POLITICS & POLICY

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) on Monday said it will tender before the federal government's review of workplace laws a plea lobbying for Aussie employees to be given the right and access to more flexible working hours.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar's strong run of late has moderated after a decline in commodity prices on Friday and some modestly disappointing figures from the US.

Displaying her steely will that earned her the tag Iron Lady, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is still in apparent control over her funeral. The baroness left details on how her final send-off would be as early as eight years ago.

A classified Defense Intelligence Agency report described in testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday reveals that "North Korea now has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles."

It was a party of mixed reactions when Woodside Petroleum announced on Friday morning it is no longer pursuing its planned $40 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the Kimberley region.

Off-duty Pasadena Fire Captain/Paramedic Art Hurtado was just going through his normal Wednesday life until an unnamed man publicly sawed-off his arms inside the Home Depot store in West Covina, Los Angeles. The courageous paramedic did the best he can to save the injured man.

A truck has collided into the Perth-Kalgoorlie pipeline early Friday morning, rendering damages of at least $100,000 to the water line. But the management of the water line assured residents there won't be any disruption to the supply of water.

In a show of alliance rarely seen in any global front, the labour union movement at Australia's NSW has joined forces with the state's local business groups to support the creation of what could be Sydney's second airport at Badgerys Creek Rd.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced on Friday during a visit to Macquarie Fields in Sydney the availability of $40 million new grants intended to fund youth outreach and intervention programmes.

Rehtaeh Parsons, the 17-year-old Canadian victim of rape and cyberbullying commits suicide after her classmates exposed the images of the gang rape incident on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. The tragic death news created an internet outrage with most users blaming the harsh society as the reason why Rehtaeh Parsons took her own life.

Australian police have busted a drug ring network, capturing at least 90 people, during an inter-state operation that covered south-east Queensland.

The number of unemployed Australians has contradicted surprise previous gains as the latest figures showed the March jobless rate figure jumped to 5.6 per cent. It was the country's highest in 3½ years.

After the Mardi Gras organisers and the gay community campaigned to keep it permanent, the iconic rainbow crossing on Oxford Street at Sydney has been eventually ripped off.

India's federal government is planning to commission at least four studies to aid the country achieve its carbon emission reduction cuts as a prelude to the new global climate agreement expected to be signed in 2015.

Tropical Cyclone Victoria, in just an overnight, has morphed into a Category Three system, as it further packed in strength off the north-west coast of Western Australia.

Even if the Australian federal government launched on Tuesday its first national space policy, the country would neither send astronauts to Mars or other celestial destinations.

At Baroness Margaret Thatcher's funeral next week, some spotlight would be placed on her two adult children, who had always stayed away from the limelight most of the time when their mother served as prime minister from 1979 to 1990.

Charges of bribery and illegal entry await the 12 Chinese fishers on board a fishing vessel that ran aground in the Philippines' Tubbataha Reef Natural Park, the latest mishap in a span of just two months, even as park rangers admitted its monitoring radar was off at the time of the accident.

If you’re a parent currently dealing with toddlers, you must check out a 3-day-old blog that has gone viral for its funny and thought-provoking content: “Reasons My Son Is Crying.” The viral parenting blog shows a lot of crying moments from one little man in a series of funny photos (or at least the blog author meant it to be funny).

The Coalition in Australia released on Tuesday its broadband policy which would cost Aussie taxpayers less at A$29 billion. It would replace the fiber-to-the-premises (Fttp) deployment used by the current National Broadband Network (NBN) to a fibre-to-the-node (FttN) network.

Despite being Britain's former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher would not get a state funeral next week. Instead, she will be given a royal and military funeral, Downing Street announced on Tuesday.

Just when the Philippines thought the worst is over yet for its endangered Tubbataha Reef, it faced yet another unfortunate incident on Monday night when a Chinese fishing vessel ran aground in the treasured marine sanctuary.

Britain and the world are mourning the loss of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died Monday morning at the age of 87. Her children, Mark and Carol Thatcher, said the former PM died of stroke.

Australia, known as having some of the best scientists and research infrastructure in the world, has unfortunately lagged behind, or so it seems. Latest data released by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) showed the number of clinical trials that Australia undertakes has fallen for the fourth consecutive time in five years.

Local police in Olongapo City, a province in northern Philippines, are doing round-the-clock investigation work to gather evidence that could point to the motive of the death of an Australian beach resort general manager who was killed at gunpoint to his temple on Friday night.

Australia and Japan have finally reached an agreement on how to go about the exchange of their respective agricultural products as negotiations for a bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries continued.

The Australian Dollar tumbled one US Cent on Friday night in an interesting end to the week as base metals prices fell lower, as markets became concerned about the pace of global growth.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of Malaysia has created a committee body to monitor the rare earths processing facility of Australian miner Lynas Corporation in line with the latter's compliance to the 31 recommendations with regards to its temporary operating license (TOL).

China's Shenzhen, a Special Economic Zone, will start its carbon emissions trading on June 17, its Mayor Qin Xu said in an interview with a local newspaper.