Reissa Su

Opposition Leader and aspiring Prime Minister Tony Abbott is once again on the receiving end of social media flak as he highlighted Liberal candidate Fiona Scott's "sex appeal" as he spoke about her credentials for the upcoming election on September 7.

A video of a motorbiker from New Zealand and an angry ram has gone viral. The video showed a motorcyclist who fell from his bike after a bad-tempered ram bumped into him after the animal did not allow him to pass the dirt road.

Hardly anyone is safe from Internet scams these days as New Zealanders have lost money amounting to more than $4.4 million to online fraud. According to 2012 data provided by Netsafe, cyber criminals have become more determined and organised to dupe more people as much as possible to give up their hard-earned money.

With man's never-ending fascination with travelling into outer space, one company has found an interesting albeit morbid way to make space travel possible for less than $2,000. New start-up company Elysium Space is currently accepting orders to send a person's cremated remains or ashes into orbit. Dubbed by the company as a "memorial spaceflight", the first space burial will be launched from Cape Canaveral in the U.S. state of Florida.

The New Zealand government is bent on passing an almost forgotten bill through Parliament to expedite the government's inquiry into Fonterra's milk contamination scare. The move to fast-track the Fonterra investigation involving food safety practices follows after three other inquiries on the same botulism scare incident which led other countries like China to issue a temporary ban on some of New Zealand's dairy products that left the nation losing out on millions of dollars in export r...

Aspiring Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott was accused of buying thousands of followers on popular social media site, Twitter. Since June 18, the Coalition’s bet for Prime Minister of Australia in the coming September 7 elections received a 50 percent increase in the number of Twitter followers. Meanwhile, Tony Abbott attracted the attention of world media as the election campaign in Australia heats up. In a meeting with the conservative party supporters, the Oppositi...

Google's Project Loon moves on to the next phase of its testing with Google planning on testing the project in California. Project Loon is the company's grand plan to bring the Internet to as many people as possible with the help of balloons. Google first started testing its giant balloons equipped with network and communications equipment in New Zealand. Google began testing Project Loon in the Central Valley of California.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has announced that a representative from China would be allowed to witness the government investigation regarding Fonterra's milk scare causing China and other countries to issue an import ban on dairy products from the country. The Prime Minister said the terms of the investigation including its duration and other details have yet to be finalized. Mr. Key wanted to finish the inquiry before he will leave for China. He said he needs to have answers so he c...

Stephanie Banister, dubbed as the "Sarah Palin of Australia", has dropped out of the election race on August 10 after committing several interview blunders and calling Islam a country. Australia's Sarah Palin apologised to her party mates, family and friends for any embarrassment the video has brought them.

The Leaders Debate covered by television networks in Australia last August 11 was not the typical debate as expected but a joint news conference. Australian Labor Party's Kevin Rudd and the Coalition's Tony Abbott did not go head-to-head with heated arguments and the kind of verbal battles witnessed by viewers in a usual debate.

According to a Chinese news report from Da Lian Everything News, a Chinese woman has sustained eye injuries after her iPhone 5 exploded while she was talking to someone on her phone. The woman in China allegedly felt the screen of the iOS device getting warm after holding her iPhone 5 close to her ear for about 40 minutes. After several attempts to end the call by repeatedly tapping on the screen, the iPhone 5 eventually exploded.

If history will repeat itself, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd may have the advantage over Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in the upcoming first leaders' debate of the election campaign scheduled on August 11. Based on historical records, Australian voters have rated leaders from the Australian Labor Party higher than Liberal leaders in most election debates with television coverage for the past 30 years.

Former prime minister of Australia Julia Gillard exchanged her working-class Altona home for an Adelaide beachside bungalow worth $2 million. Ms. Gillard, who was ousted by Kevin Rudd for the Australian Labor party leadership, and partner, Tim Mathieson, are believed to have purchased a four-bedroom, three-bathroom bungalow with a solar and gas-heated Freedom Pool complete with swim jets and starting block.

New Zealand teenagers were warned against the strange eyeball-licking craze that’s popular among Japanese youth. Oculolinctus, or popularly known as “worming” is licking the eyeballs of another individual. It is a fetish practice among Japanese teenagers who are using eyeball-licking as a sign of affection between couples.

