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.

Revelations that a convicted terrorist passed scrutiny as an asylum seeker and was held in a low-security detention centre has sharpened criticism of the Government's failure to control boat arrivals from Indonesia.

The defence for Bradley Manning sought to score early points at his trial yesterday.

Editorial: For 90 years, the modern secular state forged by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire has, by and large, served Turkey well.

Peers from all parties have warned the House of Lords it would exceed its powers if it derailed plans to legalise gay marriage.

Labor MPs are becoming increasingly nervous about the September 14 Australian election as polls continue to turn against Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her minority Government.

A visit by a foreign minister of Japan would not normally attract more than polite interest in this country, writes the Herald in an editorial.

A secret affair with the potential to rock the British Government was revealed yesterday, leaving Prime Minister David Cameron 'stunned'.

When the US charged into Afghanistan in 2001 in hot pursuit of Al Qaeda, analysts sought deeper explanations for the Bush Administration's foray into the nation that humbled British and Russian arms.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has visited MI5 headquarters to thank spies for their round-the-clock work.

The United States wants to continue a criminal data matching scheme for assessing risks of threats that it began with New Zealand in advance of the Rugby World Cup.

New Zealand edged a step closer to committing peacekeepers to a new area of the Middle East.

Yesterday's meeting between Murray McCully and John Kerry in Washington DC was a sign that things between the US and New Zealand have moved to a new plane.

It's usually the Terminator who says "I'll be back".

Controversy continued to swirl around the White House yesterday with developments on two fronts.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's change of heart to support gay marriage may indicate numbers shifting in support of legalising same-sex marriage among parliamentarians.

Preschools and childcare centres in New South Wales may be given the legal right to refuse to enrol children who have not been vaccinated.

As a former Prime Minister and a man very firm in his views, Jim Bolger has always been a bit stroppy, writes Audrey Young.

Al-Qaeda's Syrian wing is financing its activities by selling oil from the fields that once helped to prop up the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

David Cameron has been told by Conservative activists that he must repair the broken relationship between the party leadership and the grassroots.

The cost of policing the Ecuadorean Embassy in Knightsbridge while WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange takes refuge inside has now risen to £3.3 million ($6.2 million), Scotland Yard has disclosed.

A drone the size of a fighter jet took off from the deck of an American aircraft carrier for the first time in a test flight that could open the way for unmanned aircraft.

Business and economic commentators have given Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan's sixth - and probably last - Budget a unanimous thumbs down.