British American Tobacco (BAT) launched an advertising campaign in New Zealand Wednesday opposing plans to introduce plain packaging, in a move the government immediately dismissed as a waste of money.

New Zealand announced in-principle support for plain packaging in April and has enthusiastically welcomed world-first legislation in Australia forcing tobacco to be sold in drab, uniform packaging with graphic health warnings.

Australia confirmed Saturday that its diplomatic post in Washington had been preparing for Julian Assange's possible extradition to the U.S. but played it down as "contingency planning".

Trade Minister Craig Emerson said the Australian embassy in Washington had been "getting prepared for the possibility of an extradition" but stressed that there was nothing unusual in diplomats bracing for all eventualities.

Australian scientists said Friday there was now "striking evidence" of extensive southward migration of tropical fish and declines in other species due to climate change, in a major ocean report card.

Compiled by more than 80 of Australia's leading marine experts for the government science body CSIRO, the snapshot of global warming's effects on the island continent's oceans warned of "significant impacts".

Australia said Thursday it has no plans to ban smoking after a key court ruling allowing cigarettes to be sold in plain packets, describing the health battle against tobacco as "one step at a time."

Tobacco products will have to be sold in drab, uniform packaging with graphic health warnings in Australia from December 1 after global cigarette firms lost a constitutional challenge against the world-first plan.

A boatload of asylum-seekers picked up by a Singaporean merchant vessel after a distress call was Thursday accused of acting like pirates after forcing the captain to take them to Australia.

The Singapore-flagged MV Parsifal picked up the 67 asylum-seekers from a people-smuggling ship off the Indonesian island of Java on Monday in response to a distress call relayed by Australian authorities.

Australia's struggling BlueScope Steel Monday announced a U.S. $1.36 billion joint venture with Japan's Nippon Steel in a bid to tap new markets and help ease concerns over its balance sheet.

The 50-50 joint venture, NS BlueScope Coated Products, will see Nippon Steel acquire half of BlueScope's interest in its Southeast Asian and North American building products businesses.

Australia rescued more than 200 asylum-seekers from a boat off Indonesia, officials said Friday as they confirmed that some navy ships are literally cracking under the strain of their work.

Authorities raced to help a vessel in Indonesian waters north of the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island late Wednesday, transferring the 211 people on board to naval ships.

A former Qantas worker found guilty of producing a do-it-yourself jihad manual had his conviction reinstated by Australia's High Court Friday, with judges ruling he had extremist intentions.

Lebanese-born Belal Khazaal, an ex-Qantas cabin cleaner, was jailed for 12 years in 2009 over the Arabic-language handbook, which included how-to guides on bomb-making, assassinations, kidnappings and shooting down planes.

Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has hit out at Facebook over its failure to immediately take down a page that stereotyped Aboriginal people as hopeless petrol-sniffing drunks.

While the content could not be viewed Thursday, Conroy said Facebook should have shut down the site as soon as it was brought to its attention and urged more cooperation from the social network.

Australia's central bank held interest rates at 3.50 percent for a second consecutive month Tuesday, saying previous cuts were still trickling through the economy despite a softer global outlook.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens said the world economy had cooled after rallying earlier in the year and global gross domestic product was now expected to grow "at no more than average pace" this year.