According to the bi-annual report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, one in every four households lives on social security payments. The annual cost of welfare has increased to $119 billion, equivalent to $1,300 for every person including children. Latest welfare data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare revealed that 13 per cent of the population lives in poverty with no means of income in 11.6 per cent of families. Households living in poverty meant having an a...

Stephanie Banister, dubbed as "Australia's Sarah Palin" for vying a spot in the Parliament of Australia has drawn online flak for giving surprisingly inaccurate facts about Islam. Ms. Banister is a candidate for a Brisbane seat of Rankin under the right-wing One Nation party. Despite her desire to run for public office, this election might not turn out to be a happy ending for her. Ms. Banister has been charged for sticking labels on Nestle products in a Brisbane store. The alleged st...

A 40-year-old woman in Spain gave birth to a 6.2-kilogramme baby without needing a Ceasarian-section. UK-born Maxime Marin delivered the biggest baby ever born naturally in Spain at 4:43 am local time on Aug 7 in the Hospital Marina Salud in the city of Denia.

Australia's largest phone company, Telstra Corp,, beat analyst expectations with a surge in profits due to the increasing number of users for its 4G network. The growth boosted Telstra's share in the mobile phone market to almost 50 per cent.Telstra's net income rose to 12 per cent at $AU3.8 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30 compared to $AU3.41 billion twelve months earlier. The Melbourne-based company released its latest financial data in a statement on August 8. The pos....

The spotlight is on the New Zealand dollar as the country's largest dairy exporter was hit by a botulism scare which caused a slump in the Kiwi dollar earlier this week. As New Zealand's premier brand Fonterra was hit by import restrictions of products in China and other countries, the Kiwi dollar had a rare break from its strong momentum and plunged to its year low.

New Zealand’s failure in key environmental areas was announced in a high-level conference during a time when the nation’s 100 per cent pure brand is under international media scrutiny. Insights were given regarding New Zealand’s climate, energy efficiency and waterways were given in the recent Environmental Defence Society’s national conference.

The Australian High Court has rejected the challenge of the mining tax's validity led by Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals. Aside from raising negligible revenue, the imposition of the minerals resource rent tax has upset miners who argued that they are already paying royalties to state governments, including income tax to the federal government.

Scientists have found proof that the lack of sleep can cause changes in brain activity to lead people into thinking they feel hungry and crave junk food. For years, researchers have identified a correlation between the sharp rise of obesity in developed nations and a decline in sleeping times. Although a causal link was suspected, scientists have not yet explained the mechanism until this study came out.

The Australian business community has welcomed the news of Tony Abbott's $5 billion company tax cut under the Coalition government. However, like everybody else, companies wonder where will Tony Abbott get the money?

The Reserve Bank of Australia's recent rate cut may have unintended economic effects although the move was spurred with the intention of helping the Australian economy cope with the fading mining boom. Recent history has shown proof that central bank actions can lead to dire consequences. Economists fear a looming housing bubble.

A new bill in New Zealand will target gang members wearing patches or official insignia in public places like swimming pools and schools. Those who are found to be wearing gang patches will risk arrest or fines. The bill seeks to finally stamp out cases of gang intimidation.

As previously expected, international dairy prices dropped at the first GlobalDairyTrade auction after Fonterra's botulism scare that resulted in China declaring an import ban on some of the company's milk products.

A state-run news agency in China has not stopped in delivering sharp attacks about New Zealand in the wake of Fonterra's botulism scare. The Chinese news agency called New Zealand's 100 per cent pure Pure campaign to boost tourism, a "festering sore". The agency also declared that homes in New Zealand were leaky, damp and uninhabitable because of free market ideology.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates to a record low of 2.5 per cent during its board meeting for the month of August. The latest interest rate cut is the first since the Reserve Bank has declared a 25-point cut in May 2013 when the Australian dollar was above parity with the U.S. dollar. This is also the second time interest rates have been cut in an ongoing election campaign.

IT outsourcing firm Infosys has been accused of discrimination against "stupid Americans" and is currently facing a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by VMware specialist Brenda Koehler in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Wisconsin who claimed that Infosys has been abusing the visa system and actively discriminates against hiring American workers for staff positions.