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

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.

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.

Global warming would create a refugee crisis far worse than the one Australia has faced in the last two weeks, Bill Clinton has warned.

The more than 400 refugees stranded aboard the Norwegian container ship that rescued them in the Indian Ocean six days ago have requested political asylum in Australia, the Norwegian foreign ministry said today.