Obama's visit will give badly needed boost in election year.

Western food manufacturers are buying so little sustainable palm oil that the system set up to limit damage to tropical forests caused by the world's cheapest vegetable oil is in danger of collapse.

Our closest relatives in the animal world, chimpanzees and orangutans, have long been known to use tools. But octopuses?

Australia and Sri Lanka have agreed to toughen measures against people smugglers.

The official death toll from Wednesday's quake stood at 809 last night, but the Indonesian Red Cross believes up to 4,000 people are lying beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Authorities have made contact with three Australians who had been unaccounted for in the earthquake-ravaged Indonesian city of Padang, but concerns remain for four others who still have not been in touch with officials.

Greenpeace is trying to keep up pressure on Fonterra to limit its use of palm kernel feed with a public rally outside the Ports of Tauranga.

Farmers have described Greenpeace's occupation of an inbound cargo vessel as 'economic treason.'

Police make second arrest while expressing serious safety concerns for activists aboard a cargo ship off the Tauranga coast.

New Zealand is ready to offer assistance to Indonesia after a large earthquake killed at least 46 people and injured hundreds more.

A New Zealand man caught up in yesterday's powerful earthquake in Indonesia tells of his experience.