Australia’s immigration minister has brought border security and immigration to the centre of the 2016 election campaign, warning that resettling “illiterate and innumerate” refugees would strain the social safety network and take Australian jobs.

Some of the 267 asylum seekers Australia wants to deport to an offshore immigration centre following a court ruling are suffering from cancer and other terminal illnesses, a senior government official said.

A major riot has broken out at a remote detention centre for asylum seekers in the Indian Ocean.

A lawyer for a pregnant Somalia refugee rape victim said he wanted to seek a court order keeping her in Australia before the government suddenly flew her to Nauru without providing the abortion she had requested.

Europe’s attempts to clean up tax evasion and money laundering took a step forward yesterday when an international task group said that Austria — a eurozone nation that was until recently falling short —was almost fully compliant with new international standards.

Refugees rejected by Australia will soon fly from the Pacific atoll of Nauru to be resettled in Cambodia.

Michael Conlan insists he will throw away his Commonwealth Games medal in Glasgow if it is any colour other than gold.

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.

Rescuers are still searching for dozens of asylum seekers believed missing after their boat sank in Indonesian waters on the way to Australia.

A boat carrying would-be asylum seekers to Australia has sunk in Indonesian waters, killing at least three people including two children.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned that all refugees who arrive in the country by boat will be resettled on the island nation of Papua New Guinea as his government struggles to stem an influx of asylum seekers.

Almost 200 nations extended a weakened UN plan for combating global warming until 2020 on Saturday with a modest set of measures that would do nothing to halt rising greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia plans to deport would-be asylum seekers to detention camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Australia's prime minister is expected to introduce a new border-protection policy this week as the government struggles to cope with boatloads of illegal asylum seekers who filled an offshore detention centre and fuelled political debate over immigration.

DIGICEL, the mobile operator chaired by Denis O’Brien, saw revenues jump 12% to $2.2 billion (€1.8bn) for the year to the end of March 2010.

The president of Georgia confirmed that his country seized a shipment of highly enriched uranium, and blamed Russia for creating the instability that allows nuclear smugglers to operate in the region.

TELECOM entrepreneur and tax exile Denis O’Brien could increase his personal wealth by as much as €509 million by merging two of his mobile phone companies.

Anglo-Dutch company Unilever says it is recalling some of its Lipton-brand milk tea powder in Hong Kong and Macau after they are found to contain traces of an industrial chemical.

Confectionery giant Cadbury became the latest victim of China’s poisoned milk scandal, reporting findings of melamine in its Chinese-made chocolates.

The Australian parliament’s lower house passed a bill today to force all asylum-seekers who arrive in the country by boat to be sent to island detention camps.

The Australian parliament was presented with tough new laws today that would force all asylum seekers who arrive by boat to be sent to island detention camps.

Countries that oppose the two-decade moratorium on commercial whale hunts fought for the upper hand at an annual whaling meeting in Ulsan, South Korea, pushing a proposal to back limited commercial hunts.

A new report by women in 150 countries concludes that many women all over the world are worse off today than they were 10 years ago and accuses governments of failing to keep their pledge to achieve equality of the sexes.

A very powerful earthquake hit the Solomon Islands today and officials in Hawaii warned low-lying Pacific nations to be ready for the tidal wave that could follow.

Around 100 Afghans being held on a desolate Pacific island after Australia refused to house them, were returning home today after authorities rejected their asylum applications.

Hard-line Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock today hugged Australia’s six millionth migrant since the Second World War - a Filipino computer expert.

The Australian government is defending its treatment of Afghan asylum seekers held on the Pacific island of Nauru.

Terrorists could sneak into Australia among boatloads of asylum seekers, prime minister John Howard hinted today, as both the government and the opposition faced growing criticism over their harsh stance on refugees.

A dramatic increase in the number of asylum seekers coming to Australia by boat in recent months is proof that the government’s tough new measures to fight the problem are not working, the opposition Labour Party said today.

The Australian navy has detained a boat carrying around 150 asylum seekers off the country’s northern coast.

Asylum seekers at detention camps in Australia have fewer rights than convicted criminals, an independent government investigator said today in his annual report to parliament.

Australia’s government said today it will fly about 230 asylum seekers to a remote island in Papua New Guinea later this week, where they will stay while their applications for refugee status are processed.

Tensions flared again today between officials and mostly Iraqi asylum seekers when some refused to be unloaded from an Australian navy ship docked at the tiny Pacific island of Nauru.

The Pacific island nation of Nauru has refused to accept any asylum seekers that are forcibly removed from an Australian navy ship to a makeshift detention centre on the island.

Australian troops are forcibly removing more than 200 refugees who refuse to leave a navy ship that picked them up last month.

The tiny Pacific Island, Nauru has agreed to process another 262 asylum seekers picked up by an Australian Navy vessel.

Two teenage Afghan asylum seekers who arrived in New Zealand today from the Pacific island of Nauru have been taken to prison ‘‘for security reasons’’, officials said.

Officials are negotiating with hundreds of refugees who are refusing to leave an Australian navy ship anchored off the Pacific island of Nauru.