The deadly bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina in 1994 remains unsolved. Can long-time suspect Iran help revive a cold case?

Really, it’s nothing to sniff at.

Europe still maintains a dozen monarchies. As a new king settles into the Dutch throne, can the cash-strapped continent afford to support these expensive spongers any longer?

Testimony will be at the heart of the national Royal Commission into the institutional abuse of children; stories of damage left untreated, like a piece of unexploded ordnance buried deep in the psyche.

The role of record-keeping is close to the centre of what the royal commission into abuse is all about: the battle between the Closed and the Open Society.

Harnessing anti-Europe sentiment in Britain, UKIP leader Nigel Farage is dragging his party of “fruitcakes and loonies and closet racists” into the mainstream.

Selling rice crackers to China made him a billionaire. Buying media in Taiwan is making him a bogeyman.

Tracking the epidemic of smalltown corruption that has crippled Spain — and Europe with it.

Fiji’s sunsets and tropical beaches make for beautiful photographs. But cameras wielded by ordinary Fijians are exposing a darker side to the island paradise.

Aung San Suu Kyi has made some new friends on her way from icon to politician: Burma’s former military men and crony capitalists are getting cosy. The country’s minorities, not so much.

In other countries, voter anger has spilled over into violence and xenophobia, but in Italy Beppe Grillo is winning with a form of vigilante politics.

The conclave gathering to replace Pope Benedict XVI, who resigns today, is a crisis conclave. Can reform emerge?

On a speaking tour of Australia, the controversial Dutch populist is being touted as a prophet of “Freedom, Islam and the West”.

Rome has an election campaign underway — oh, and one very large financial corruption scandal.

The next pope will need to come to grips with the generations of systemic sexual abuse within the Catholic church. But in Australia, the spotlight is now on the credibility of protocols set up by the church to handle ...

Will the West Bank issue never be settled? Ordinary Israelis despair as the political hardliners tighten their grip on the reins in the lead-up to Israel’s January 22 elections.

New cabinet documents from Western Australia reveal casino magnate James Packer's met with Premier Colin Barnett about a huge development near his Burswood complex. Is it similar to how Packer's flexed his political ...

Even while rejecting some diplomatic forays, global outsider North Korea is re-opening its embassy in Australia’s capital.

Deutsche Bank’s reputation is besmirched, bringing a little light relief to Europe’s Greek tragedy.

The world’s best known ratings agency has been hit with a billion-dollar civil law suit from the United States Justice Department for misleading and deceiving investors leading up to the financial crisis. But it was ...

From Spain, the latest on the splintering state of the EU.

The Israelis swear it was HIV, the Palestinians swear it was polonium… will digging up his bones settle anything?

Some 11 million people in the US are illegal immigrants, many propping up the economy by working for low cash, no benefits. Will President Obama free the dishwashers?

Iron Dome — Israel’s revolutionary rocket-stopping defence shield — may have done more to avoid a Gaza ground war than any diplomatic fancy footwork from Morsi, Clinton et al.

It’s austerity o’clock in the EU — bad timing for Moet-swilling papershufflers?

Not even the cops will venture across all the violent divisions between enemies in Pakistan’s blood-soaked megacity. Only the guys driving the make-shift ambulances do that. No gloves, either. One night in ...

Muhammad Morsi, the man who sprang from the Arab Spring to lead Egypt, is at the centre of Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire talks. But Morsi has problems of his own.

As Israel and Hamas trade threats via Twitter, the missiles fly and innocent people die.

A royal commission into child sexual abuse could go a long way to acknowledging the pain of victims, and allowing Christians to once more have faith in their institutions. But how should the terms of inquiry be ...

Don’t be distracted by the shelling from Syria. In Israel, the real — and suddenly intensifying — danger is in Gaza, where tens of thousands have moved into bomb shelters, as the country prepares international public ...

