Foreign minister uses emojis to answer online questions

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has conducted what is reportedly the world's first political emoji interview, using an angry red face to describe Russia's Vladimir Putin and a running man to depict her boss Tony Abbott.

Buzzfeed interviewed Bishop by sending her text messages. And Bishop responded using only emojis, the ideograms used for various visual messages sent online, many of which are based on variations of a smiley face.

"The foreign minister accepted the challenge in the spirit in which it was offered to her," her spokeswoman said.