POLITICS & POLICY

Australia's Asian Century white paper released on October 2012 appears to be a misnomer because the bulk of its focus is on one country in the continent - China.

Latest data released Wednesday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed that the suburb Toorak of Melbourne has Australia's highest wage earners. Residents in those area have a net take home pay of at least $132,252.

With global prices of commodities still on a downslide, and the proverbial gold at the end of the rainbow still way out of sight, global mining giant Rio Tinto has announced it will reduce unnecessary costs to generate a $5 billion savings by the end of 2014.

Queensland state is known for its coal resources, but new evidence point that the region's mining frontier has shifted to Curtis Island what with the number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects lined up in the island.

Despite the opposition from local fishermen, the state government of South Australia has pushed through with the establishment of a network of 19 marine parks off the state's coast. The new zones took effect Thursday, Nov. 29.

The LG-made smart phone Google Nexus 4 is currently facing the dilemma of low supply and high demand. As a consequence, LG Nexus 4 price is more expensive compared to Samsung Galaxy S3 that is easily obtainable worldwide.

Australians wanting to have that tanned skin may well have it this summer season, but still beware as weather forecasters predict the country could be facing more of the sun's radiant glory.

Australians wanting to have that tanned skin may well have it this summer season, but still beware as weather forecasters predict the country could be facing more of the sun's radiant glory.

The dirty tales from Chongqing appear far from over. The bustling Chinese city hit international headlines this year when its chief, Bo Xilai, was unceremoniously sacked by his peers in the Chinese Politburo for allegedly engaging in corrupt and immoral activities.

After 17 months of secretly working with financial institutions and international law representatives from other nations, the Australian Federal Police on Thursday announced it had thwarted a Romanian-based gang of credit card fraudsters, detaining 16 people and eventually arresting seven of them in Romania.

The dirty tales from Chongqing appear far from over. The bustling Chinese city hit international headlines this year when its chief, Bo Xilai, was unceremoniously sacked by his peers in the Chinese Politburo for allegedly engaging in corrupt and immoral activities.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Australian dollar strengthens in morning trade as the US Fiscal Cliff continues to dominate markets.

A pregnant mother living in Australia is in one of the best places in the world, according to a recent survey done by The Economist's Intelligence Unit.

The Coalition has ramped up its calls for Prime Minister Julia Gillard to resign following the release of a new document that showed she actively argued for the incorporation of the Australian Workers Union (AWU) Workplace Reform Association.

Toro Energy, which is out to construct the first ever uranium mine in Western Australia, has delayed to the back burner the financing negotiations over the proposed mine project in Wiluna pending the approval and release of the federal government's environmental decision.

Click Frenzy may have been an event organisational disaster, but there is no denying that it magnified and somehow sealed the future of online selling in Australia.

Labor has called on deputy opposition leader Julie Bishop to step down or be sacked, accusing her of lying on the circumstances of her communications with self-confessed fraudster Ralph Blewitt.

Tourism Australia has lost some A$44 million funding support from Qantas Airways Ltd. over allegations the tourism group's chairman is involved in a demolition job scheme to oust the airline company's chief executive.

NASA scientists captured images of near-Earth Asteroid 2007 PA8 with the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California between October 31 and November 13, 2012. NASA described the asteroid in the released images as an irregularly shaped and stretched-out object with ridges and craters.

Australians know that election time is near when politicians promise the sun, the moon and the stars in a bid to win votes. This especially is the case for MPs who used to enjoy popularity with voters until the political scenario changed in favour of their perceived rivals.

Prices of the safe haven yellow precious metal jumped 0.2 per cent to $1,751.80 an ounce after finance ministers in the heavily fiscal-affected eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to reduced Greece's long-term debt.

China has become the preferred partner of most Australian universities when it comes to boosting knowledge linkages for student and staff exchange as well as collaborative research.

Australia has two years to prepare and work on strengthening policies and mechanisms to ensure it won't plunge into a recession.

A proposal to apply audio recording in cabs in Queensland has been lodged for public opinion by the state government.

A rare bovine disease, called Bovine Johne's Disease (BJD), has been detected among a number of cattle herd in Central Queensland. But an agriculture lobby group had maintained the beef from the concerned state remains safe to eat as BJD cannot affect humans.

For the next 40 years, the management of South Australia's lottery and Keno services will be managed by Tatts Group after the gaming giant shelled out $427 million to acquire its licence from the SA state government.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is little changed in quiet trade as markets play a waiting game on developments out of Washington and Brussels.

The federal government of Australia is set to release a draft bill that when legalised will forced companies to reveal the net salaries of its top execs as well as require its top guys to return wrongly paid bonuses.

Some 10,000 protesters opposed to the presence of the rare earths processing plant by Australian miner Lynas Corp in Kuantan, Malaysia had ended their 13-day protest march in Kuala Lumpur, arriving in the Malaysian capital on Sunday.