After 50 years of killing in Colombia, and bloody hands wherever you look, this week will see formal peace talks between the government and Marxist rebels. Is it time to negotiate  — or is the state balking just as ...

Crunching the numbers on the Communist Party.

There is another race going on between a Mormon and a minority candidate — for an Arizona seat in the US Senate. But this one will be decided by Latinos — both coveted and held at bay in American politics.

As a vote on Palestinian statehood draws near at the United Nations, Australia’s former foreign minister calls for a certain peace with Israel.

Syria’s civil war is playing out in Australia’s suburbs along sectarian lines — with some living in Sydney’s west too scared to speak, after beatings, a shooting and an alleged arson.

Two eyewitness accounts from Sassine Square, where a car bomb left three dead, and many wounded.

It’s not just the asylum seekers who are frustrated on Nauru. The foreign minister has a few things to get off his chest, too.

In his reelection speech, Barack Obama proclaimed that “the best is yet to come” for America. But as Nick Bryant argues in this October essay, the States may be too divided to agree on even that.

The United Nations was not happy with Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers — and that was before a refugee in the Nauru detention centre attempted suicide.

A new IMF study rates John Howard's government as outstandingly wasteful — world class!  Our interactive tool lets you play with your tax dollars and see how you stack up against the spenders in Canberra on some ...

With bloody protests in the streets of Madrid, reports of Spain's recovery seem greatly exaggerated. Tell me again how we got to this point?

Argentina’s president is clocking up hours of face time on TV, but it is all on her own terms and there are no questions allowed.

In the year since Andrew Bolt was found guilty of breaching racial discrimination laws, error and invective continue to warp the debate.

After many complaints, the Information Commissioner today released a report into the closed-mouth chaos of the Department of Immigration.

Fifty years ago this weekend an insurrection unfolded on American soil. The events of that dramatic night still resonate today.

For almost a year, The Global Mail has been chasing an FOI request with the Department of Immigation. Here’s the result.

What happens when one of the world’s most water-deprived nations suddenly gets a huge increase in its population?

Two of Saudi Arabia’s most outspoken civil rights activists are being tried for crimes against the state.

Regime change and democracy have brought openness to Myanmar, but it also lifts the lid on simmering religious and ethnic conflicts.

The senator from South Australia is an ideological entrepreneur, importing the faux-grassroots campaigns first cultivated by the American right.

Asylum seekers who make for Australia by boat are now to be sent to Nauru. How will that work legally?

As American symbols burn, whether embassies or fast-food joints, it's hardline religious leaders far afield fomenting the false outrage.

A frenzied election in Jakarta makes it look like democracy is flourishing in Indonesia. Or maybe it’s a dry run for the return of authoritarianism.

Oh, no spies would ever read all the intimate details of your life as it passes through the internet — they just want to keep it nice and safe.

How the 'anti-imperialist' left has twisted the public discourse on Syria and, in the process, provided intellectual cover for the Assad regime.

Reflections on Turnbull’s speech, and a by-the-numbers analysis of the top echelons of government across forty years and seven PMs.

In his Quarterly Essay, David Marr writes that the Opposition Leader has two personas: one political, another for his fiercely held values.

Ten things Can-Do Campbell Newman's government already has done, and it's still days before his first Queensland budget, coming September 11.

Julie Bishop’s calls to deport Sri Lankan asylum seekers are fighting words, unworthy of a nation devoted to humanity and the rule of law.

Storms natural and political gather as America’s Grand Old Party convenes in Florida.

The Liberal Party under John Howard and Tony Abbott has abandoned the mantle of social liberalism — and Labor should grasp it with both hands.

A peace program gives Taliban fighters the means to leave the fight — but wives and mothers may give them the motivation.

It’s only a matter of time before the Syrian war spills into Lebanon — or so people here like to say. Who benefits from keeping the Lebanese on edge?

Despite huge efforts to deter and block boat journeys, Australian immigration policies in fact encourage asylum seekers to come by boat.

Is the debate over identity in Australia – who gets to call themselves indigenous – just the new face of racism?

