For eight seasons Idols has provided smash hits, screaming fans and unease about a racially divided society – but now SA has its first black winner.
Gaffe-prone Mitt Romney will try to lure Barack Obama into a rare display of mean-spiritedness in a looming confrontation in the race for presidency.
With Bill lauded by his opponents and Hillary enjoying success as secretary of state, there’s a groundswell to back a Clinton run for the White House.
A ban on shark finning and the adoption of a global shark conservation plan is being sought at a meeting of more than 50 countries in Bonn this week.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has issued a strong rebuke over security council inaction, saying world leaders "should not look the other way".
A report has found the economic impact of global warming is costing the world more than $1.2-trillion a year, wiping 1.6% annually from global GDP.
In the bleak, windswept landscape of the swelling Za’atari camp in Jordan, child refugees are struggling to cope with the horrors of Syria’s war.
Jihadi veterans of Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan have joined up with foreign idealists on the frontline of Aleppo against Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
Gaffes have left the Republican candidate looking disgraced and dishevelled
Republican Mitt Romney is standing by his claims, caught on camera, that 47% of Americans are government-dependent "victims" who don’t pay taxes.
Protesters have denounced Shell’s "reckless" Arctic campaign, after it was forced to abandon drilling when a test of its protection systems failed.
Japanese companies have closed shop in China after a weekend of violent protests over competing claims to a group of islands in the East China Sea.
Iran has confirmed for the first time that forces from its revolutionary guards corps are in Syria helping Assad’s government crush the rebellion.
As Greece’s government wrestles with the prospect of more austerity, anger and fear are darkening the streets.
Joyce Johnson’s new book reveals details of their relationship and how fame blighted On the Road author.
Scientists ask whether humans care only for species from which they can extract benefit, and dismiss the rest as "worthless".
Apple is expected to secure its acquisition of a company specialising in fingerprint scanning days after the next iPhone goes on sale.
Greenpeace says the oil company used "stock-car race" recklessness in testing its capping stack to prevent a Gulf of Mexico-style blowout.
With less than 10% of the Caribbean’s reefs showing live coral cover, one of the world’s most important ecosystems is in danger of utter devastation.
Democrat mayor and Republican senator symbolise the divide between left and right in the Hispanic demographic.
The British government has come under fire for allowing members of the former Egyptian dictatorship to retain assets in the UK.
Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been detained in Phnom Penh after failing to report to a Swedish jail to serve a prison sentence for copyright violations.
The Arctic sea’s ice shrink record is widely seen by scientists as a strong signal of long-term climate warming.
Las Vegas is making the most of its role in a royal scandal — and young Britons are flocking to it for full-on fun.
Outside court, white protesters showed an effigy of a hanged black man as backers of Eugene Terre’Blanche’s killer, Chris Mahlangu, sang racial songs.
Ecuador President Rafael Correa says it would be "suicidal" for Britain to enter its diplomatic premises to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Hollywood is in shock after hearing the news that film director Tony Scott jumped to his death from a suspension bridge over Los Angeles harbour.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has urged the US to end its "witch-hunt" as he used an appearance at the Ecuadorean embassy to thank supporters.
A Republican Senate hopeful has sparked outrage by suggesting that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy due to a woman’s biological defences.
The Organisation of American States has voted to hold a meeting next Friday following Ecuador’s decision to grant political asylum to Julian Assange.
Syria’s former prime minister Riyad Hijab claims Bashar al-Assad’s regime is on the point of collapse, having lost control of most of the country.
Jeffrey John, the dean of St Albans, has accused the Archbishop of Canterbury of hardening the Church of England’s attitude to gay marriage.