Australia’s ruling Labour Party appeared poised for defeat in a national election today, as opinion polls, analysts and an early exit poll suggested the conservative opposition party was on its way to a sweeping victory.

Australians headed to the polls today in an election that is expected to see opposition leader Tony Abbott guide his Liberal Party-led coalition to victory.

Two American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs into Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park last week when a training exercise went wrong, the US Navy said, angering environmentalists.

An Australian politician taking his morning jog in the capital Canberra has come off second best after crossing a kangaroo.

German politicians yesterday unanimously criticised the Deutsche Bank co-CEO Juergen Fitschen, following reports he had called a senior politician to complain about a raid on the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters last week.

Australia’s government is preparing to reveal a spending plan today that will make it the first major economy to return to a budget surplus after the global financial crisis.

Australian prime minister Julia Gillard says she still has enough support to lead the government despite growing speculation that foreign minister Kevin Rudd plans to seize power.

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel will seek backing from German lawmakers to bolster the euro bailout fund on the same day she heads to a European summit as banks joust with leaders over the size of losses they take on Greek bonds.

An inquiry into the Australian print media will examine increasing regulation but will not go as far as breaking up the nation’s largest newspaper empire owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, a government minister said today.

Australia’s government has promised a media inquiry amid complaints by MPs that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is biased and owns too many of the nation’s newspapers.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will lead Australia’s first minority government in 67 years after two independent politicians threw their support behind her centre-left Labour Party today.

Three “kingmaker” independent MPs had final meetings with Australia’s rival political leaders today before they decide who to elect prime minister of the nation’s first minority government in nearly 70 years.

Australia’s Labour Party won the backing of a Greens party politician today in its bid to form the country’s first minority government in nearly seven decades, while other independents said they were close to deciding which party they would support.

Leaders of Australia’s two major political parties lobbied for support from independent MPs today to stitch together the nation’s first minority government since the war.

LEADERS of Australia’s two major political parties lobbied for support from independent lawmakers yesterday to stitch together the nation’s first minority government since World War II after the closest election in almost 50 years.

The leaders of Australia’s two major political parties began negotiating power deals with independent lawmakers today after the nation’s closest election in decades failed to deliver a clear mandate to govern.

Prime minister Julia Gillard said today no major party had won a majority of parliamentary seats in Australia’s general election and she had started negotiating with independent MPs in an effort to cling to power.

It could take more than a week to learn who will govern Australia after a cliffhanger election – the closest in nearly 50 years – and the winner may have to woo the support of a handful of independent lawmakers in order to assume power.

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labour government will narrowly win Saturday’s election, a Reuters Poll Trend showed yesterday, paving the way for a controversial mining tax and a possible carbon trading scheme.

SOME Aboriginal children taken from their parents under past government policies were used as guinea pigs in medical experiments, an Australian senate inquiry was told yesterday.

DISCUSSIONS between Fianna Fáil and its potential partners in government will not begin in earnest until later this week, although soundings were taken from independents yesterday, the Irish Examiner understands.

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel said she opposed banning Iran from the soccer World Cup because of controversial remarks by Iran’s president, saying it would be wrong to punish the players for his words.

California’s execution of a murderer this morning outraged many in Europe who regard the practice as barbaric, and feelings ran particularly deep in state Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s native Austria.

THE Green Party yesterday claimed the Government has inexplicably delayed announcing the allocation of money raised in the past year from the plastic bag tax.

Shaken Georgian leaders have made a plea for calm after Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found dead in a friend’s apartment, a blow to President Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambitious pledges to wipe out corruption and resolve two simmering separatist conflicts.

Politicians in Australia’s oldest legislature have been accused of drinking too much and drafting laws with slurred speech and red noses.

A friend of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was pardoned today after serving only two years of a nine year sentence for three terrorist murders.

Animal rights activists in kayaks barred a livestock carrier from docking at an Australian port today, in protest at the stranding of more than 50,000 sheep on a ship in the Middle East.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was confirmed for a second four-year term in office today after the German parliament voted to approve his centre-left coalition’s victory in elections last month.

Green is today Gerhard Schroeder’s favourite colour after the environmental party kept his Social Democrats in power in Germany’s closest postwar election.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s wife today waded into an MPs air miles row, accusing Germany’s most popular newspaper of targeting the government ahead of next month’s general election.

After winning a landslide victory in France, conservative President Jacques Chirac now faces the challenge of winning over the electorate that banded together to support him over his far-right opponent.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder gambled his future on a parliamentary vote of confidence today - and won.

Germany is marking the 40th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

The first gay wedding has taken place in Germany after a new law was introduced allowing same-sex marriage.

Germany's health minister has resigned amid persistent allegations that she has mishandled the country's growing mad cow disease crisis.