A bitter race debate in a US Senate campaign reflects on Australia’s own recent “White is the New Black” controversy.

When people elected to serve our interests swim with the sharks, who can you turn to? It's the $100 question — with 1,000 per cent interest.

With few foreigners in sight, what is driving the fairytale towns of rural France into the arms of Marine Le Pen's far-right Front National?

For the first time in Australian history, “political professionals” make up a majority of Canberra parliamentarians.

Yet another American gun massacre. What's it going to take to get gun control in the US? In the wake of the July cinema shooting in Denver, a former resident pondered the question.

Dual-class share structures allow some CEOs to take the money and run — run the company, that is, according to their own vision.

Legal, illegal, in the casino — or from the couch. Hi-tech betting is transforming how we gamble, and regulators are struggling to keep up.

While orthodox finance is in a mess, Islamic finance is growing strong. Maybe a little financial Sharia law would help everybody.

Gina Rinehart's voice echoes in Australia's corridors of power. Why are Australian taxpayers stopped from listening?

Australia’s boom may be drawing Kiwis, but New Zealand’s lower wages are increasingly pulling businesses — and blue-collar jobs — the other way.

Being European isn't all Parisian zinc bars and bocce, boules and moules. In the besieged Eurozone, it's tough economic love.

Can the Muslim Brotherhood strike a power-sharing deal with Egypt’s military rulers, or will it be pushed towards a public confrontation?

The Internet was regarded as a novelty at The Sydney Morning Herald in the 1990s, not as the time bomb it turned out to be.

Will the Australian print media be able to drive readers up the paywall?

This week Venezuela's two presidential hopefuls — incumbent Hugo Chavez and challenger Henrique Capriles Radonski — formally registered their candidacy.

People on the left and right of politics see the world differently, literally. They also hear and smell it differently. It’s not opinion, it’s science.

World’s purest olive oil: Italy? Nup. Spanish? Wrong again. Better testing shows it’s often Australians making the extra virginest.

Oh, yes, another country’s economic wreckage you really ought to understand. And it’s a big one — one of Europe’s top five.

After months of quiet planning, Egypt’s April 6 revolutionaries are ready to reveal their next big move: politics.

What are the strategies that keep Google’s tax liabilities minimal as it shifts vast sums of money around the world?

A viral Internet video in Indonesia is one sign of a public increasingly fed up with its embarrassing elite.

Kiwis are fleeing home at a record pace — it’s even the subject of a reality TV show. But the reality of their exodus is much more serious.

Weekends, work, it’s all a blur. Are the work patterns of the 21st century punishing or a perk? Well, that depends on how you work it.

Hop on the bus with Egypt’s frontrunner for president, Amr Moussa, in the final days of the first post-revolution vote.

Insurers and governments have been racing to chart the risk of flood in Australia. When is someone going to do something about it?

To put you in command of dinner-party conversation, we offer a smart, simple guide to what’s going on in the land of goat’s milk and honey.

Rising floodwaters cut off roads and towns, Queensland emergency services again in rescue mode. Here’s TGM’s investigation into the insurance company flood maps.

In Bahrain, a long, bloody stalemate divides the kingdom down dangerous fault lines. Will its quest for democracy end up with a Saudi takeover?

As the revelations tumble from the UK phone-hacking scandal, Rupert Murdoch and David Cameron seem locked in a race to destroy each other.

If a Labor policy fell in Canberra, would anybody hear?

America is in the midst of a mining boom that is propelling it towards energy self-sufficiency. Goodbye Middle East?

Peter Slipper was known as Slippery Pete long before he snared the Speaker’s chair. Now he's making Labor’s hold on power very slippery indeed.

The grand European experiment is under threat. Does Nicolas Sarkozy’s electoral pain herald the end of Europe as we know it?

The downfall of Bo Xilai is China’s biggest political crisis in a generation. But is it a coming of age for the country’s netizens?

