China's state-run media has stepped up criticism of US technology companies including Apple and Microsoft as tensions escalate over cyberspying and hacking allegations.

Hopes rose of a resolution of the Ukraine crisis after the inauguration of Petro Poroshenko as the post-revolution President yesterday.

Italian businessmen accused of bribing politicians in exchange for contracts for a huge flood-prevention project came up with a novel tactic for evading police attention.

Scientists have called on the British Government to give its immediate approval to laws allowing three-parent babies after experts found the techniques were safe.

A major new poll on Australians' view of themselves and the world has revealed a nation nervous at the rise of China

An Australian man who died in a US drone strike alongside a New Zealander was introduced to radical Islam at a Christchurch mosque, it's reported.

Prime Minister John Key has announced a $1 million package for tourism in Samoa on his Pacific Mission.

Editorial: From time to time, national referendums have thrown a spanner in the EU's plans for closer ties between its members.

At the Golden State's nadir the jibes came thick and fast. "California is so broke that I saw a going-out-of-business sign at a meth lab," joked late night TV host Jay Leno.

The hand of history lies heavily on the beaches of Normandy, where next week the leaders of the World War II allies will pay tribute.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ruled out collecting student debts from the estates of the dead.

Editorial: Few eyebrows were raised when the army seized power in Thailand last week. This was, after all, the 12th military coup since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

The Chinese government is pushing domestic banks to remove high-end servers made by IBM in an escalation of the dispute with the US over spying claims.

Editorial: The integrity of this country's immigration system is, of course, very important. But that system must not be applied so austerely as to appear utterly inflexible.

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

Last Monday I sat in Auckland Town Hall and watched people from 65 countries taking an oath that made them New Zealand citizens.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says he won't surrender his Budget in the face of pressure to compromise over its most unpopular measures.

We've been warned to expect a vicious election campaign, but let's hope it doesn't descend to the depths plumbed this week by a candidate in Britain's local body elections.

When Prince Charles compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, in a private conversation in Canada this week, it was far from a first, writes Tim Stanley.

Prince Charles is facing calls to ‘abdicate’ from a British Labour MP after he reportedly compared Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler in relation to his actions in Ukraine.

Australia's PM is feeling widespread anger to his tough Budget first hand - but criticism stepped up a notch when he was caught in a conspiratorial wink yesterday.

It was a clash that pitted one of the finest journalists of his generation against a now-disgraced former world leader, but this was no modern-day Frost-Nixon.

Silvio Berlusconi was taken aback when Jeremy Paxman asked him whether it was true that he had once called the German chancellor "an un----able lard a---".

Kiwis are being urged not to travel to some areas of Thailand and to be extremely careful in others after martial law was declared across the country.