POLITICS & POLICY

Taking the right precautions may be especially important this year. After a 2010 hurricane season that produced intense storm and hurricane activity but no direct hit on the U.S. coastline, forecasters at Weather Services International recently predicted two or three hurricanes could come ashore in 2011. Their forecast calls for 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four intense hurricanes of category 3 or stronger this year.

If there is one thing certain about newly resigned IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s future, it is that he will not be poor the rest of his life.

The Environment Protection Agency or EPA has approved a new coal-fired power plant, which will use gas from brown coal and natural gas to produce electricity, in eastern Victoria.

Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett laughed at the caution posed by the federal government that it will lose funding for major projects after using its budget to lift royalty rates.

As the government plans to enforce a two-tier policy to stop boats carrying asylum-seekers, the opposition says asylum-seekers are now in a “twilight zone” on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, with a distant chance to resettle in Australia.

At least 35 construction workers have been killed and 20 others wounded when Taliban insurgents ambushed their convoy in eastern Afghanistan in the latest attack by the al-Qaeda-linked bandits.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday said it has expelled Israeli's military attaché in Moscow on allegations the officer were spying and was gathering intelligence against Russia.

A team of visa specialists have launched the website, www.australianoworries.com, to assist young Americans navigate the Australian Work and Holiday Visa, introduced in only 2008.

Preventive capacity building and partnerships across all sectors against the threat of radiological and nuclear terrorism is the focus of the INTERPOL Global Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Conference in Lyon this week.

President Obama's attempt today to link the stalled Palestinian-Israel negotiations to social and economic progress in the Arab world will unnecessarily increase tensions between Washington and Jerusalem, said JINSA Executive Director Tom Neumann. Furthermore, Neumann said, it is a distraction from continued work needed to strengthen the international isolation of Iran and to fight against radical Islamism, in which Israel is a vital partner.

Amidst mounting pressures, beleaguered International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Dominique Strauss-Khan resigned on Thursday but insists he was innocent of the sexual assault accusations hurled against him.

It's the end of the world according to Christian evangalist Harold Camping and his Family Radio group. So what better way to meet the end of days by partying 'till you drop. And organizers of Saturday's party mean it almost literally.

Cross benchers in the NSW upper house will block the O’Farrell government’s proposed retrospective legislation that would see existing feed in tariff contracts torn up for 120,000 customers.

The Australian Government has invested $8.2 million towards the development of a state of the art training centre, which will allow civil construction students to train using technologically advanced simulators.

Liberal MP Daryl Maguire was crowded by a large group of exasperated solar power users in a protest over alterations to the Solar Bonus Scheme.

The famed deal between Telstra Corporation Ltd and the National Broadband Network (NBN), which amounts to $9 billion, is expected to be signed as early as next week with the cabinet to see documents by late second quarter or early third quarter of this year.

Lawmakers in the U.S. asked Japanese firm Sony Corp. for additional information about an attack that exposed more than 100 million customer accounts to hackers, an event its chief executive officer described as a 'hiccup.'

The United States' top spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, deployed its latest stealth drone planes on dozens of secret missions to monitor the movements in the compound of Osama bin Laden before a team of crack Navy SEALs commandos launched the daring May 2 raid that killed the world's top terrorist.

The police in South Korea has ruled that the death of a taxi driver who was crucified on a wooden cross in an apparent recreation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was a suicide.

Moderate wage increases in Australia's states have temporarily eased the pressure on a planned interest rate adjustment by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) next month.

New World Bank report predicts that half of all global growth will come from six emerging economies by year 2025.

A demonstration against the NSW government gathered thousands of protesters on Sydney for the administration to stop trimming down the solar benefit scheme.

As the IMF grapples with a possible leadership succession process while its top official remains in a New York jail, Asian names have surfaced

Key independent MP Rob Oakeshott thought fuel should not be subject to carbon tax, positioning him in conflict with Greens members of the multi-party climate change committee.

Amnesty International demands explanation from the federal government regarding its plan with 100 plus asylum seekers who have arrived since it announced its new refugee policy.

A Brazilian court has ruled that 36-year-old female accountant Ana Catarian Bezerra can legally masturbate at work and watch port on her work computer citing chemical imbalance that triggers severe anxiety and hypersexuality.

Hundreds of South Korean sex workers, including prostitutes and pimps took to the streets near a red-light district in the capital Seoul to demand from the police to slowdown on their campaign against brothels and the sex trade.

The Reserve Bank has confirmed anticipations of interest rate growths. According to the government, the policy positions held by the opposition has added to the rate pressures as it would wipe almost $7 billion off the budget bottom line.

At $1,000 or £600, the Marquis Los Cabos resort in Baja California Sur, a hotel resort in Mexico, has introduced the world's most expensive ice lolly.