Australia

Working holidaymakers will instead be liable for 19% tax on every dollar that they earn.

The compromise deal follows an outcry from farmers and the tourist industry.

Farmers complained the tax rate could affect their labour supply at harvest time, while tourism operators maintained it would put backpackers and tourists off visiting Australia.

About 600,000 backpackers travel to Australia every year and many of them find work picking fruit.

Known as mooning, the cheeky offence was previously punishable under other laws but is now banned under specific legislation.

First-time offenders face up to two months in jail while repeat offenders could spend six months behind bars.

The amendment was one of more than 50 crimes included in an overhaul of sexual offence laws.

The updated legislation has been designed, in part, to separate pranks involving nudity from acts of sexual exposure.

Snake catcher Rolly Burrell caught the eastern brown snake at the woman's home in Adelaide, South Australia.

She had stepped outside her southern suburbs home to collect her shoes and saw a brown tail disappear into a boot.

The species is considered one of the world's most venomous land snakes and is found along the coasts and inland areas of mainland Australia.

"She went outside to get her ugg boots and she saw something shoot in there," Mr Burrell told the BBC.

"She realised it was a snake."

British Colonial Co, which opened in July in Brisbane, said it was celebrating the "stylish days" of the British Empire.

It has withdrawn marketing material which said the restaurant had been "inspired by the empirical push into the developing cultures of the world".

The restaurant has said it is "saddened" by the media reports.

"We are very proud of our brand, dining experience and the loyal clientele we have established," it said in a statement.

Senator Malcolm Roberts was elected by Queensland as a member of the anti-immigration One Nation party.

He believes climate change is a global conspiracy created by bankers seeking to establish a worldwide government.

Mr Roberts told the Senate "We need an OzExit" to escape the "unelected swill" of the UN.

"Australia's values and way of life are also at risk from insidious institutions such as the unelected swill that is the United Nations," he said.

The two sides were level pegging throughout the match with the world number one Australians only pulling away in the last couple of minutes.

Australia led 17-14 at quarter-time, it was level at 30-all at half time and 44-43 to Australia at three quarter time.

Australia shot 88 percent, while Bailey Mes and Ameliaranne Ekenasio shot only 77 percent for New Zealand.

Ekenasio shot 32 goals and Mes 23.

The Ferns had more intercepts and turnovers but were unable to turn that into an advantage on the score board.

With regional tensions rising over China's aggression in the disputed waterway, the Assistant Chief of Staff to the US Army, Tom Hanson, also suggested Australia will need to make a choice between its long-standing alliance with the United States and economic relationship with Beijing.

"It's very difficult to walk this fine line between balancing the alliance with the United States and the economic engagement with China," he told Radio National.

RNZ reports Winger Portia Woodman and captain Sarah Goss said the response from fans at an all-girls under-15 sevens tournament in Wellington yesterday was fantastic.

"It's our team's mission to inspire the younger girls. Rugby is an awesome sport and it's a career path now," Woodman said.

Goss said such tournaments were a great way of developing young players.

"If we can inspire girls to pick up rugby and get them playing the game in four years' time hopefully they'll be playing alongside us in Tokyo."

De la Fuente, who missed the away defeat and home win against South Africa this month, was included on Monday in the squad that will travel on Friday but has now dropped out.

He is replaced in the 28-man squad by Gabriel Azcarate, who could make his tournament debut if called into action during the away Tests, the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR) said.

Coach Daniel Hourcade said that De la Fuente had failed a medical before praising the Pumas' form.

It's a storyline that's telling about Australia's attitude to Asia's pre-eminent power. On the one hand, China is the country's biggest trading partner, but it also poses a potential regional military threat that's drawing the attention of the US, Australia's closest defence ally.

China, for its part, appears keenly aware of Australia's apparent reluctance to embrace it fully. In recent months, a series of bilateral irritations have sent relations between the two countries plunging to their lowest point for nearly a decade.