Canberra, Australia News

China's arrest of a top Rio Tinto executive on suspicion of spying may change the way foreign firms approach doing business with Beijing, an Australian minister has said.

Australian High Commissioner John McCarthy, with the children of Mithra Foundation in the city on Friday/Shiba Prasad Sahu.

Rising seas, a rapid weakening of the Indian monsoon and spiralling costs of adapting to a warmer, drier world are just some of the looming risks from rapid climate change, a report for the Australian government says.

"This seriously damaged China's economic security and interests," said the paper, published by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Australia's unemployment rate rose to a six-year high of 5.8 percent in June as companies shed workers despite the government's massive stimulus spending, official figures showed Thursday.

Prospects for the housing and retail sectors - two key engines of the economy - continue to improve, adding to confidence that Australia may ride out the worst global downturn in generations.

Chinese in the United States, Australia and Russia have condemned the deadly July 5 riot in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, which killed at least 156 people and injured more than 1,000 others.

Now that Australia's politicians have scattered across the world - they are diligent in flying off on global research projects during long recesses - exasperated voters are enjoying relief from the mudslinging that marked the most frenetic-ever final week of a winter sitting in the Federal Parliament.

It's time for a proper debate on migration following years of misinformation from governments about the impact overseas workers are having on local jobs, an academic says.

CANBERRA, Australia - Australian exports sank for the second month in a row in May as falling commodity prices and the global downturn battered an economy showing mixed signs of weathering the worst of the crisis.

It's an oldie but a goodie. The perks of politicians as they try and disguise the real earn from being an MP are resurrected regularly in slow news times.

Australian News.Net Friday 3rd July, 2009 Canberra, July 3 : Newly arrived international students could be given priority for on-campus accommodation as one way of boosting safety, according to a position paper released on Thursday by Universities Australia.

In this undated photo supplied by Queensland Museum, palaeontologists search for the Diamantinasaurus fossils in Winton, in central Queensland, Australia.

According to some prominent scientists the very old Australian forests are a key to fighting climate change and contain the world's most dense carbon store, eclipsing the tropical rainforests as more efficient greenhouse gas absorbers .

Pre election assertions by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of a Federal takeover of public hospitals if the states failed to improve hospital services by the middle of 2009, appears to have come to naught, this has led the opposition to claim that Labor has reneged on a 2007 election promise to deal with the contentious state hospitals systems.

The ACT Opposition says its prior concerns about the cost of the ACT's solar feed-in tariff have been vindicated.

A government plan purporting to improve the lives of people living in isolated areas of Australia's Northern Territory will be implemented at the expense of surrounding homeland communities and ignores the cultural and health benefits for people living on those traditional lands, warn critics.

Incidents against students termed "opportunistic crime" Kevin Rudd. CANBERRA: Despite the series of attacks on Indian students recently, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday maintained that they were safer in Australia than anywhere in the world, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

Got 48 hours to spend in the Australian capital of Canberra? Canberra is home to some of the country's top museums and art galleries, giving visitors who enjoy cultural activities the chance of a busy weekend.

THE Federal Government has written to the states, telling them of its plans to introduce laws banning them from ever reintroducing the death penalty, whether they like it or not.