.

Activists on the Freedom Flotilla, set for an unauthorised landfall on the Indonesian territory of West Papua, arrived at Thursday Island in the Torres Strait on Tuesday. As they plan the last leg of their protest journey, organisers said, international support for the movement for West Papua self-determination was growing.

Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) found a $266 a week overall difference between what men and women in full-time work earn. Calculations show that takes 64 extra days of work for the average woman to equal what a man earns in a year. In its latest workplace survey figures, WGEA shows that, the gap between what men and women earn is widening in the country, increasing from 15% in 2004 to 17.5% over the last year.

Controversial Internet entrepreneur, founder of Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, has announced plans to launch a new political party in New Zealand. Tweeting that it was in early stages of formation, he said the new party will contest elections next year in New Zealand.

President Barack Obama has been successful in winning support from key political figures in the U.S. including Eric Cantor and John Boehner.

Crisis-stricken Japan, which has yet to gain a definite hold on how to arrest the radiation problems of a nuclear plant downed by an earthquake two years ago, has again been shaken by a strong 6.9 magnitude quake on Wednesday.

In news that would come as a major relief for Lockheed Martin Corp., the U.S. based manufacturer of fighter aircrafts, Australia’s opposition coalition seems inclined toward the government’s defence procurement plan to buy dozens of new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets. However, another report says, that the Opposition’s commitment is not absolute.

Syrian-Australian families revealed threats from Assad spies in Australia

Unless the world gets it act together to counter the worsening global climate change, it won't be long before it sees the total wipe out of the oceans' coral reefs.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne joins the list of Canadian political leaders who are against the proposed ban on religious headwear for public servants.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar rose to a two-week high after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept the cash rate unchanged and issued a neutral statement on the chance of further cuts.

A Florida family just couldn't believe when Lady Luck smiled her big smile on them on Sept 1 when they discovered a trove of gold that could be worth more than $300,000 in a sunken ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

At least three earthquakes struck Canada's Vancouver Island on Tuesday, with the largest measured at magnitude 6 on the Richter scale, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The other two aftershocks which came within 20 minutes of each other measured 4.5 and 4.9, according to Natural Resources Canada. No tsunami warnings were issued following the three shakers.

As U.S. President Barack Obama continued to rally on giving justification to the importance and necessity of a military strike against Syria, the American people have likewise let out their collective voice be heard against the punitive action.

The Julia Gillard vs. Kevin Rudd battle is still ongoing way pass the June turnover of prime ministership.

With elections around the corner, Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke claimed a major policy success in bringing down, for the first time, the number of asylum seekers. Burke claimed that, after the implementation of the “PNG solution,” there was a visible decline in the number of asylum seekers arriving on Christmas Island within a month.

Losing a child due to horrific circumstances is painful enough. What makes it doubly painful is when parents cannot pursue the alleged killer all because the suspect was also a child himself.

An attack on Syria regardless of with or without parliamentary support but without the necessary backing of the United Nations is already a prelude to doomsday WW3, Noam Chomsky, an anti-war activist and author said on Monday.

Beijing on Monday has laid down a new set of schemes meant to reduce its pollution emissions, as the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) commence issuing forecasts for air pollution conditions around the country.

New Zealand and Australia have been asked by the U.S. to pledge support for its potential military strike against Syria. Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has yet to make a decision and give his commitment on the matter.