AUSTRALIA

Ryan Lochte became the first swimmer to break a long course world record since controversial polyurethane swimsuits were banned last year while James Magnussen ended a far longer Australian wait at the world championships Thursday.

Only a very small portion of these people are receiving anti-viral drugs to treat their condition.

Public health officials say roughly 130 million injection drug users worldwide suffer from hepatitis C, according to a study published online by World Health Organization said on Tuesday in The Lancet, which coincides with 'World Hepatitis Day.'

The rising super swimmer of the U.S. did it again. Ryan Lochte once again overpowered 14-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps in the World Swimming Championship in Shanghai on Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released data stating that about 1.4 million people suffer from hepatitis A (HAV) alone. Together, Hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) are the leading causes of liver cancer in the world, accounting for 78 percent of cancer related cases. An important aspect of the report states that most people who have contracted the virus are more often than not unaware of the infection.

An Air Canada plane bound for Vancouver was forced to dump fuel and return to Sydney on Thursday after crew reported smoke coming from an oven in the galley, the airline said.

Asian stocks slid more than 1 percent in thin volume on Thursday as investors trimmed positions with just three trading days to go before a deadline to lift the U.S. debt ceiling, while the Australian dollar showed resilience in the face of global sovereign risks.

The euro struggled to find any friends in Asia on Thursday, on renewed fears of contagion in Europe, while the U.S. dollar remained on the defensive as Washington showed no signs of progress in debt agreement.

Housing in Australia has become "severely unaffordable", and it will take 10 years of flat-lined prices to rectify, a study has found.

China is building two aircraft carriers as part of a military modernization program that is causing concern among other Asian countries, sources said on Wednesday.

Afrikaners have lived in South Africa so long that they regard themselves as ?Africans? or ?the white tribe of Africa.?

Michael Phelps is used to celebrating 200 meters butterfly victories but the American's gold medal at the world swimming championships on Wednesday was particularly sweet.

Relief was etched all across Michael Phelps' face Wednesday after the American won his first gold medal of the world swimming championships in Shanghai, one year to the day before he begins his final Olympics campaign.

A British prop designer who makes replicas of the menacing Stormtrooper helmets featured in Star Wars films won a legal battle Wednesday against director George Lucas, who took him to the High Court in 2008 over copyright infringement.

Perry Chen was working in the New Orleans' music industry when he faced a cash-crunch during the city's JazzFest. He wanted to bring a European musician to perform at the festival but couldn't raise the money. A decade later, other artists are now reaping the benefits of Chen's brainstorm: online fundraising site Kickstarter.

The soccer-ball shaped puff of interstellar gas was discovered by an amateur astronomer, in what is said to be one of the best looks at a planetary nubula, which are created by the last breaths of a dying star, Wired reported.

Fund managers are weighing up their defensive investment options as a litany of poor economic indicators from the UK, Europe and the United States hammers home fears another global recession is on its way.

How fast does the universe expand? A new measurement, the most accurate one to date, was introduced by a PhD student in Australia.

A PhD candidate at The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at University of Western Australia in Perth has made the daunting task of calculating the size of the universe by refining the method of figuring out how quickly it is expanding.

The speed and direction of a distant galaxy can be easily measured by analyzing light coming from the galaxy. But to determine the galaxy's distance from Earth was much more difficult.

A PhD student has worked out the most accurate measurements ever, of how fast the universe is expanding.