Australia's federal government has extended its ban on KPMG bidding for new government contracts until at least the end of February, citing what it called serious ethical failings. The move follows allegations that audit partners at the firm misused client data and then mishandled a whistleblower's complaint about the matter.

New Zealand's annual inflation rate tumbled to 3.7 percent. The slowdown has raised the odds that the Reserve Bank will lift its benchmark interest rate at next week's policy meeting, even as price pressures are forecast to pick up again soon.

New Zealand's state broadcaster TVNZ faces its first staff strike in two decades after the E tū union rejected a 2.5% pay offer that workers say falls well short of inflation.

A newly discovered flaw in PHP, the programming language underpinning much of the internet, has already knocked government sites, schools and web hosts offline across Australia, and experts warn more breaches are coming.