South Korea is considering hunting whales in the waters off its shores for what it says are scientific purposes, drawing criticism from environmental groups and countries around the Pacific Rim.
A Royal Australian Navy vessel Wednesday located a boat in distress south of Indonesia and was poised to help with a rescue if it became necessary, authorities said.
As delegates ended the three-day Rio+20 summit with a 53-page statement called "The Future We Want," activists slammed the U.N. conference on sustainable development as a "failure of epic proportions."
Bianca Jagger rallies governments to support the world's biggest land restoration project to fight climate change.
Cushla wore a white dress for her big day, Tania, braces, a hat and bow-tie. The couple, now wife and wife, tied the knot during a small ceremony led by an unregistered celebrant on a farm west of Sydney, Australia. It had all the hallmarks of a "real" wedding. Except this one wasn't valid, at least under Australian law.
Australian troops could begin pulling out of Afghanistan in the coming months, and the majority of them may leave the country by the end of next year, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh discusses what Australia's troop drawdown will mean for Afghan security.
When Afghan forces repelled a barrage of attacks from insurgents near Kabul's green zone over the weekend it was hailed as proof of how far local security forces had come.
Lawmakers in Australia's Labor Party voted decisively Monday to back incumbent Julia Gillard as head of the party, and thus prime minister, in the face of a challenge from her predecessor Kevin Rudd.
Julia Gillard survives a challenge to her party's leadership, but questions remain on her popularity with voters.
The vote seemed assured even before Australian Labor Party members entered the room to decide whether to dump Julia Gillard as prime minister.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd announced Friday that he will seize a second chance to lead the country by launching a formal challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
The night Bob Hawke lost the Labor leadership 20-odd years ago, I was a tender recruit to the Canberra press gallery who found myself, fortuitously, marooned at the Prime Minister's office door whilst the Labor caucus was dispatching the occupant.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard attempted Thursday to thwart a perceived challenge to her leadership of the Labor Party from former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by announcing that she will put the matter to a vote of Labor members of Parliament on Monday morning.
In announcing his resignation as Foreign Minister Wednesday, Kevin Rudd referred to the "soap opera" underway in Australian politics.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd resigned Wednesday, his office said, amid speculation that he might mount a leadership challenge to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Authorities were using military helicopters and a C-130 cargo plane Sunday to evacuate thousands of residents stranded by rising floodwaters in the eastern Australian state of Queensland, the government said.
CNN's Jonathan Mann has the story of an Australia Day celebration that turned ugly for Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Images beamed around the world last week of unruly and provocative protests by indigenous Australians projected a portrait of an angry and disenfranchised group.
Bodyguards whisk away Australia's prime minister and opposition leader after 200 Aboriginal protesters surrounded them.
A group of indigenous Australian protesters made headlines for a second day in a row Friday after they gathered outside the Australian Parliament and set fire to the country's flag.
Security officers dragged Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard out of a Canberra restaurant Thursday after an angry mob of protesters surrounded the building during a luncheon ceremony, police said.
An Australian teen was sentenced to two months in prison in Indonesia for marijuana use in a case that has drawn international attention.
Australia has passed a controversial new law which will see the country's 500 most-polluting companies pay tax on their carbon emissions.
The carbon tax legislation has cleared its final hurdle, being passed by the Australian Senate.
An attorney for a 14-year-old Australian, accused of marijuana possession in Indonesia, is hoping to avoid a prison sentence for his client and have the boy released to undergo drug rehabilitation.
The Australian government plans to impose a "carbon price" on industrial pollution to help fight greenhouse gas emissions.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Wednesday concluded her two-day visit to Beijing aimed at broadening relations between the two nations.
Australian PM is in Beijing to boost economic ties while expressing concern over China's human rights record.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched her two-day visit to Beijing on Tuesday, hoping to balance Australia's strong economic ties to China with international pressure to speak out against China's human rights record as the country tightens its grip on activists, dissidents and religious freedom.
Australian PM Julia Gillard addresses Congress and says Australia "stands firm" as a declared ally to the United States.Edit Instructions:
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard pledged true friendship with the United States on Wednesday and encouraged the nation that inspired her youth by landing on the moon to be bold in shaping the 21st century.
Rescuers are still searching for bodies after a ship smashed into a cliff off the coast of Christmas Island.
The cost of repairing flood damage in Australia will top AUS $5.6 billion (US $5.58 billion), according to Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who proposed a one-year tax to help fund the reconstruction.
Australia's trade minister says despite the flooding toll, the country will return its budget to surplus by 2012-13.
Australia's government is considering spending cuts and a special tax to help offset the massive economic impact of recent widespread flooding, the country's prime minister said.
It was a heartbreaking farewell for a mother and son swept off the roof of their car.
Seven Network's Nick McCallum reports from Horsham, Australia, where some residents were able to hold back floodwaters.
