LAW

The parliament of New Zealand on Wednesday has modernized its royal succession law, thus finally allowing a Queen to become the country's head of state.

An Iranian woman was banned from having her scholarship due to WMD link allegations

Israel demands help from Australia against Iran's nuclear programme

To reduce harm caused by alcohol, New Zealand's drinking laws were recently amended, and the tougher regulations take effect next week. Introduced under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012, the changes aim to alter the drinking culture in the country by responsible sale and supply of alcohol.

Australian activist Trenton Oldfield, who disrupted the Oxford vs. Cambridge boat race in 2012, avoids UK deportation after he told the tribunal that he shouldn't be allowed to return to Australia since it's a "particularly racist country."

Aron Ralston has escaped assault charges. The hiker who inspired the film “127 Hours” was arrested on assault and “wrongs to minors” charges on Sunday, but the charges against him have now been dropped.

Hiker Aron Ralston, the inspiration behind the James Franco-starrer “127 Hours,” has been arrested on charges of domestic violence. The 38-year-old motivational speaker, who cut his own arm with a pocket knife in 2003 when he was trapped inside a Utah canyon, is facing one count of assault and one count of “wrongs to minors.”

The Royal Commission continues with its examination about “Towards Healing”, a sexual abuse case by the Church in 1996

German President Joachim Gauck flatly announced on Sunday he will not be attending the Sochi Winter Olympics scheduled on February 2014 in Russia. This makes the German leader the first ever major political figure to snub the event.

Warren James Ross accused of murdering two-year-old Tanilla Warrick-Deaves was declared guilty by a jury in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon. The jury handed down its verdict in the Supreme Court in Sydney after a day-and-a-half of deliberations. In its ruling the jury said that the 30-year-old Mr Ross had relentlessly beaten the two-year-old girl, daughter of his then-girlfriend Donna Deaves, at her Watanobbi home on the NSW central coast in August 2011, leading to her death.

Seeking nullification of its 2006 treaty with Australia dividing undersea oil and gas reserves, East Timor has approached the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, Netherlands where proceedings began Thursday, to set up the procedural guidelines for the dispute arbitration, which experts believe could last almost a year.

Nigella Lawson has been forced to be put on the stand and shed light to the reported drug use as implicated in an email sent to her by ex-husband, Charles Saatchi. The email was used as a court document for the fraud case now on trial against the celebrity couple’s personal assistants - the Grillo sisters.

Labor on Thursday, charged the government on failing to uphold its promise to bring "discipline and focus" in the targeted military operation for managing the refugee issue, after reports emerged that around 28 Rohingya asylum seekers spent three days at Christmas Island beach unnoticed.

The police in Japan have arrested a 44-year-old woman in Sakai near Osaka and charged her for fraudulently obstructing their work, after she made more than 15,000 emergency calls over a period of six months. The police who ruled out a case of mental illness suspect the woman may have been suffering from loneliness.

After a battle to a vicious lung infection, anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95.

Authorities in Mexico, on Wednesday, recovered the truck which was carrying dangerous radioactive isotopes and was reported stolen near Mexico City. The radioactive material laden truck was found after two days of search.

Reports say one person was stabbed to death and two other injured in a mosque at Dallas in northern Melbourne when a group of elderly men objected to a 22-year-old man trying to get inside the Broadmeadows Turkish Islamic Cultural Centre, where the elderly men and women were meeting.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has recruited a retired brigadier to oversee his government's crackdown on criminal bikie gangs in the state. Media reports say that the retired brigadier Bill Mellor, a former infantry platoon commander and army helicopter pilot, who is known for taking on violent warlords in Somalia in the 1990s, will now head the Queensland government crack team against the notrious bikie gangs.

Nigella Lawson confides to the British court that her ex-husband Charles Saatchi threatens to destroy her reputation through her admitted drug use.

Aussie Lovers were charged 40-year sentence in the U.S. for exploiting a baby boy

A former participant of the Ukranian “The X Factor” has reportedly been subjected to humiliation and torture by a Russian anti-gay and Neo Nazi group. Alexander Bohun claims that he was physically abused by the extremist gang Occupy Paedophilia. An edited video of the said abuse has been posted online.

Australian authorities are investigating whether a Chinese postdoctoral student who recently worked at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation laboratory in Melbourne actually accessed unauthorized sensitive data at the Organisation's nanotechnology laboratory. The laboratory works closely with Australia's Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

Secret service agents from the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) raided the homes of a lawyer and a former spy of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) in Canberra after it was revealed that they intended to approach an international court in The Hague, backing East Timor’s case that Australia had bugged the East Timorese Cabinet ahead of the sensitive oil and gas revenue-sharing negotiations between both countries.

The Sydney police have charged a 58-year-old man for filming women having sex without their consent and uploading the videos online. In a related case, Newcastle authorities nabbed an 82-year-old man over some alleged historical sex offenses.

MP Craig Thomson used the alias Jeff Thomson to order escort services using Health Services Union funds

The Commonwealth cannot stop the first ever same-sex marriage happening on Saturday

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, on Tuesday, vowed to adopt measure to circumvent the Senate block on the government's proposed temporary protection visa (TPV). Reacting to Senate disallowance of the measure, he, however, did not specify what measure the government intended to adopt.

Alabama suffered a stunning 34-to-28 defeat against bitter rivals Auburn on Saturday. It was so stunning and so bitter that one Alabama fan killed a friend over the result in a horrible fatal shooting incident in Hoover, Alabama.

ICAC commenced hearing on Murray Kear’s alleged corrupt conduct.