Oceania News

Funeral services have been scheduled for a central Indiana teenager teen who died when the plane he was piloting crashed over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of American Samoa.

Embattled Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's forthright handling of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 appears to have paid off, a poll released on Tuesday showed, although his government has not enjoyed a similar spike in popularity.

Four New Zealand businessmen have joined Americans to develop Vunabaka, a new $140 million Fiji resort, where the first stage of construction is nearly finished.

The takeover bids launched for two NZX-listed firms yesterday could signal a new phase of heightened acquisition activity on the local sharemarket as companies take advantage of relatively low interest rates to fund business purchases and increase revenue, say analysts.

A weightlifter competing at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games is due to appear in court charged with sexually assaulting a man.

Papua New Guinea's Toua Udia, 26, was arrested after the alleged assault last Monday at a Tesco near the Athletes' Village in Glasgow.

A weightlifter from Papua New Guinea who competed at the Commonwealth Games faces trial over an alleged sexual assault at a Glasgow supermarket.

Pacific island leaders will renew calls for meaningful action on climate change at a regional summit opening in Palau on Tuesday, amid fears rising seas will swamp their low-lying nations.

Timberwolf the koala was lucky to be alive on Monday after surviving a terrifying 88km ride down a busy Australian freeway clinging to the bottom of a car.

The federal government has approved a giant Queensland coalmine that it says will generate as much as $300 billion for the economy, but which environmental groups say will contribute to a "carbon bomb" and risk causing significant damage to the Great Barrier Reef.

The Coast Guard has suspended the search for an Indiana man who went missing after he and his teenage son crashed their single-engine plane near Pago Pago Tuesday night.

NARACOORTE has its own Commonwealth Games medallist after Jess Trengove finished third in the women's marathon on Sunday night.

A young soldier killed in a firefight with Hamas gunmen in the southern Gaza Strip was born in New Zealand - and his family had planned to return here before he and his sister reached the age of military conscription in Israel.

Former Green MP Keith Locke is urging New Zealanders to demand information about the Kiwi killed in a drone strike overseas last year.

More than a week after a missile destroyed a Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 298 over eastern Ukraine, the crash site in territory controlled by pro-Russia separatists remains unsecured.

COOL, CALM AND COLLECTED: Commerce Commission chair Mark Berry gives every impression of enjoying the hefty weight of his work.

The group of 157 asylum seekers detained at sea for weeks on a Customs ship are yet to arrive on the Australian mainland, refugee advocates say.

A memorial service at sea will be held for a 17-year-old pilot from Indiana and his father, whose plane crashed during an around-the-world flight attempt.

A cocky New South Wales radio DJ-turned-conman has gone to ground a few days shy of his 21st birthday, after his latest scam left small businesses and young DJs thousands of dollars out of pocket.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott addresses the media on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Saturday.