Robin Pomeroy

The ministry says the European Union should adopt an Australian-style system where migrants are intercepted at sea.

Britain has begun evacuating diplomatic staff from Iran, warning of serious consequences for the Iranian government.

Outraged by the attacks on its embassy in Iran, the UK has evacuated all its diplomatic staff members, warning of 'serious consequences'.

Iran begun loading fuel into its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, a last step to realising its stated goal of becoming a peaceful nuclear power.

Marathon talks for a global trade deal collapsed on Tuesday after a clash over agriculture between the US and emerging heavyweights.

Talks to rescue a world trade deal struggled into a ninth day on Tuesday after being brought back from the brink of collapse.

A United Nations global food crisis summit risked embarrassing failure to reach any formal agreement on combating hunger threatening a billion people worldwide.

A United Nations summit on the global food crisis asked rich nations on Wednesday to help ''revolutionise'' farming in Africa to produce more food for people facing hunger.

The United Nations urged a summit on the global food crisis on Tuesday to help stop the spread of starvation threatening nearly one billion people by lowering trade barriers and removing export bans. ''Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when man-made,'' UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders.

The rise of biofuels is not only adding to the global food price crisis but also poses a risk for peasants, pushed off their land to make way for energy crops, a report prepared for this week's food summit said. The use of food such as maize, palm oil and sugar to produce fuel has been blamed in part for record high commodity prices.

It has been described as a global crisis pushing 100-million people into hunger, threatening to stoke social and political turmoil and set the fight against world poverty back by seven years. Now, the food price crisis will be tackled by world leaders, who meet in Rome next week to seek ways of reducing the suffering for the world's poorest people.

Silvio Berlusconi has won his third Italian election with a bigger-than-expected swing to the centre right, but the media magnate said it would not be easy to solve deep economic problems. Votes were still being counted on Tuesday, but with Berlusconi's victory clear on Monday evening, centre-left leader Walter Veltroni called to concede defeat.