TOP STORIES

Barack Obama meets Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office. [Reuters]

Obama cautious on Middle East talks

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:05:00 +1000

The United States President, Barack Obama, says he is under no illusions about how difficult it will be to strike a Middle East peace deal.

Reporters surround independent MP Andrew Wilkie in Canberra, the Australian capital, after the Labor deal was announced. [ABC]

Australian Labor wins over key independent

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:27:00 +1000

An Australian independent member of parliament, Andrew Wilkie, has announced he will support the Prime Minister in a Gillard Labor Government.

Bob Brown, of the Australian Greens, has spoken out for increased trade with Fiji and East Timor. [ABC]

Boost Fiji, Timor ties, say Australian Greens

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:29:00 +1000

The leader of the Australian Greens party, Bob Brown, says Australia and New Zealand should increase economic ties with Fiji and East Timor.

Salman Butt is one of three players dropped from the rest of the Pakistani tour. [AFP]

Pakistan cricket trio dropped after accusations

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:08:00 +1000

The three Pakistan cricketers at the centre of a betting scandal have been dropped from the national squad for the remainder of the tour of England.

A scene from the film The Cove shows the bloody but legal slaughter of dolphins in Japan. [AFP]

Open season in Japan dolphin hunt

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:58:00 +1000

A controversial annual dolphin hunt that was depicted in an Oscar-winning documentary has begun in Japan.

People look at the scene where a a Trans Air jet crashed on Misima Island, off the south-eastern tip of Papua New Guinea. [ABC]

PNG plane crash bodies recovered

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:52:00 +1000

The remains of the four people killed in this week's plane crash in Papua New Guinea have been recovered.

Mobile phones how most young Indonesians get access to social networking sites, say reseachers. [ABC]

India, China and Indonesia join social networks

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:14:00 +1000

The number of internet users in five emerging economies will nearly double by 2015, says a new report.

Vietnam's children suffering in boom, says UN

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:27:00 +1000

Vietnamese children face growing inequality, although the country's growth has been relatively fair to all citizens, the United Nations says.

The group is accused of training unrepentant Times Square bomb plotter Faisal Shahzad. [Reuters]

Pakistan Taliban on US terror blacklist

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:30:00 +1000

The United States has added the Pakistani Taliban to a blacklist of foreign terrorist organisations.

Did landowners deliberately allow embankments to burst, asks a Pakistani diplomat. [AFP]

Landowners accused in Pakistan floods

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:43:00 +1000

A senior Pakistani diplomat has called for an inquiry into allegations that rich landowners diverted water during the recent flooding, to save their crops.

The blasts led to an outpouring of fury as mourners tried to torch a nearby police station. [AFP]

18 dead in Lahore funeral bombing

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:23:00 +1000

Three suicide bombers have struck a Shi'ite mourning procession in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore, killing at least 18 people and wounding 143.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb says the Coalition is standing by its costings. [AAP]

Australian Treasury faults Opposition finance promises

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:53:00 +1000

A key independent member of parliament says Australia's opposition leader, Tony Abbott, needs to explain why Treasury analysis has identified a shortfall of up to $AU11 billion ($US10 billion) in his Coalition's election promise costings.

Hawaiian volcanic crater: a rare flower has turned up again at such a site. [iStockphoto]

'Extinct' bloom rediscovered on Hawaii

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:42:00 +1000

A flower thought to be extinct has been rediscovered on the island of Hawaii.

Samoa has a wages advantage over its neighbour in efforts to win investment by a US call centre company, says a minister. [Reuters]

Wages gap may win call centre for Samoa

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:08:00 +1000

Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister, Misa Telefoni Retzlaff, says his country may win a US-owned telephone call centre because of high wages in neighbouring American Samoa.

US vice-president Joe Biden speaks in the White House. [Flickr]

US marks a new era in relations with Iraq

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:20:00 +1000

The US vice president, Joe Biden, says Iraqi politicians are close to agreeing on the formation of a new government -- almost six months after the parliamentary election.

Cambodia aims for heights in new skyscraper

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:46:00 +1000

Cambodia aims to construct Asia's tallest building, a 555-metre skyscraper worth $US200 million, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced.

Gunman James Lee, 43, has been shot dead. [AFP]

Death in siege at US documentary channel

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:50:00 +1000

A siege at the American headquarters of television documentary maker Discovery Channel ended with the death of a gunman.

Japan begins destroying WWII weapons in China

Last Updated: Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:31:00 +1000

Japan has began destroying chemical weapons left over in China from its brutal World War Two invasion.

Indonesian police kill five people in Sulawesi unrest

Last Updated: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:57:00 +1000

Indonesian police have opened fire and killed five people, after an angry mob attacked a station with firebombs in a protest over the death of a man in custody.