It would've paid new mothers their full salary for six months, but now Tony Abbott has had to pull his signature paid parental leave scheme off the table.

Japan says the death of journalist Kenji Goto is an 'atrocious act' as Isis threatens to kill a Jordanian pilot if a female prisoner isn't returned by Friday.

Tony Abbott's address to the National Press Club today is being seen as a leadership make or break event.

The Labor party is on the brink of a stunning return to power in Queensland just one term after it was crushed by the Liberal National Party.

For all his faults, and they were many, John Howard had a sure-fire ability to read the popular mood and act accordingly.

A network of conservative advocacy groups backed by Charles and David Koch aims to spend a staggering US$889 million in advance of the next White House election, part of an expansive strategy to....

Did the PM realise it would happen as Auckland was celebrating its 175th anniversary? The tribute to the King that he issued suggests his advisers were not giving much thought to the gestures.

Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Greece, after his radical left-wing movement forged an unwieldy alliance with a far-right party.

Tony Abbott has been criticised over his decision to make gaffe-prone Prince Philip a Knight of the Order of Australia.

The drawn-out saga of the alleged fleecing of France's richest woman - a senile L'Oreal heiress - has finally come to court.

As Alexander Litvinenko lay dying from radiation poisoning in 2006, he named the man he thought had ordered his murder: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was billed as an early dress rehearsal for the Republican presidential nomination fight.

Stephen Jacobi writes: If the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is not finished soon, we may need to move on to something else.

An Australian politician is under investigation after allegedly travelling to Syria to join Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamist extremists.

Five years ago the prospect that Greece might need to revert to a currency of its own filled the euro zone with horror.

Global markets are braced for an extended bout of extreme volatility after left-wing party Syriza stormed to victory in the Greek elections.

Anti-austerity party on the brink of a landmark election victory in Greece as critics claim it could haul the country out of the Eurozone and leave it bankrupt.

A 46-year-old Ukrainian tank commander says politicians might yet stop the conflict that grips the east of his country, but supplies of arms from the West would bring a quicker result.

A radical leftist party that wants to cancel Greece's European Union debts of more than 200 billion ($300 billion) went into today's election with a seven-point lead.

Late Saudi King Abdullah was hailed as "a strong advocate for women" - so why are four of his daughters reportedly under house arrest?

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia has died at the age of 90, bringing to an end the rule of the world's oldest monarch.

The PM's halfway up a mountain in the Swiss Alps when he takes a break from his deliciously cliched fondue dinner to explain the Davos experience over a dodgy phone connection.

King Abdullah, who has ruled Saudi Arabia since August 2005 and sought to modernise the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, has died.

America's most unrepentant news network has issued a string of on-air apologies for broadcasting erroneous information, including an expression of regret.

Former National MP Michael Cox says Anzus conflict in 1984 will hurt chances of Helen Clark becoming United Nations secretary general.