The Syrian crisis and plans to boost defence spending and shift elements of the navy to Queensland have driven national security to the centre of Rudd's election campaign.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan has been gone from the capital for eight years.

Saudi Arabia secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia's gas contracts.

Prime Minister John Key says he is horrified by footage of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, and intervention by the US may be inevitable.

The US says chemical weapons had been used in an 'obscene' attack in Syria, and it has additional information about the attack it will make public.

With Labor nudging itself off the floor, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has turned to one of his most significant power bases: restive baby boomers.

Bo Xilai, formerly one of the most powerful and charismatic men in Chinese politics, has admitted that his wife left him because he cheated on her.

British diplomats tried to convince the United States to suppress "very embarrassing" details of MI6's role in the 1953 coup in Iran, documents have disclosed.

One of China's leading forensic scientists has quit, castigating the judicial system, as it was announced the trial of Bo Xilai will take place on Thursday.

Glaring out from beneath heavy eyebrows, face deeply shadowed, Opposition leader Tony Abbott has become the lead face of Labor's new advertising campaign.

As unpalatable as the prospect was for the West, the Arab Spring was always likely to lead to Islamic governments.

Labor is heading for an election loss, with support for Kevin Rudd plummeting to new lows, the latest Newspoll shows.

For a ship on a mission of worldwide importance, the Yong Sheng is a distinctly unimpressive sight.

The campaign for Australia's September 7 election continues to fall Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's way.

Last week, Alexei Navalny, the recently convicted Russian opposition blogger, lawyer and candidate for the post of mayor of Moscow, posted a provocative item on his site.

The standard internet routing protocol sends messages not by the shortest route, but by the fastest and least congested, writes Gwynne Dyer.

While Australia's election debate continues to whirl around the economy, there is a sleeper in the campaign.

New Zealand's leading universities and academics are behind international competitors when it comes to attracting cash from business, a new comparison shows.

As Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition leader Tony Abbott campaigned in Sydney and Melbourne yesterday.

Relatives of Israelis killed in the conflict with the Palestinians accused their Government yesterday of betrayal over a planned mass prisoner release.

Nearly three years after becoming the youngest leader in the history of Britain's Labour Party, Ed Miliband is learning the hard way about the pendulum swing of politics.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott made an unfortunate gaffe as he attacked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's leadership style this morning.

Kevin Rudd may have had a narrow victory in the first leaders' debate but the prime minister's performance was marred by his use of notes, in clear breach of the rules.

The second week of the campaign for the September 7 election dawns with Kevin Rudd conceding Labor remains the underdog.

The cost of power, the weekly food bill, the price of petrol, paying for childcare and the kids' education, keeping a roof over your head ... these are the numbers that really count.

Judges have described Dominique Strauss-Kahn as "king of the party" and the "linchpin" of soirees with prostitutes that resembled "carnage on a pile of mattresses", in a damning indictment of the disgraced former International Monetary Fund chief.