LAW & SOCIETY

The courtroom drama pitting Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, and her estranged children will continue playing out before the public as the New South Wales Court of Appeal has thrown out on Friday her court plea for private arbitration of the case.

It is high time for the Australian government to reconfigure its strategy in neutralising the illegal drugs trade, a new report said, which also highlighted the seeming successes that organised crime groups have achieved against legal efforts to stem their operations.

The Rinehart legal tussle rages on as two of Gina Rinehart's children continue the mudslinging that started last week, with the latest rants provided by John Langley Hancock, who accused his mother of setting off the dispute.

Dolphins and whales deserve the same rights as humans do, according to a group of marine workers, philosophers and animal welfare activists who talked to scientists meeting in Canada.

The Rena captain has pleaded guilty to all charges in Tauranga District Court today (Wednesday), the New Zealand Herald reported.

Australian consumers are forewarned of a fake telephone survey with the aim of defrauding them using their own bank accounts and other information.

A new legislation passed into Parliament focuses on supporting Australians with disability in terms of finding work. This new legislation entitled The Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Disability Support Pension Participation Reforms) Bill 2012 introduces new participation requirements for Disability Support Pension (DSP) recipients who are capable to be employed. The bill also highlighted a much flexible law that allows DSP recipients to work for at least 30 hours a week and stil...

A 50-year-old man was sent to trial at the Brisbane's Supreme Court after helping his 76-year-old friend commit suicide. Merin Nielson, received a guilty verdict for the crime..

The Philippines is once again engrossed in an unfolding political drama that could make or break President Benigno S. Aquino III’s reform agenda.

The New Zealand government told UNICEF that it will continue to educate ethnic communities to prevent forced marriages involving young women and will not make change to the country's marriage legislation.

An Iranian national who earned a permanent resident status in Canada has been sentenced to die in Iran for “spreading corruption.”

Health authorities in Auckland have proposed a smoking ban in all public outdoor areas in the city saying the move will prevent the spread of the ill effects of second hand smoke, as well as the influence among children who are likely to pick up the habit.

A Melbourne schoolgirl who was about to turn 15 years old next week had killed herself over intolerable bullying at school and online social networks. Sheniz Erkan, a Taylors Lakes Secondary College student, took her life on Monday after having suffered from schoolyard and cyberspace bullies. Her funeral is scheduled today.

Police in Germany are investigating a grade school teacher at a private school in the northern city of Lubeck for teaching his young students how to make pipe bombs and detonating it in front of them to demonstrate its force.

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics joined the feast and annual procession for a black statue of Jesus Christ in central Manila on Monday despite an alleged plot by Muslim terrorists to explode a bomb along the route of the devotees.

Police has arrested the mental patient who skipped arrest last Friday over a crime report that arrived an hour late. Convicted criminal Trent Jennings, 26, who has been held in a psychiatric facility since 2005 after he stabbed a man to death while on drugs, tied up a man and stole his car late last week.

A 52-year-old from Torrensville was arrested Tuesday night for possessing a taser disguised as a mobile phone.

The police had him over traffic violation, but he was let go. A day later, someone came forward accusing him of sexual assault and car theft.

An Iraq War veteran who shot dead a Mount Rainier park ranger on New Year's Day was found frozen to death on Monday ending a 200-men search that included a SWAT team, K-9s and helicopters.

One of three former followers of the doomsday cult that caused the sarin gas attacks in Tokyo's subway trains and stations in 1995 has surrendered to police after 17 years on the run to escape prosecution from kidnapping and murder of another member's brother.

Victoria and NSW police have arrested a father and his son suspected of stealing $6.5 million worth of cash and valuables from a safety deposit box centre and from affluent homes in Melbourne's northeastern suburbs.

Police in Afghanistan have rescued a 15-year-old girl, who had been beaten, starved and locked up in a toilet for five months by her in-laws in the northeastern Baghlan province.

An Egyptian court ordered Tuesday the military to stop conducting virginity tests on detained women protesters.

Italy's Antitrust Authority fined three Apple companies $1.18 million (900,000 euros) for misleading local consumers on warranty terms and customer assistance.

Christmas 2011 came big for an Adelaide woman following the disappointment last year when casino officials refused to honour her slot machine win, denying her the $100,000 jackpot.

Victoria's Supreme Court sentenced Thursday a 17-year-old teenager to 13 years for stabbing dead an Indian student at a park in January 2010.

Finnish authorities on Wednesday detained a British-flagged ship and its 30 all-Ukrainian crews at the Port of Kotka on suspicion of illegally transporting 69 Patriot missiles and 160 tons of explosives.

Police in NSW found and seized more than 300 kilos of a chemical used in making "ice" hidden in frames of shipping containers.

Fugitive Malcolm Naden has broken into a home in Barrington Tops, NSW for the second time while another home south in Niangala was also burglarised, but police are still investigating if he was responsible.