The field of Republican contenders for the White House in 2016 remains open.

Stepping out of his legendary brother's shadow, President Raul Castro has scored a diplomatic triumph and a surge in popular support with the deal that ends decades of open hostility with the United States.

US President Barack Obama moved to prevent US anger at North Korea from spiraling out of control on Sunday by saying the massive hacking of Sony Pictures was not an act of war but instead was cyber-vandalism.

But Jakarta is planning to build separate jails that remove convicted drug offenders and terrorists from the general prison population.

Victoria's notorious globetrotting bikie boss Amad "Jay" Malkoun has found himself at the centre of the violent abduction and murder of a former Sydney Hells Angels member in Thailand.

Tokyo: The death toll from earthquakes in southern Japan has risen to 41 after a magnitude 7.3 quake struck just 24 hours after a smaller one devastated the area.

Australia is to be invited to join a global, multi-billion-dollar fight against superbugs which are predicted to kill more people than cancer if left unchecked.

A Pirelli calendar girl who won £75 million ($130 million) from her former husband is likely to have the settlement delayed after he died.

Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar have given graphic descriptions of killings, rapes and burning of homes by soldiers, fuelling fears of ethnic cleansing.

Gun violence is on the rise in Rio de Janeiro as drug gangs battle each other and police officers patrolling slums.

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

The captain of a TransAsia Airways ATR plane that crashed in Taiwan in February, killing 43 people, had switched off the working engine after the other lost power, the Aviation Safety Council (ASC) confirmed on Thursday in its latest report.

The Westminster attacker Khalid Masood was born Adrian Russell Ajao and was from Dartford in Kent but took on a number of aliases before his murderous rampage targeting Britain's parliament this week.

Our way of life is dying in many ways – not because of the oft-cited "demographic" changes, but because of economics, addiction and a steep decline in quality of life.

A US man evacuating a wildfire ravaged passes a flaming mountain as he and his stepbrother make their escape in a truck.

Beirut: Lawyers negotiating on behalf of jailed Australian woman Sally Faulkner and her estranged Lebanese-American husband have failed to reach agreement, leaving Ms Faulkner as well as a Nine Network news crew in a Lebanese jail facing kidnapping charges.

An EgyptAir plane has disappeared from radar on a flight between France and Egypt, the airline has confirmed.

US President Donald Trump says the latest round of UN sanctions on North Korea are only a very small step.

Former British PM Ted Heath allegedly sexually assaulted seven men and boys, one just 10 years old, police were told in an investigation into historical sex abuse claims.

He was interviewed by North Korea's official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, and praised the country, in a report published this week, around the time he is believed to have been detained in Pyongyang.

Weary migrants fleeing from the conflict in Syria and Libya, or the economic desperation in some African nations, were welcomed to Austria with a round of applause from hundreds of locals, and a banner reading: "Refugees Welcome - Open Borders".

An Australian woman has died after falling 300 metres off a mountain in New Zealand's Aoraki-Mt Cook National Park.

Sir Richard Branson has quietly shelved an ambitious plan to pilot a submarine to the deepest points of the world's five oceans.

Potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton knows a political gift when she sees one.

A mother has been arrested in the Philippines after she allegedly spent five years sending sexually explicit images of her two daughters to an Australian paedophile.