It is not just the clinical detail of the brutality of American agents that makes the US Senate report on the CIA's torture shocking, it is how chaotic and in the end, pointless, the entire program proved to be.

The central promise of the Trump administration has failed and the central premise of the administration has been discredited.

After an election riven with religious tension, Pence struck an odd note by comparing Indonesia to the US.

It was a sinister moment in a campaign already replete with ugliness. And it put the spotlight back on Donald Trump.

The body of an Iraq War veteran suspected of fatally shooting and stabbing six family members in Pennsylvania was discovered on Tuesday following a two-day manhunt, a district attorney said.

On the 10th anniversary of the Boxing Day Tsunami that killed 226,000 people in 13 countries LINDSAY MURDOCH visits Khao Lak, the worst hit beach in Thailand.

China's President Xi Jinping has visited a drizzly Macau for the 15th anniversary of the gambling hub's return to Chinese rule, with onlookers barred from using umbrellas – the emblem of democracy protests in nearby Hong Kong.

A UK theatre has been fined for safety breaches a week after it was revealed an Australian woman received a $7m payout after being paralysed in a fall.

Asher Keddie, Germaine Greer and Alan Jones are among those who have thrown their support behind two Australians facing the death penalty in Indonesia, in a powerful star-filled video calling for mercy.

South Korean and Japanese jets have joined exercises with two US B-1B bombers above and near the Korean Peninsula.

Defeating IS and retaining influence in the Middle East is more important to Russia than in propping up dictator, analysts say.

It was a DC lawyer's dream come true, a Hollywood premiere for a movie based on the novel he wrote in his spare time. But when The Revenant, the highly anticipated new film adapted from Michael Punke's book, had its big opening in L.A. - an evening featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Oscar-wi...

Turkish police have detained at least 24 police officers and media workers, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signalled a new campaign against supporters of a Muslim cleric.

A United States citizen who attacked US policies and its human rights record during a press conference in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang is mentally ill, his mother says.

Declassified files have revealed new details of US government knowledge and support of an Indonesian army extermination campaign in the 1960s.

Istanbul's international airport has reopened with Turkish Airlines resuming flights on Saturday following a failed coup attempt.

Ali Elamine's behaviour in negotiations over his half-Australian children led one person to describe him as "pretty face, ugly heart".

German police said on Monday they had captured a man suspected of planning a bomb attack who had slipped through their grasp during a raid two days ago.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by Fairfax picture editors

At least 25 people, many of them schoolchildren, were killed when a speeding bus fell into a canal in southern India on Saturday, an official and media reports said.

The Herald's picture editors showcase the best images from around the globe.

What was supposed to be on the trip of a lifetime for a pair of young Aussie backpackers has become a nightmare for the family of Rye Hunt, in the fortnight since he vanished in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

A return to the seaside village of Unawatuna in Sri Lanka 10 years after it was devastated in the Boxing Day tsunami brought back good and bad memories for a Melbourne family.

The Rio Olympics are yet to produce its final medal tally but one team has already claimed victory.

Thailand's ousted PM says the junta has fined her $1.3 billion over a rice subsidy scheme critics say haemorrhaged billions of dollars.