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.

Retired archbishop Desmond Tutu has said he is happy Nelson Mandela is dead - so he does not have to see what South Africa’s current leaders are doing to the country.

Australia is on track to notch what experts are calling an "Asia Inc" trade trifecta.

The Australian government used up more than 130 pages of correspondence talking about a viral web plug-in that replaces pictures of their Prime Minister with ‘cute kittens’.

United States Vice-President Joe Biden met Ukraine's new pro-Western leaders in a symbolic show of America's support for Kiev.

Australia may be left without a climate change policy following mining magnate Clive Palmer's decision.

Defeating grim expectations of a failure, talks on the Ukrainian crisis have led to a deal aimed at hauling the region back from the brink.

The widening scandal over the allegedly corrupt dealings of a company touting for big contracts with the state-owned Sydney Water Corporation has claimed another senior Liberal head.

Why would anyone believe Seymour Hersh?

The glow of attention and applause abroad has failed to impress Australians as Prime Minister Tony Abbott returns home to plunging popularity and growing opposition to policies.

Minutes before he was hacked to death by a Hindu mob, veteran Muslim politician Ehsan Jafri reached for his phone and dialled one last number.

Governments must switch from fossil fuels to nuclear, wind and solar energy to avoid a global warming catastrophe in a move costing about 300 billion ($578 billion) a year.

Hillary Clinton has so far artfully dodged questions about her 2016 US presidential ambitions from the press, supporters and potential Democrat rivals.

Narendra Modi, the leading candidate to be India's next prime minister, has acknowledged for the first time that he is married, confirming the rumour that he was forced into an arranged marriage as a child.

As a former leader of the free world George W Bush had significantly greater access to world leaders than other budding artists. Which is why his art is so, er, surprising.

'I prefer death to surrender," said Pakistan's former military dictator, Pervez Musharraf, on April 1 to the special court that is trying him on five counts of high treason.

A Dutch priest who refused to leave the Syrian city of Homs when it was besieged was beaten and shot dead in his monastery by a masked gunman yesterday.