Long queues and lawsuits are likely to feature as the US takes to the polls today.

Japanese police today rescued a hostage 24 hours after she was taken captive by her ex-mobster husband in a shooting spree that killed one policeman and left three other people wounded, news reports said.

The only Australian charged by the US military at Guantanamo Bay would not receive a fair trial, his Pentagon-appointed lawyer and father said today.

The Pentagon has released new details of allegations against three high-profile terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in a move condemned by a defence lawyer as a tactic to inspire moral condemnation.

Political pollster Mori looked set for French ownership today after shaking hands on a takeover valuing it at £88m (€127.6m).

Japanese scientists have photographed for the first time in the wild a live giant squid, one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep sea.

A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of seven hit northern Peru early today, cutting power and phone services.

Rescuers scoured an Amazon jungle marsh today, searching for more bodies as they sifted through the wreckage of a Peruvian airliner that crashed while making an emergency landing in a hailstorm, killing at least 41 people.

Australia and Japan have signed an historic accord designed to promote co-operation between the two rugby football unions.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair faced a clutch of sobering opinion polls today just as he prepared to call a May 5 General Election.

Many of today's captains of industry demonstrated their leadership potential at school, a report in Britain claimed today.

A live music renaissance is under way across the UK, led by bands like The Darkness, new official figures show today.

Seeking The Dia will bid to emulate the feat of compatriot Agnes World and give Japan a second success in the Darley July Cup at Newmarket tomorrow.

A Japanese court has ordered a hospital to pay compensation to the parents of a junior doctor who was apparently worked to death.

Polling in the British General Election got underway today with voters set to deliver Labour an historic second term - or one of the biggest political upsets of modern times.

Football, not foot-and-mouth, may be the real reason why British Prime Minister Tony Blair postponed the date of the UK's general election from May 3 to June 7.

Junichiro Koizumi, a fiery reformer, has been elected to lead Japan’s ruling party and replace Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori as premier.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has told his Cabinet that he has made up his mind to resign.

Japan's ruling party are to choose the successor to Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's on April 22.

Japan’s prime minister Yoshiro Mori visited the site of the collision between the submarine USS Greenville and the Ehime Maru to pray for the nine Japanese victims.

Japan’s central bank today decided to guide down interest rates to near zero amid growing alarm about the country’s economic woes both at home and abroad.

Opposition parties in Japan are pressing for the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has expressed his intention to resign in a meeting with ruling party leaders.

A no-confidence motion against Japan's Prime Minister has been defeated.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has had a reprieve from another showdown with opposition parties.

Leaders in Japan's ruling coalition have decided Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori will step down in early April.

A senior US admiral is being sent to Tokyo with a presidential letter and an apology for the sinking of a Japanese trawler that has left nine people lost at sea.

Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori has been berated for finishing a round of golf after hearing about the submarine accident off Hawaii that left nine Japanese people missing.