India's ruling Congress party admitted defeat last night as the Narendra Modi wave washed over the country in a scale few had predicted.

John Key has said he is aware of "some" but not all of the tools used by the GCSB amid fresh questions over an intrusive piece of spyware showcased by the United States' NSA to their Kiwi partners.

John Key needs to front up about the involvement of the GCSB in the National Security Agency's international spies' club, says the internet lobby group.

The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against rebel-held areas is resulting in genetically malformed babies, according to doctors.

Is this how NOT to sell a Budget? Australia's Treasurer Joe Hockey was snapped puffing on a cigar, and later dancing in his office before selling A$80b in cuts.

Whether by design or merry happenstance, Finance Minister Bill English will stand to present his maiden surplus today.

The photograph of the two men was nothing less than remarkable.

New documents released by Edward Snowden show New Zealand's GCSB closely enmeshed with some of the most controversial parts of the United States' spying apparatus.

Members of Barack Obama's Secret Service team were repeatedly taken off their job in the middle of 2011.

Tonight is make-or-break night for Prime Minister Tony Abbott as his Government reveals its first Budget to a nation that is expecting the worst.

The volunteer in charge of the polling station was candid about the sort of election he admired.

There's a scary echo in Prime Minister Tony Abbott's ear. As he weathers a storm of anger and protest before Tuesday's Budget - much of it within his own political bloc - he can hear his old familiar mantras repeating.

An extremely rare female deep-water megamouth shark has been caught off the coast of Shizuoka in Japan, in what is believed to be only the 58th known sighting of the animal on record.

More than 170 sharks have been caught and 50 destroyed as part of Australia's controversial culling policy, government figures have revealed.

President Barack Obama poked fun at the press, his political rivals and his own healthcare policy, as he spoke at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.

Ukraine's Government said yesterday that the country was now at war with pro-Russia insurgents.

Nicholas Ngonyama gazes across the valley to a palatial cluster of buildings whose thatched roofs glow in the autumn sunshine.

The Australian Government's "framework" for its economic policy has finally been released in the report of its special commission of audit that recommends vast cuts to spending on health, welfare and education.

The men, most masked by balaclavas, many carrying baseball bats, some wearing sidearms, swarmed around the black Jeep Patriot.

In one fell swoop, Tony Abbott has angered his own backbenchers, alienated his core supporters and earned stinging criticism from economists and the press, writes Kathy Marks.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott, already forced to water down his "signature" paid parental leave scheme.

Former New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner's "brave" revelation that he has undergone a mastectomy will help to break down the stigma around male breast cancer.