Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Tuesday declared his determination to pursue peace in Asia, as he strengthened defence ties with Australia and signed an ambitious free-trade agreement.
Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris, a household name in Britain and Australia for decades, was jailed for five years and nine months for a string of sexual assaults against girls.
Australian police have charged a woman for racially abusing passengers on a train after a video recording her tirade was posted online and went viral, sparking a social media backlash.
At least 15 people, reportedly backpackers from Japan and South Korea "living in squalor" in minibuses, a shipping container and a caravan, had to be rescued from a raging Sydney fire.
An Australian of Vietnamese origin has been sentenced to death after trying to smuggle four kilograms (8.8 pounds) of heroin out of the country, state media in the communist nation said.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart had Aus$2.01 billion (US$1.89 billion) wiped off her fortune in the past year but remains Australia's wealthiest person, an annual rich list showed.
Australian Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste has voiced his "outrage" at being jailed for seven years by an Egyptian court, saying the case was about silencing critical voices.
Reforms proposed to lift global growth in line with a target set by the world's biggest economies earlier this year are so far falling short, Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey said.
The jury in the trial of Rolf Harris, the Australian entertainer accused of a string of sexual assaults against girls and young women, retired to consider their verdicts.
Australia called a decision by UNESCO to defer listing the Great Barrier Reef as in danger "a win for logic", but environmentalists said it was a final warning.
An Australian funeral director had to store the body of a 200-kilogramme (441-pound) man in her car overnight after a morgue refused it for being too big, reports said.
Antarctic scientists warned Wednesday that a surge in tourists visiting the frozen continent was threatening its fragile environment and called for better protection.
Japan has slaughtered 30 minke whales off its northeast coast, in the first hunt since the UN's top court ordered Tokyo to stop killing the animals in the Antarctic, the government said.
Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday announced it was reducing its stake in Australia's Woodside Petroleum, selling Aus$5.3 billion (US$5.0 billion) in shares as it focuses its Australian growth in directly-owned assets.
A super-enriched banana genetically engineered to improve the lives of millions of people in Africa will soon have its first human trial, which will test its effect on vitamin A levels, Australian researchers said.