the mess the Republicans are making of their challenge has been illustrated yet again by Donald Trump's bumptious hijacking of the British Open women's golf championship.

We were liquored up and keen to dance and they saw us straight away. An unattached white male? Boom.

Unlike Greece, there was never much of a boom. There has only been a bust.

John Howard famously couldn't bring himself to apologise to the stolen generations. This week Bronwyn Bishop finally succumbed over taking taxpayers for an expensive (helicopter) ride.

After decades of chanting "Death to America", Iran's rulers have finally embraced a slogan that celebrates life and procreation.

Britain was accused yesterday of playing into the hands of China after it refused the political dissident Ai Weiwei a six-month business visa and claimed he lied on his application form.

From the outside, the Security Council looks like a shed out the back of the United Nations.

What happens when the Secretary General's term ends next year is only faintly more transparent than appointing a new Pope, writes Audrey Young.

Some people, such as Britain's Prime Minister, will be glad that Lord Sewel has quit the House of Lords after apparently being caught in a sex and drugs sting.

If Labour is to have any credibility, Andrew Little needs to have the guts to announce it will oppose the TPPA, writes Jane Kelsey.

WATCH VIDEO: Lord in charge of policing standards in UK Parliament caught snorting cocaine with two prostitutes.

First Donald Trump questioned whether Sen. John McCain was truly a war hero.

He tells Kenyan president "bad things happen" when countries don't accept their citizens' right to be gay.

Consciences stir as report reveals how burden of disenfranchisement falls on poor blacks excluded for life.

The White House has announced that it is finalising a plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

The Republican presidential candidate and his campaign give shifting accounts of the medical deferment that meant he avoided being deployed to Vietnam.

Britain must accept that "sooner or later" ground troops and tanks will have to be sent into combat to overcome Isis a former chief of the Armed Forces has said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel held out the prospect of limited debt relief as crisis-hit Greece prepares to reopen its banks three weeks after they were shut.

Donald Trump, who has rocketed to the front of the Republican presidential race, flippantly belittled a Senator's war service, inviting a torrent of criticism.

Iran, once OPEC's second-biggest producer, will boost its oil exports by 500,000 barrels a day immediately after sanctions are lifted

Donald Trump, the provocative Republican presidential candidate, has caused anger among his party members by attacking Republican grandee John McCain.

The European Union seems to be using imaginary numbers in constructing a bailout for Greece. Here are some of them.

The fact that so many Republicans are comfortable with the thought of Donald Trump in the Oval Office shows how warped the party has become, writes Paul Thomas.

Iran and the US have been thrown together in the fight against the Islamic State. Originally reluctant allies, they are now better placed to work in tandem.

Greece's approval of austerity measures that were overwhelmingly rejected by their citizens just days ago was a stunning defeat for populist forces that have pushed for a break from years of grinding cuts.

The deal to curb Iran's nuclear weapons programme came at the end of two years of an intricate ballet, involving United States President Barack Obama and leaders of six other countries.

The New Zealand Middle East Business Council says they are monitoring "the potential of opening up of trade with Iran".

While the world is distracted by the Greek saga and China something really important is going on: Iran and oil.