Airline passengers flying into Heathrow face 16 more years of stacking and stress at the world's busiest airport

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dived to the bottom of the Baltic Sea on board a submersible to explore a shipwreck, the latest in a long line of publicity stunts.

Italy's Prime Minister issued an ultimatum yesterday to the powerful Northern League, saying that racist remarks had shamed the country.

In the bearpit of Australian politics, it helps to have the Terminator on your side.

The United States hopes to capitalise on the surge of New Zealanders heading to that country by setting up a dedicated marketing organisation in Auckland.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has firmly taken control of Australia's political agenda.

Malcolm Turnbull says he knows many people would prefer he lead Australia's Liberal Party rather than Tony Abbott, but that they should vote for the party anyway.

Australian authorities yesterday gave up the search for survivors of yet another asylum boat tragedy, with one young child dead and eight people missing.

Shakespeare, in one of Nelson Mandela's favourite lines, now strangely apposite, says that "the valiant never taste of death but once".

Egypt's military authorities ordered the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader yesterday for inciting an outbreak of violence that left at least 51 of the movement's supporters dead.

The Australian Labor Party has cleared its decks for the coming election, setting aside other business and raising speculation Prime Minister Kevin Rudd could call an early vote.

Fifty years ago, the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land presented two petitions framed by ochre bark paintings to the federal Parliament.

The spectre of the 2001 Tampa crisis - in which the SAS was sent to take over a Norwegian container ship off Christmas Island - has been thrust into the Australian election campaign.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has widened his lead over Tony Abbott as the country's preferred leader, according to a new poll.

France's Government spies on its own citizens in the same way as the United States, it was claimed yesterday.

Fresh from toppling the country's first democratically elected leader, Egypt's military risked further outrage from the Muslim Brotherhood by arresting the group's Supreme Guide as he was staying in a resort by the Mediterranean coast.

Australia's "new-old Prime Minister", as some are calling him, has been at pains to stress that he is a changed character. He wants MPs to be "a little kinder" to each other.

Prime Minister John Key has made a second top-level intelligence and security appointment, as a Parliamentary committee starts hearings on the GCSB.

Resurgent Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is moving fast to set the political agenda and fix crucial policies.

MPs will give way to New Zealand soldiers - including SAS troops - and their families this evening for a ceremony in Parliament's debating chamber.

Aussie Prime Minister Kevin Rudd denies he's promoted a record number of women to his cabinet to stem a backlash among female voters.

Kevin Rudd's spectacular 'Messiah-like' comeback as Australian prime minister has given the ruling Labor Party a dramatic boost.

Julia Gillard wasn't sunk by sexism. She was sunk by economics, writes Liam Dann. That's not to say Australia's first female Prime Minister didn't have to battle some dreadful misogynistic rubbish.

US President Barack Obama is to meet members of Nelson Mandela's family during his visit to South Africa, the White House says.

Of the many distinguished world figures who came through Government House in my time, the most memorable has to be Nelson Mandela, who came to New Zealand in 1995.

The sustained protests in New Zealand against the 1981 rugby tour were well known to many black people, even those in prison, such as Mandela.

Sixty-three years after his premature death, writer George Orwell has received the ultimate celebrity endorsement.

As the polls are showing a lift in Labor's election prospects since the ousting of former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, new leader Kevin Rudd is now facing major policy decisions that will significantly affect the Government's election prospects.