Syrian state media had announced that "Operation Northern Storm" would retake Aleppo "within days" after regime forces captured Qusair at the beginning of June.

Among the few possessions Edward Snowden had with him when he met journalists at Hong Kong's Mira Hotel was a copy of Angler.

Regime change would geographically isolate Hizbollah from critical Iranian support, significantly weakening Iran's influence in the region, writes Chris Mahony.

The resounding victory by moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani in the Iranian presidential election was a welcome surprise.

A former head of Czech military intelligence has admitted following the wife of the country's Prime Minister on the orders of a female aide at the centre of a sex and corruption scandal.

Opposition fighters in Syria are preparing for a major onslaught by government forces in their northern strongholds around Aleppo.

Two years ago, at the beginning of the violence in Syria, I was asked to write a blog in the British Medical Journal on behalf of Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The Australian Parliament continues to sit in a surreal session in which policy still takes second place to a leadership spill.

The British Government has been battered by claims over spying and Syria as the G8 summit begins in Northern Ireland.

The surprise victory of reformist candidate Hassan Rowhani in the Iranian presidential elections triggered a predictably harsh reaction yesterday.

Australia's Parliament resumed yesterday for its final eight days before the September 14 election, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard fending off attacks.

This mayoral hopeful in Mexico promises to eat, sleep most of the day and donate his leftover litter to fill potholes.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will support American plans to impose a no-fly zone over parts of Syria.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on their home ground this week.

Hassan Rowhani, the portly cleric who set Iran's presidential election alight, was never meant to be the standard-bearer of the country's battered reform movement.

Short of a last-minute bloodbath that would almost certainly destroy whatever slim chance remains of Labor's survival.

Revelations of snooping into private data and communications on a massive scale by the Obama Administration has shed a little dayligh.

A former spy boss says New Zealand is a democratic and free country because of our relationship with the United States and other large powers.

Iran's clerical authorities are taking no chances in this week's election for a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard's leadership again hangs by a thread as Labor MPs in fear of their seats increasingly swing to ousted predecessor Kevin Rudd.

Chinese and US Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama's first summit appears to have been successful with accords reached on cyber security and military-to-military communication.

Australia's parliamentary human rights watchdog has expressed concerns over the exclusion of expatriate New Zealanders from the new national disability insurance scheme, despite having to help fund it.

On May 29, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange told Democracy Now! that the Obama Administration's bid to convict Bradley Manning was a "show trial".

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has told his Japanese counterpart that he is hopeful Japan will be open to resuming talks with New Zealand to find a diplomatic solution to whaling.

The Australian Parliament rose this week for a break before its final two-week session ahead of the September 14 election, leaving Prime Minister Julia Gillard less than 100 days to perform a miracle.