John Howard today vowed to fight to remain Australia’s prime minister despite continuing pressure for a leadership change in the face of opinion polls pointing to a landslide defeat at looming elections.

Australia today said it would press ahead with plans to urge Pacific Rim countries to agree that limiting greenhouse gas emissions should be part of a new international pact on global warming.

Australia’s foreign minister today became the highest-level foreign official to visit East Timor since it installed a new government.

AUSTRALIAN opposition leader Kevin Rudd yesterday suggested the government may have leaked news of his drunken visit to a New York strip club while on an official trip to the United Nations in 2003.

A state leader accused Australia's government today of incompetence in its handling of the case of Indian terror suspect Mohamed Haneef.

Lebanon’s prime minister vowed to wipe out an Islamic militant group barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp, raising the prospect that the army will either storm the camp or dig in for a long siege to force its surrender.

An Australian who pleaded guilty to supporting terrorism was sentenced to nine months in prison after becoming the first detainee convicted by military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay.

At least 23 people were killed today when a packed Indonesian plane burst into flames as it landed on Java island.

At least 49 people were reported to have been killed and more than 90 injured when an Indonesian passenger plane carrying more than 140 people burst into flames as it landed on Java island early today.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard today announced a major Cabinet reshuffle ahead of federal elections later this year, signalling climate change as a key issue but standing firm on his support of the Iraq war.

The execution this morning of former Iraqi leader Saadam Hussein has drawn criticism across the international community.

Fiji’s military ruler declared a state of emergency today, one day after seizing power, the country’s media has reported.

An Australian inquiry into alleged multimillion dollar bribes paid to export wheat to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is expected to recommend criminal charges against several senior executives.

Australia will ban North Korean ships from entering its ports in a toughening of Canberra’s response to the North’s recent nuclear weapons test, the foreign minister announced today.

The UN Security Council unanimously approved tough sanctions against North Korea for its claimed nuclear test, but today divisions over how to enforce them signalled that implementation may not be easy.

A global crackdown on North Korea's nuclear weapons programme began today, with countries divided over how to enforce UN sanctions in a foreboding sign that imposing the punitive measures may not be easy.

South Korea’s military was reportedly preparing for nuclear conflict today as rival North Korea warned that an international push for tighter sanctions on Pyongyang over its atomic weapons test would be an act of war.

Reports of a possible second North Korean nuclear test jolted Asia today while key powers considered punitive action against the communist nation for its first atomic blast.

A jittery world lashed out at North Korea today with fresh threats of harsh sanctions, a day after its nuclear test.

Neighbouring countries today cautioned North Korea against carrying out a planned nuclear test, while a top South Korean security official said there was no sign a test was imminent.

European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson criticised Australia today for taking the US side in stalled World Trade Organisation talks on global trade liberalisation.

Hundreds of Australian citizens hoping to flee Lebanon were left stranded after a Greek navy ship was forced to sail without them, the foreign minister said in Sydney today.

North Korea fired a flurry of missiles into the sea today in what was widely seen as a bid to pressure Washington into addressing demands for economic aid and other concessions amid a long-running nuclear stand-off.

The world erupted in outrage today over a series of North Korean missile tests, with wary nations denouncing the launches as provocative, threatening sanctions and vowing to seek UN Security Council action.

Opponents of a possible North Korean long-range missile test stepped up a diplomatic drive to stop the launch today, issuing a barrage of warnings to the reclusive nation and threatening retaliation if it went ahead.

Australia and China today signed deals clearing the way for Beijing to buy Australian uranium – but only for use in its nuclear power stations.

Australia and the United States talked up nuclear power during a two-day Asia Pacific climate change conference, but the controversial energy source was conspicuously absent when meeting delegates issued a strategy for slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

SIX of the world’s biggest polluters, led by the United States, will create a multi-million dollar fund to encourage mining and power industries to use cleaner energy technologies to combat climate change.

Australia was set today to sign a friendship treaty with southeast Asia, formally acknowledging that its economic future is tied to the region after holding back on joining the accord for more than a decade.

A video found in the hideout of one of Asia’s most wanted militants shows a masked man threatening attacks against the US, Britain and Australia.

China reported its seventh and eighth bird flu outbreaks in three weeks, as Australia’s foreign minister said today that he will urge Pacific Rim nations to think creatively about how to tackle the threat at a meeting of regional leaders.

The Sydney arm of an alleged Islamic terror network had stockpiled enough chemicals to make at least 15 large bombs, a newspaper reported today, as police sifted through evidence seized in a series of pre-dawn raids earlier this week.

Australia urged calm today over fears about the spread of bird flu as it hosted disaster co-ordinators from Pacific Rim nations to hammer out ways to stop emerging diseases from skipping across the region’s borders.

Australia would consider shutting its borders if bird flu triggered a lethal human pandemic in the region, Australia’s foreign minister said today as disaster co-ordinators from Pacific rim countries gathered in Brisbane to discuss ways to head off such a crisis.

Australia said today that it has offered to help transport aid to quake-hit areas of Pakistan, but that so far Islamabad has only accepted its financial assistance.

Australia’s foreign minister, set to visit neighbouring Indonesia in the aftermath of the latest Bali bombings, said he will urge the country’s government to bolster its counterterrorism capabilities.

Police took to the air over the weekend to press the search for the suspected masterminds of the Bali terror bombings, using a helicopter to scatter pictures of the fugitives on another island where at least one of them was thought to be hiding.

A British national was killed in the bomb blasts in Bali, the Australian Foreign Minister confirmed today.

Australia’s foreign minister today said he will visit neighbouring Indonesia next week to push for Jakarta to ban the Islamic militant group suspected in the Bali bombings and end sentence reductions for convicted terrorists.

Australia will host a regional meeting on avian influenza in Brisbane on October 31 to co-ordinate an Asia-Pacific response to a potential pandemic, the Foreign Minister announced today.

The Australian government said today it would buy 40,000 doses of a bird flu anti-viral medication to help its northern neighbour Indonesia cope with the illness.

A former Australian soldier is suspected of being a masked gunman who appeared in a videotaped terror message this week threatening attacks against the West, newspapers reported today.

A US-LED plan to develop clean-energy technologies was met with caution by critics in Asia yesterday, who claimed it was a ploy to undo the Kyoto pact, the binding accord on controlling global warming that Washington refuses to sign.

Australia’s foreign minister is expected to announce next week that Australia will sign a non-aggression pact with its south-east Asian neighbours when he attends an ASEAN security forum, an analyst said today.