Topix: Latest and Most Recent News from Oceania [March ‘11 Diet]

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HOBBIT PLAYERS: Martin Freeman and the cast of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. At least half the 75 main character roles in the two Hobbit movies could go to overseas actors.

Source: Kiwi actors ready to role-play

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New Zealanders should be safe from any radiation spilling out of Japan's damaged nuclear reactors in the wake of Friday's magnitude 9 earthquake, and subsequent tsunami.

Source: New Zealand safe from radiation -- expert

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A police statement said a man in his 70s died Saturday when a car he was driving left a highway and hit trees near the town of Mareeba in northern Queensland state.

Source: Owsley 'Bear' Stanley dies in Australian car crash

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LEAVING TOWN: Economists says Christchurch could lose 4 percent of its population over the coming year following the February 22 earthquake.

Source: Christchurch to take population hit

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Owsley "Bear" Stanley, a 1960s counterculture icon who worked with The Grateful Dead and was a prolific LSD producer, died in a car crash in Australia, his family said Monday.

Source: '60s LSD figure Owsley Stanley dies in Australia

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A FISHERMAN who survived a monster croc attack in far north Queensland is undergoing a third operation to wash out badly infected wounds.

Source: Croc victim undergoes more surgery

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PRINCE William will visit some of Australia's areas worst-hit by floods and cyclone Yasi during a three-day visit this week.

Source: Prince William to visit flood areas

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Officials in Papua New Guinea and Indonesia are on the alert in the wake of the deadly quake and tsunami that hit Japan An Acehnese couple enjoy sunset on top of an escape tower built to provide protection for residents in case of a tsunami, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Source: Asia remains vigilant for Japan aftershock

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Tosha Thakkar may have lived out her final moments inside the black suitcase in which her body was ultimately found - floating in a canal.

Source: Victim lived out last moments in suitcase

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Japan's Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant. AAP Images AUSTRALIAN experts have urged calm over Japan's nuclear crisis, saying none of the protected nuclear cores within the damaged plants appear to have been breached.

Source: Cores still intact: nuclear experts