MADONNA says her efforts to adopt a child in Malawi and the ridicule she faced in the press had been as difficult as childbirth, but she was confident of soon winning permanent custody
THE Federal Government faces a potential compensation payout to television celebrity Tania Zaetta after naming her at the centre of a sex scandal investigation that has rocked the Defence Force
US-BASED Human Rights Watch has slammed a Saudi Arabian court decision to drop charges against an employer accused of abusing an Indonesian maid so severely she lost her fingers and toes
A jealous Jordanian man has been charged with murder for stabbing his teenage cousin to death during her wedding to another man, a security official said
INDIA`S Maoist rebels are on a drive to forcibly recruit thousands of child soldiers in the country`s poor rural heartlands, police and human rights agencies say
THE first of 10 helicopters contracted by the UN`s World Food Program arrived in Burma today to help speed relief to remote villages hit by Cyclone Nargis, a spokesman for the agency said
US Navy ships loaded with aid will remain off the coast of cyclone-hit Burma, US officials said, despite a rebuke from the ruling generals who refused any help with "strings attached"
THE international community should back a $US50-billion Afghan development strategy at a donors` conference in Paris next month, but Kabul must also fight rampant corruption, the UN`s special envoy said. today
A MOCK "Olympics" organised by Tibetan exiles kicked off in northern India today despite calls to halt anti-China protests as a mark of respect for earthquake victims
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today toured Burma`s disaster area, on the first day of a visit aimed at pushing through a full emergency relief effort after Cyclone Nargis
RETIRED Catholic priest Alderick D`Cruz has been convicted of indecent assault nearly 25 years after he kissed a teenager girl who came to his presbyery for help
A MELBOURNE paramedic has been acquitted of raping a patient in the back of an ambulance, but the Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS) says he won`t get his job back because of a separate breach of contract case
