Erik Pineda

What initially looked as a chance to enhance her martial arts skill turned into a personal tragedy for New Zealander Mary Elizabeth Jones, who was lured via Facebook to travel to the Philippines where she was robbed and sexually abused.

Sex business may be good business but Sydney thinks otherwise as the City Council dumped on Tuesday night proposals to expand the Stiletto bordello at Camperdown, which is located west of the inner city.

It appears that the joke failed to hit the mark as critics raised howl and accused ABC of breaching the limits of decency and propriety when its show ‘At Home with Julia’ depicted Prime Minister Julia Gillard in a steamy scene and draped with the Australian flag.

If anyone is most excited for the much-awaited launch of Apple’s iPhone 5, it should be none other than Samsung Electronics, which reportedly plans to block the sale of the smartphone on its own turf, South Korea.

Scarlett Johansson, or more correctly her nude images leaked last week on the cyber world, spurred unprecedented spikes on web searches apparently trying to find and gaze at the Hollywood star in all her glory, according to reports furnished by Google Insight.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd was in New York dispensing his regular job as the country’s key representative to the United Nations General Assembly when he was briefly held on Monday by U.S. Customs officials for allegedly possessing a suspicious item.

As rival telcos unveiled their new broadband pricing schemes, giant Telstra Corporation revealed on Monday new offerings that it hopes would continue to lure customers amidst the approaching roll out of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

As major Australian retailers absorb the ongoing crunch in the sector, players also point the blame on rent fees that further sap away the measly margin, if any, they were able to make.

There is a billion-dollar economy in Australia that is both underrated and underpaid, as far as the mainstream live acts realm is concerned, according to a new study commissioned by a group representing the local music industry.

Unable to market in full swing its line of Galaxy tablet computers due to global legal disputes with giant tech firm Apple, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics asked Australian and German courts to invalidate an earlier ruling from a German court that prevents the consumer electronic maker to sell its new products internationally.

Considerable leeway on the part of the Labor-led federal government, especially on questions of human rights protection for asylum seekers, will prompt the Coalition to sit down with Prime Minister Julia Gillard in hopes of forging a workable deal on Australia’s migration policy.

Unknown to many Australians, the country hosts a communication hub that its close military ally, the United States, has been using as an intelligence gathering post that intercepted information during the height of the Cold War era.

Despite the sinking popularity of Prime Minister Julia Gillard, her long-time partner, Tim Mathieson, appears puzzled by the barrage of criticisms thrown in the way of the beleaguered Labor stalwart, especially those coming from women.

In the age of individual empowerment, collectivism is sadly on the decline and so is the Australian Labor Party, especially if it fails to heed the writings on the wall and implement the necessary changes.

Opting to divert some of the spotlight trained on him over the sex scandal exposed earlier this week at the Australian Parliament, Adelaide vicar-general, Monsignor David Cappo, quit his post as head of the Mental Health Commission.

The Falcon is on the slide, in terms of overall sales since last year, according to Ford Australia but the carmaker remains optimistic that the setbacks it incurred in the local market during the past few quarters would be reversed by the entry of its newly-overhauled flagship sedan.

Gina Hancock Rinehart, head of Hancock Prospecting and currently the richest person in Australia, won the approval of the court to settle the legal disputes with her children in private.

Good news for Australians whose gender do not fall on the conventional male and female category, new passport guidelines approved by the federal government will now allow them to simply use the letter ‘X’.

Closer military cooperation will mark the new Australia New Zealand United States (ANZUS) military pact between the Aussies and the Americans and possibly a state visit from U.S. President Barack Obama later this year, according to officials of both nations.

Microsoft has expressed optimism on Wednesday that despite the worldwide slide on sales of personal computers, Windows will remain relevant in the tech world that has largely been transformed by mobile computing.

The Australian collar bomb suspect detained by authorities in the United States on August appears to be headed home much sooner.

Twenty hours after gunfire and explosions rocked the Afghan capital on Tuesday, government security forces declared the stand-off officially over as the last of the Taliban insurgents was killed, according to statements issued by authorities.

Giant internet company Google showed its resolve of finalising its purchase of Motorola Mobility when it raised by 33 percent to $12.5 billion its original bid of taking over the American firm largely credited for inventing the first mobile phone.

Australia will have no use of the carbon pricing scheme that Prime Minister Julia Gillard had introduced to the Parliament on Tuesday, according to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who claimed that the proposal would even increase local carbon emissions.

Australian consumers have regained their positive outlook in the present month, thanks much to the steady cash rate benchmark being implemented by the central bank in the past quarters plus the economic recovery posted at the close of the first half of the current year.

Coca-Cola Amatil has expressed plans to launch a legal action against the upcoming Northern Territory recycling initiative that would provide a $0.10 incentive for every plastic bottle returned to a beverage manufacturer.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd’s globetrotting ways in the past nine months have racked up a travelling cost of more than $1 million, which so far exceeded the expenditures posted by his more high-profile counterpart, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Australia’s growing economic relationship with Asian markets, specifically with China and India, fuelled the country’s fifth trade surplus in July, which economists described as both steady but mostly insignificant movement.

Weak signals emitted by the general condition in Australia’s retail industry did not prevent key players from achieving higher margins in fiscal year 2011 and the good news is, better quarters are ahead for the sector, according to a new study.