Simon Sebag Montefiore tells Stephen Jewell about writing ‘the greatest story ever told’ and why the history of Jerusalem is the story of the world.

Middle East tension poses a threat to the delicate global recovery.

Higher fuel prices are likely to mean lower profit margins and lower real wages.

All New Zealanders who wanted to leave Libya had now left, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says.

Food writer Leanne Kitchen has had an enviable career, including writing a new cookbook, which took her to delicious Turkish nooks and crannies.

Investors flocked to oil and gold on world markets overnight amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, with violence in Libya gathering steam.

There is also nothing moderate about a government instituting a system of torture against political dissidents.

Libya's second largest city, Benghazi, has fallen to anti-government forces after a crack army unit defected to the opposition and clashes spread to the capital, Tripoli, residents and news reports say.

The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has appeared on that country's state-owned television to make a statement denouncing the current civil unrest.

The wave of protests across the Middle East and North Africa don't yet constitute revolution and real democratic change may be decades away, Auckland University associate professor Stephen Hoadley says.

Clashes between protesters and security forces left dozens of people injured in Libya today.

The Egyptian military has reinforced its efforts to try to return the country to normal.

A Kiwi in Egypt says it's becoming clear Hosni Mubarak's resignation was a military coup, and wonders how keen the military will be to create a real democracy.

Dan Shanan is a trustee of the Documentary Edge Festival.

Cellphone entrepreneur tries again, with venture targeting emerging markets.

United States news organisation CNN International has released its top 10 places to propose to a loved one on Valentine's Day.

V8 Supercar champion James Courtney is ready to put his new red rocket into hyperdrive in Abu Dhabi this weekend.