Portions of southern Australia kept a close eye Wednesday on rising rivers that threatened to add to the mounting destruction from a month of flooding that has killed at least 21 people, inundated homes and devastated thousands of acres of crops across the country.
Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard tours flood ravaged areas in Queensland.
While floodwaters in Australia have begun to recede in some areas, the worst could still be on the way for at least one city, the country's prime minister said Saturday.
Massive flooding that has swept through Queensland, Australia, and claimed at least one life will likely force the evacuation of at least 1,000 people and close a regional airport for weeks, an emergency agency said Sunday.
The flooding in the Australian state of Queensland will cost "hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Friday as she toured the devastation.
Dozens of people seeking asylum in Australia after their boat crashed into cliffs along Christmas Island took part in two separate protests on the soil of their prospective home country, a spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said Friday.
Controversial former Australian politician Pauline Hanson says the government's weak policies on asylum seekers are to blame for the deaths of dozens of people off the coast of Christmas Island.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard defended her country's border protection policy Thursday and said authorities will investigate the events surrounding the deaths of 28 asylum seekers in a boat crash.
Leaders meet at the APEC summit in Japan, with a free trade agreement on the agenda. CNN's Kyung Lah has details
Nearing the end of his 10-day trip to Asia, President Obama met Saturday with Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard during a bilateral event in Yokohama, Japan.
Australia's prime minister traveled to Afghanistan and met with the country's president on her first international trip since taking office.
Julia Gillard was sworn in Tuesday as Australia's first elected female prime minister.
Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard has brought back into her government, in a senior cabinet post, the man she overthrew in June.
Two independent lawmakers break a deadlock, giving Australia its first elected female prime minister.
Two independent lawmakers from rural Australia broke a parliamentary deadlock on Tuesday, giving the country its first elected female prime minister.
With no clear winner emerging from a cliff-hanger national election, Australian political leaders jostled for support from a handful of independent lawmakers Sunday.
CNN's Dan Rivers reports on the uncertain outcome of Australia's parliamentary elections.
Australia's political future hung in the balance after no clear winner emerged in Saturday's cliff-hanger election and a final outcome remained days away.
Like a pair of exhausted boxers entering the twelfth round, clinging onto one another as they drunkenly trade jabs, the two contenders to be Australia's next prime minister have both been swinging, hoping for bruising blows, but neither has emerged as a clear winner yet.
Early polls show a close race in Australia's general election.
An intuitive crocodile on Australia's northern coast is taking a bite out of the country's hotly contested national election by making his pick for prime minister.
Australia's candidates for prime minister enter their last day of campaigning. CNN's Dan Rivers reports.
Australia's top candidates for prime minister campaigned furiously Friday -- election eve -- as incumbent Julia Gillard was tied with coalition challenger Tony Abbott in a national opinion poll based on the country's complicated preferential voting system.
CNN's Anna Coren reports on the candidates and issues in Australia's hotly contested race for prime minister.
Australians go to the polls on August 21, 2010, and will choose between the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition to form a new government.
Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday she believes Australia should become a republic after Queen Elizabeth II dies.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott moved their only televised election debate so they wouldn't clash with the finale of "MasterChef Australia" Sunday -- but their switch forced Kylie Minogue to change her schedule.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Friday embraced the same policy on climate change that her predecessor failed to pass, but said in a campaign speech that any action would be delayed until at least 2012.
CNN's Eunice Yoon looks at the crucial role economic issues are playing for voters in Australia's general election.
New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, seeking a mandate from voters, said Saturday that a national election would be held August 21.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Thursday he had "productive talks" with Indonesia and East Timor about a regional detention center for refugees.
Australia's new prime minister is ending a three-month freeze on processing Sri Lankan asylum seekers.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced Friday that Australia's leading mining companies have agreed to pay a 30 percent tax on the profits from iron-ore and coal mining.
Julia Gillard becomes Australia's first female prime minister. ABC's Hayden Cooper reports.
Australia's new prime minister pledged her commitment to the war in Afghanistan during a phone call with President Obama, the two leaders said.
Julia Gillard has become Australia's first female prime minister after the ruling Labor Party removed former PM Kevin Rudd. CNN's Stan Grant provided a background on the 48-year-old lawyer.
Australia's new prime minister, Julia Gillard, said Thursday that she had respect for the leadership of her predecessor, Kevin Rudd, but moved to replace him because "I came to the view that the government was losing its way."
As Australia selects a new prime minister, CNN's Stan Grant looks back at former PM Kevin Rudd's successes and failures.
President Barack Obama is welcoming the new Australian Prime Minister to the club of world leaders.
A dizzying political drama began unfolding Thursday as the Australian Labor Party met at Parliament House in Canberra to decide the fate of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
The Australian government plans to reintroduce its emission trading scheme to the parliament for a third time in February after a hostile Senate voted down the legislation on Wednesday.
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