Recent heatwaves and this summer's hotter-than-expected weather are believed to have
pushed water to the top of Australia's climate change concerns.

Bus drivers are poised to ignore the industrial watchdog's calls to abort a 24-hour
strike on Friday, potentially leaving 600,000 commuters stranded across Sydney and
Newcastle.

Houses have been lost to a bushfire burning in hot, dry conditions in southern NSW,
the Rural Fire Service (RFS) says.

Australia has been lobbying Tuvalu to drop its demand that global warming
temperature rises be limited to 1.5 degrees, the nation's Prime Minister Apisai
Ielemia says.

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's human rights watchdog indicated Thursday
it may extend its analysis of North Korean human rights concerns.

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea expressed uncertainty Thursday over the
credibility of a recent North Korean report to the World Health Organization that

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- Veteran actor Song Gang-ho and actress Kim Hye-ja have
been selected as the best performers of the year by South Korean directors for

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- The Air Force said Thursday it has developed a
human-powered aircraft that can be pedaled off the ground and propelled with
human energy to fly.

SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- Leaders of Indonesia's Cia-Cia tribe, who adopted
Korea's "Hangeul" alphabet to transcribe their language earlier this year, will

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- Two cultural fairs kicked off simultaneously in Seoul
Thursday, demonstrating the latest trends in the global magazine and craft