With just days left in Afghanistan's presidential campaign, Abdullah Abdullah arrives in Kandahar for one of his last rallies before the election.

A peck on the cheek? Yes, please! In France, everyone does it. It's a nationwide ritual, a salutation that connects friends and family, spanning all ages and physiques and unembarrassed by gender.

Approximately 188 million people are eligible to vote in Indonesia and on July 9 they will choose a new president, writes Chris Wilson.

Australia's war on bikies has crossed the Nullarbor with the establishment of another federal strike team in Western Australia.

The National Guards rolled in under the cover of darkness, firing tear gas and rubber bullets as they advanced with bulldozers and armoured vehicles.

The nightclub dancer at the centre of the sex scandal that contributed to the downfall of Silvio Berlusconi is living a high-spending lifestyle.

Not too much was expected when Australia went to the International Court of Justice seeking to end Japanese whale hunting in the Southern Ocean.

New Zealand and Australia yesterday simultaneously lifted all travel sanctions on key members of the Fiji military and its regime.

French head of state Francois Hollande is under pressure to carry out a radical Cabinet reshuffle after the ruling Socialists were clobbered in the first electoral test.

As his decline and fall continues apace, disgraced ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi has concocted another cause close to his heart with which to win back votes for his moribund Forza Italia Party.

Sitting on a podium, Mustafa Sarigul, the opposition mayoral candidate for Istanbul, talked to a female audience in the Republican People's Party's city headquarters.

After a rush of emergency meetings to frame its strategy, the West is now scrutinising the impact of a first volley of sanctions against Russia but doubts persist whether Europe will swiftly follow the United States in hiking up the pressure.

Russian forces have completed their takeover of the Ukrainian navy's assets in Crimea with the storming of the minesweeper Cherkessy.

China has embarked on a process of financial liberalisation and the sheer numbers involved mean it will have profound implications across the region, writes Brian Fallow.

Australia's federal Attorney-General George Brandis is serious when he says on his watch, "people do have a right to be bigots".

On the edge of a Kabul neighbourhood an election poster of presidential candidate Abdul Rasoul Sayyaf is damaged, partly scraped away by someone trying to remove it.

After three decades and amid a mix of anger, derision and praise, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has resurrected the titles of knight and dame.

David Cameron played a "nukes on the loose" war game with Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and other world leaders to see how they would cope with a terrorist nuclear attack, it has emerged.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott insists he's not bringing knights and dames back in the Australian honours system to lock Australia into the monarchy.

He was caught with his trousers down and stripped of credibility, but Craig Thomson remained defiant yesterday after being jailed for stealing union money to pay for sex with prostitutes.

Concern is growing that Western pressure, including a suspension from the G8, has failed to dent Russian President Vladimir Putins military ambitions.

The far-right National Front (FN) has sent shockwaves through France's political establishment.