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.

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

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

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

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.

A selection of photographs from around the world by Fairfax picture editors.

Local sources say the crowd was protesting after Indonesian soldiers beat a 12-year-old boy, but Indonesia says that story is a fabrication, and the crowd 'ran amok'.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took a variation of his stump speech to a new audience on Monday: Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

The head of Russia's influential Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, said on Sunday cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were "childish" compared to offences it had dished out to Christians.

Australian suspects may be involved in the booming Chinese meth trade.

Finance News Update, what you need to know

The weekend death of the northern white rhino Angalifu, 44, leaves only five of his kind in the world.

Australia has warned Myanmar to respond to attacks on its security forces in a "measured way" as tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims flee violence in the country.

Results are in for one of the most bitterly contested elections in Indonesia's recent history.

A local leader in Tanzania who had been accused of adultery has been attacked and beheaded by a gang of men, who then cooked some of his body parts, police say.