Oceania News

At a reception held Thursday night at Exploration Place the Prince George Community Foundation offered up almost $40,000 to various organizations during the Fall 2009 Income Distribution Funds event.

MALCOLM Turnbull's arrogant decision to declare the party that has rebelled against him as being in favour of the Emissions Trading Scheme has created a crisis that may see the Liberals join him in the political wilderness.

Five of the 12 queens were this afternoon given special awards in the lead up to the crowning of Miss South Pacific in the Pageant tonight.

Drinking water flowing to almost one in six New Zealanders either failed to reach Ministry of Health standards or escaped testing during 2007/08, the ministry says.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are to fire early shots in a global climate debate to start in earnest next month by dominating a Commonwealth summit opening in Trinidad on Friday.

Crowds have gathered in Australian cities calling for marriage equality after a bill to endorse gay unions was rejected by the Senate.

Two Chinese pandas are going abroad on a historic voyage to Australia. The bamboo eating duo is expected to enjoy a very warm welcome in the Land Down Under.

Australia's opposition party has splintered over a contentious bill aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, with top officials resigning and some announcing they would challenge the party leader for his job.

THE family of Nigel Brennan says paying the ransom demanded by his Somali kidnappers was their "last roll of the dice" after the Government declined to come up with the money.

Search-and-rescue controllers with the U.S. Coast Guard in Honolulu and on Guam have determined that seven people reported missing in a skiff near Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia over the weekend have been reported safe on another island, the Coast Guard announced yesterday.

An Indonesian man is the third to be charged over an attempt to smuggle more than 50 people into Australia.

Six relatives of 257 people killed during an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight to Antarctica 30 years ago returned to the crash site on Friday to mark the anniversary.

Firefighters are battling a forest fire north of Rotorua. Eight fire appliances were trying to contain the blaze, which started about 2pm, along Hamurana Rd, on the north side of Lake Rotorua, fire communications senior communicator Mau Barbara says.

Some conservation land in the Coromandel could be used for mining, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee says.

Press Release: New Zealand Police Wanganui Police executed a search warrant this morning at the city's Hells Angels headquarters in Kaikokopu Road.

Residents were loaded onto fishing boats and shipped to the far side of Gaua island after the volcano, which has been rumbling for the past two months, started erupting.

Labour leader Phil Goff is accusing the Government of reopening racial wounds. In a speech about nationhood at a Grey Power-hosted public meeting in Palmerston North today, Mr Goff said the country could celebrate its rich heritage or re-open wounds and divisions.

Mr Brennan says he is OK after he and Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout were released on Wednesday.

In the past month, up to 6000 camels have invaded the small outback community of Docker River in search of water/ AAP THE Northern Territory government has declared war on thousands of thirsty, marauding camels threatening residents and destroying water mains in Central Australia.

An Australian research team has taken a radically new approach to weight loss, preventing the body from receiving hunger signals rather than preventing the brain from sending them.