POLITICS & POLICY

Workers employed as maids and domestic help in Saudi Arabia may now get a day's off from weekly work, following the passage of a new law by the kingdom's Council of Ministers this week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the U.S. of trapping intelligence whistleblower, Edward Snowden Russia, saying that he is free to go where he wants as soon as he is able to do so.

Labour MP Maryan Street is under pressure to withdraw support for a bill legalising euthanasia. The euthanasia bill is cause for concern for her political party members who think it will only be a distraction in the 2014 elections.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is set to crack down on wealthy Australians with lifestyle assets as part of its focus for the taxable year ahead. Entrepreneurs and private citizens with yachts and property farms that belong to private corporations but are being enjoyed for personal use will be the target of ATO.

A Chinese man convicted in 2011 of fraud and illegal fund-raising activities had been executed on Friday, and his family was the last to know about it. Although the family could only shrug, no matter how painful it was not to have seen their loved one for the last time, Chinese nationals nonetheless questioned the rather merciless and inhumane final gesture.

Authorities in China have ordered the closure of a museum in Jizhou, a city in the northern province of Hebei, after it was discovered that most of its exhibits on display were fake, counterfeit or knock-off items. Its license had likewise been revoked.

Six years ago, a girl named Talia Castellano was diagnosed with cancer and interest in makeup helped in distracting her from the ailment. Unfortunately, the 13-year-old bubbly girl who became a YouTube sensation as a makeup guru lost the battle with cancer and passed away on July 16 with family and friends surrounding her.

An anti-corruption case became all the more controversial with Porn CD’s revealed

Bell FX Currency Outlook: It was a quiet night offshore ahead of Mr. Ben Bernanke's testimony tonight.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd engaged in a vexing rendezvous with Premier Campbell Newman

The Australian Labor Party's advertising agency has been sacked by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for offering "exclusive" interviews in exchange for pro-Labor advertisements and editorials in websites for the youth.

In the wake of four deaths in the Christmas Island boat capsizing, federal government officials are pointing fingers on asylum seekers policy

The move comes after newly elected Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s visit to Indonesia in early July. He has warned critics not to expect progress on the asylum boat issue since he was seeking to form a strong trade and business relationship with the largest Muslim country in the world.

Gay couples in England and Wales could now be probably rushing to work on the details of their respective marriage ceremonies to become the first newly wedded gay couple in Britain. On Monday, the House of Lords, the country's upper chamber of parliament, passed the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Bill.

Shoppers almost always jump with glee the instant they learn their favorite shopping store or boutique has WiFi. But did you know that this in-store privilege is actually already stalking, err, tracking you?

Australian Labor Party members were showing doubts on party leader and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

Since Kevin Rudd's return as prime minister of Australia last month, the number of women who supports the Australian Labor Party has soared to 38 per cent, up 4 points. Rudd gains the approval of more women over the way he does his job as prime minister compared to Ms. Gillard.

With a number of cabinet appointments made by the interim government, there is a strong feeling that former President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood will be left out of the new government.Many Egyptians feel that alienating the conservative group would result in a cyclical process that would lead to more violence in the future.

Personnel working for South Korea's defence ministry have been ordered to paralyse the video and audio recording options from their respective smartphones in a bid to thwart possible leakages of insider military conversations and information to the outside public.

China's labour camps and its apparent systems and necessity are now put in the spotlight. A high court in the central Chinese province of Hunan has ordered authorities behind the labour camp system in Yongzhou to pay Tang Hui a total of $430 for sending her to labour camp in a bid to silence her following her protests against her daughter's rapists.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar was slightly stronger overnight following the release of weak retail sales figures in the US.

Jessica Rudd, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s eldest child and only daughter, has said that the Australian Parliament House is like the bitchy high school girls from the Lindsay Lohan-starrer teen comedy Mean Girls.

The clickety clack of typewriters - a sound unknown to today's generation who grew up on PCs, laptops and now tablets - will soon be heard again. At least in Kremlin as a precautionary measure against Wikileaks and government workers like Edward Snowden who spill the beans.

An Indian young man, presumably bitter for not being able to carry on his rape plans against the girl object of his desire, had set her on fire instead with kerosene over the weekend. But apparently, there is more than meets the eye to the tragic incident. The family of the victim claimed the man was also avenging the terminated wedding engagement of his older brother to the victim's older sister.

Bombings and violence in the southern and central part of Iraq have taken the lives of 13 people, cites new reports Monday. As Iraq emerges as a Shi’ite-led state, it is still scarred by a history of attacks by extremists. The Iraq War, waged by the U.S. and its allies to contain terrorism led to toppling the despotic reign of Saddam Hussein regime.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar traded down to just above 0.9000 on Friday night as markets focused on comments from the Chinese finance minister and another US Fed Reserve president on the prospect of a reduction in US monetary stimulus.

In an attempt to downplay the results of the latest opinion poll showing the Australian Labor Party closing in on the Coalition, Tony Abbott claims Kevin Rudd had nothing to do with it. He said the dramatic results are due to voter relief for the Labor's removal of Julia Gillard and not because Kevin Rudd took the leadership of the majority. Abbott also attacked Labor's plans of scrapping carbon tax policy to switch to an emissions trading scheme.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd snatched all likeability percentage from political rival Tony Abbott

During Julia Gillard's reign as prime minister for three years, Opposition leader Tony Abbott used the Gillard government's carbon tax as a tool to win support for the Coalition. Until the end of June, it worked for him because he was leading pre-election surveys. But the Labor leadership spill changed all that because returning Prime Minister Kevin Rudd immediately took lead as preferred prime minister just days after the party leadership change. Now, he is even threatening to pull the ru...