Julia Gillard has elevated two key supporters to the Cabinet, expanded the jobs of three frontbenchers and made four new ministers after a "self-indulgent" leadership dispute.

The changing climate will increase security threats to Australia, including the possible collapse of fragile states in the region and resource wars, a new report has warned.

Cyprus has secured a package of rescue loans in tense, last-ditch negotiations, two EU diplomats said, saving the country from a banking system collapse and bankruptcy.

According to Oxfam, nearly 750,000 people die each year from firearm-related violence.

Will investors keep their money in Cyprus? Or will they trigger a banking collapse and the first ejection from the euro?

Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith supports Anthony Albanese remaining in the Cabinet in the post-leadership ructions reshuffle.

The bats are loose in the parliamentary belfry. But then came the shenanigans from across the ditch, says Kerre McIvor.

Speculation over Prime Minister Julia Gillard's leadership has reached a new pitch after a sudden shift among MPs dismayed at the state of the Government and the looming defeat of a key media reform package.

A decade after Australia joined the invasion of Iraq, demands are still being made for an inquiry into the decision to go to war amid fears the nation could again be dragged into a future conflict in Asia or the Gulf.

"Who should bear which liabilities in the event of a banking collapse?" asks Bryan Gould. "The NZ proposal is an astonishing assault both on the property rights of depositors and on confidence in the banking system."

Two senior Iraqi politicians told Western intelligence that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction on the eve of the 2003 invasion.

Another week, another disaster. Prime Minister Julia Gillard, again crashing in the polls after a brief respite last week, is now staring at the almost certain defeat of a major reform package.

After an immensely long labour, Australian Communication Minister Stephen Conroy has produced a media policy mouse with a modest roar.

Prime Minister John Key has wrapped up his tour of Latin America with a meeting with Brazil's "Iron Lady".

Parliament has condemned the torture of Fijian detainees and urged the Fijian Government to find those responsible.

Movie hardman Ray Winstone has come under fire for likening rising taxes to rape, with a British politician branding the actor's remarks "very upsetting and hurtful".

Christian communities across Pakistan have launched angry protests after a Muslim mob set fire to a Christian neighbourhood in Lahore.

In India recently, British Prime Minister David Cameron rightly refused to apologise for the 1919 Amritsar massacre.

When the Crusaders coaches arrived in Brazil to coach rugby, they found one problem with the fitness approach of the players: Brazil is hot and young men like to look good when their shirts are off.

Prime Minister John Key says he will raise the possibility of Brazilian energy company Petrobras returning to New Zealand when he meets the country's President.

Life is about to get even tougher for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, already burdened with enough bad news to all but guarantee her defeat in the September 14 election.

Christian community leaders in Lahore say the violence unleashed on the Pakistani city's Joseph colony erupted after a drinking session involving two friends, one Muslim and the other Christian.