Around 35 Afghan asylum seekers have spent a third night on hunger strike inside St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

Hundreds of refugees on an Australian navy ship off the coast of Nauru are refusing to disembark.

A federal court in Australia has overturned an earlier ruling that Prime Minister John Howard acted illegally by refusing entry to 434 Afghan asylum seekers who were rescued from a sinking ship off Indonesia.

The captain of a ship carrying 438 Afghan refugees is refusing to leave Australia's territorial waters.

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has pleaded with the Australian Government to accept Afghan asylum seekers stranded aboard a cargo ship.