Prime Minister John Key's arrival in Brisbane was a lot less low key than for the main players of the G20.

New Zealand is a ‘guest’ at the G20 - a summit of the leaders from the 20th richest, most powerful countries in the world. Key has described it as a chance in a life time.

A baby kiwi got more of a smile out of the German Chancellor than the charm of John Key yesterday, but Angela Merkel left the Prime Minister with far more than a handful of feathers.

ECB reluctance to adopt full-scale quantitative-easing policies is prompting German comparisons with Japan's stagnation over the past 15 years.

Russia's economy faces a financial stranglehold and President Vladimir Putin's inner circle will be hit with asset freezes and travel bans.

The new Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, is an arch-Eurosceptic who has said he could support Britain pulling out of the 28-member bloc.

Winemakers in Europe, Australia and California are protesting a decision to move forward with the introduction of .vin and .wine as top-level domains.

The EU has to rely on antitrust and privacy rules to curb Google's search-engine dominance and can't just break up the company, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.

Tax breaks for Apple, Starbucks and Fiat are under investigation in a clampdown on special treatment for companies.

Europe's leaders held crisis talks in Brussels on the future of the European Union after stunning victories by populist parties on the far right and left in pan-Europe elections.

The principles underpinning the European Union are now an open target after parties campaigning against the euro.

After fighting to save its single currency, the European Union faces a test of political legitimacy when voters in its 28 member states elect a new European Parliament.

Sweeping gains by Hungary's neo-Nazi Jobbik party provoked concern across Europe yesterday after the anti-Semitic organisation won one in five votes in a general election.

Vladimir Putin will not stop trying to expand Russia until he has “conquered” Belarus, the Baltic states and Finland, one of his closest former advisers has said.

Up to 16,000 Russian troops have tightened their stranglehold on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, openly defying the US and the European Union.

Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has appealed for the US and Britain to adopt the "strongest means" against Russia.

A Jerusalem Post photographer has snapped a completely unplanned and highly awkward photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and German leader Angela Merkel.

Europe faces a vital week in an increasingly vicious tussle with Russia over the future of Ukraine.

Anthony Peregrine sees the best of Nice, a magnet to the rich for centuries.

Funded by the European Union to the tune of $140 million, a deft bit of reinvention has turned France's drug and crime epicentre into the nation's Capital of Culture. Jenna Hand goes along for the ride.

Two-thirds of Europe's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are still afraid to show their sexuality in public, and a quarter have been victims of physical or verbal attacks, a European Union report says.

"Who should bear which liabilities in the event of a banking collapse?" asks Bryan Gould. "The NZ proposal is an astonishing assault both on the property rights of depositors and on confidence in the banking system."