JM Coetzee is nominated for a new prize for fiction with the biggest payout for a literary award in Australia and Asia.

Japan was excepted to leave rates unchanged but expectations of a cut have risen, while Australia is expected to lower its cost of borrowing.

MELBOURNE, Oct 2 (IPS) - Efforts to create an inventory of life on
Australia’s major coral reefs -- to be used as part of a baseline
to determine the impacts of global warming and overfishing upon
reefs -- have turned up hundreds of previously unknown and rare
species.

Film footage featuring Marilyn Monroe on the set of Some Like It Hot sells for A$17,500 (£8,000) in Australia.

As American politicians devise a bailout plan for banks, an untold number of small institutions from Australia to Norway are watching closely, and usually helplessly.

MELBOURNE, Sep 23 (IPS) - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned
that Australia needs to prepare for "the increased
militarisation" of the Asia-Pacific.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - U.S. Republican White House hopeful John McCain pledged On Tuesday to work with Australia to advance international climate change action and said the two allies should together push for a more open and tolerant China.

Australia put on hold ratification of a treaty that would turn it into a uranium supplier for Russia, while Sweden delayed a report on the future of its armed forces in the wake of the war in Georgia.

Rates of HIV infection in Australia have increased by almost 50% in the past eight years, according to a report.

Financials gain after U.S. government proposes mechanism to buy banks' bad debts; Australia bans short-selling.