Arlene Paredes

Rupert Murdoch is involved in another controversy, this time in his native Australia. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told Bloomberg that Murdoch’s Daily Telegraph is “running a campaign on regime change.” Mudoch’s spokesman Greg Baxter said there is no campaign against the government by News Ltd., News Corp’s Australian unit.

Simon Cowell's engagement may have been called off, Hollywood reporters are speculating. Mezghan Hussainy, has reportedly moved out of his Beverly Hills mansion. Mezghan has reportedly moved into another home also owned by Cowell in Hollywood. This other home has a reputation for being the girlfriend graveyard after Cowell’s former lover Terri Seymour moved there after they parted ways in 2008. One friend told the Daily Mirror newspaper, "It looks like history is repeating itself.”

The website of Russia’s embassy in UK crashed due to a suspected DDoS attack on the day of the UK prime minister's scheduled trip to Russia. A Russian embassy spokesman said problems with the website began on Friday night. The embassy said it had set up a "mirror" website (www.rusemborguk.ru) to give the public and media access to information and developments regarding Prime Minister David Cameron’s trip to Russia on Sunday reports said.

A tornado struck Auckland on Sunday, and the city is now bracing for more tornadoes that could strike in the next 24 hours. WeatherWatch analyst Richard Green told the New Zealand Herald the tornado was "relatively minor" compared to May's twister in Albany, which killed 37-year-old Benedict Dacayan. The intersection of Ash Street and Wairau Avenue, Avondale were the roads perceived to have sustained the worst damages. Thunderstorms had been forecast for Auckland Sunday afternoon, but n...

Samsung Electronics has reportedly teamed up with Microsoft to make a new tablet computer powered by Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 8. The new collaborative device will reportedly be showcased at Microsoft's BUILD developers' conference in California from September 13-16.

Nike has created the 2011 Nike Mag, a limited-edition pair of sneakers, which is almost the exact replica of a glowing pair of shoes in the 1989 film Back to the Future II. All proceeds of limited edition sales will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's disease research.

Marine scientists are struggling to explain a significant change in the migration pattern of whales visiting Victorian bays this year. Th Dolphin Research Institute is unsure what has caused the change in the whales' movement pattern.

Australia used to not care much about wireless connectivity using smartphones, but things are now a-changing. Aussies have beaten the mobile use of Americans in terms of applications for their mobile phones, according to this new study.

High winds on Thursday morning prompted NASA to delay its GRAIL mission to the moon. The $496-million GRAIL mission will provide a very detailed map of the moon's gravitational field, allowing them for the first time to better calculate the composition of its crust, mantle and core.

A yet-to-be-identified woman was struck by a train in Auckland Thursday. Police northern communications shift commander Matt Rogers said the train driver had given police officers his account of the accident. He also said the train passengers who witnessed the incident would receive victim support to help them recover from such a traumatic sight.

Auckland barrister Mark van Leewarden said 67 people from NZ invested and all together lost $6.7 million over a period of five years when they trusted a Hamilton man now living in Panama. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) confirmed on Wednesday it had investigated a complaint about Tony Lusby and his investment scheme, but they could not act on the Kiwis behalf.

The economy might be dark and dreary, but the designers ruling the highly anticipated New York Fashion Week are determined to flash the runways with their own bright colors of neon pinks, greens and yellows. Polished yet casual styles are also on the top list, among other surprises to be showcased to department store buyers.

The Swedish retail chain Ikea used political prisoners in East Germany as ''slave labour'' to make furniture, reports said.

HTC Corp., Asia's second-biggest maker of smartphones, on Thursday filed infringement claims against Apple Inc. using nine patents it bought from Google Inc. HTC believes it now has more ammunition in its fight to fend off multiple patent-infringement claims lodged by Apple that contend phones running Google's Android operating system copy the iPhone.

Having a snake as pet in NZ, gets jail time.

According to an exclusive Reuters report, Facebook's revenue doubled to $1.6 billion in the first half of this year, as revealed by an unidentified source who knew well about Facebook financials. With 750 million users, Facebook is a force to reckon with among social networks today. It is even believed to have caused the pressure at Yahoo, which recently fired former chief executive Carol Bartz on Tuesday.

A recent survey revealed that Australian households' fuel and power bills are only taking up the same portion from our budget as they did six years ago, while petrol spending is even lower. Household income has rose 50 per cent since 2003-04, compared to hike of prices which have increased 19 per cent. Spending grew 38 per cent.

Resourcefulness and a never-say-die attitude will be needed by many of those who are currently employed, as five thousand public service employment contracts will be terminated over the next four years in NSW. The announcement is expected to meet more protests from public sector unions, amid protest plans on Thursday to express discontent over the cuts and the government's policy of capping public sector wage rises to 2.5 per cent unless savings can be found.

Aspiring home buyers in Australia will find that buying a home in NSW has become "simply unachievable" for some, real estate experts have advised. Exemptions on stamp duty will now be restricted to newly built and "off the plan" properties only.

Qantas pilots have lost a dispute with the airline and its New Zealand subsidiary, Jetconnect.

As British parliamentary hearings on the Murdoch empire's phone hacking scandal resumed Tuesday, James Murdoch's credibility came under more doubt.

IT workers seem to be on call 24-7 these days, as individuals send work emails on gadgets like smartphones and tablets without regard for holidays and even quiet prayer time. General manager for IT outsourcing Lee Ward said employers have yet to realize the implications of heavy use of ubiquitous internet and mobile technology.

Popular retail stores are telling distributors and wholesalers to stop selling products online if they have the same in their stores, claims eBay. Responding to draft recommendations released by the Productivity Commission last month, eBay managing director (Australia and New Zealand) Deborah Sharkey alleged on Monday that certain unidentified Australian retailers had taken an anti-competitive approach to block the availability of products at online sites.

The Obesity Policy Coalition says the new mobile app called Traffic Light Food Tracker will enable users to work around the food industry's hesitation in supporting traffic light labelling. Obesity Policy Coalition spokeswoman Jane Martin says the system has been shown to improve people's eating habits.

Young entrepreneurs who dare to skip college and dive into an industry of their choice have found an ally in PayPal founder Peter Thiel, a high-flying Silicon Valley venture capitalist. Thiel disagrees with any criticism that the program encourages young people to trivialize college. He stressed that the fellows, who were chosen from over 400 applicants, showed brilliance and sheer determination.

Employers invest in training apprentices in a bid to improve human resources, but the purpose is defeated, as dropout rate is seen to cost Australia almost $12 billion in the next 10 years. NSW-commissioned modelling by Deloitte Access Economics has estimated the combined losses in NSW last year at over $180 million. Employers lost $124 million, the state government $33 million and the Commonwealth $26 million in payments and expenses.

How charming and charismatic is your boss? A study has revealed that one in 25 bosses is a psychopath but their charm and social interaction skills hide this condition.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s popularity drops to record low in an opinion survey released on Tuesday. The same Newspoll results happen to be the sixth in a row to show Opposition Leader Tony Abbott as preferred prime minister over Gillard. The latest poll results prompted Newspoll CEO Martin O'Shannessy to say Labor would lose as many as 40 seats if an election was held today.

NASA is set to change the way cargoes are transported by air. Soon, there will be airships. In terms of gas emissions, NASA's airships could be the most eco-friendly freight carrier.