There’s public pressure on the Reserve Bank. Just don't call it political pressure — the bank operates independently doesn’t it?

The US Republican Party has all but chosen their man. But Mitt Romney has hurdles to leap.

Latin American leaders have put drug policy back on the agenda. Is it time to forget prohibition and decriminalise — or even legalise?

With presidential elections looming, Egypt’s democratic transition is descending into farce, with no stability in sight.

In Thailand’s far south, a brutal and little-known conflict is killing hundreds of people every year. And it appears to be getting worse.

As the budget nears, Australia's big miners are campaigning anew to keep their tax breaks and public subsidies. How truthful is their campaign?

It’s not who you think it is, says Greens leader Christine Milne as she explains her party’s economic positions.

The “Chilean Winter” student movement, has captured a lot of headlines in its time — but where is it heading?

Checking the records of your health workers will get you more reliable information, after changes prompted by The Global Mail’s reporting.

Super funds haven’t been generating an extraordinary rate of return — unless you’re a high-income earner counting the tax benefits.

Novel excuse for refusing a Freedom of Information request from The Global Mail to be investigated.

A cheat-sheet to the furious claims and counterclaims between Fairfax and Rupert Murdoch’s empire over alleged pay tv hacking.

In the fog of war, how can journalists tell the difference between truth, rumour and spin? In Syria, it's increasingly difficult.

Once upon a time he was the hero of Rio, an economic pioneer at the earth summit. Now Gunter Pauli is in the business of telling tales.

Nearly four decades after the coup that began Uruguay’s military dictatorship, the nation is coming to grips with its darkest chapter.

Singapore used to be a strange little bubble of wealth, blandness and prurience in Asia. Has it now become a model for the world?

Women tend to live longer than men — which in the case of superannuation tends to magnify the financial disadvantages they face lifelong.

By-elections that brought Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament have delighted the world. But Myanmar’s political transformation is far from over.

With a solution to the violence in Syria remote, thousands are pouring into Turkey where grief, rage, paranoia and boredom are rife.

Myanmar’s parliamentary poll has put Aung San Suu Kyi back into politics, as Westerners circle one of globalisation’s last frontiers.

It's a tale of money, lust and revenge at the top of corporate banking. And everyone's a loser.

The federal government is soon to reveal its plans to protect whistle-blowers. It’s a welcome step but should go much further.

We hear a lot about how unproductive Australia is. New reports suggest the culprits are not who you’d expect.

Part two: Scotland will vote on independence in 2014, raising questions about the British nuclear arsenal there.

Turkey is powerful, prosperous and stable. So why is it locking up so many of its intellectuals?

Part One: Toxic to English politicians as the phone-hacking scandal deepens, Rupert Murdoch is tempting independence-minded Scots.

Doing business in Latin America has long been seen as a leap of faith. The Global Mail investigates the mañana ethos.

Barely out of the Great Recession, the US economy has yet to prove it can sustain its fragile recovery.

Australia has a new High Court judge: Stephen Gageler, SC. Here’s our backgrounder on the selection process.

See our new tool which allows you to check all Australian aged-care facilities with documented problems in the past few years.

New evidence of the murder of one man is key to revealing a conspiracy behind mass murder in Sri Lanka.

East Timorese are desperately poor with a government swimming in cash. Is it buying its way out of poverty, or into economic disaster?

Apart from the question of who should manage it, some question the sense of Australia's Future Fund. A famous fable might help explain.

Many nations sock money away for harder times. Some invest carefully, some cravenly. Others - like East Timor - just get lucky!

For some people, it's feet. For others, clothes. For contemporary Australian politicians, though, the fetish is for surpluses - damn the economic sense.

A truly independent future for East Timor depends on its upcoming election going smoothly.

Researchers have discovered a hidden gem thrown up by Australia's economic boom. Our good times are driving down crime, amazing the experts!

The Irish are emigrating — again — and Australia is their preferred destination. You may even find an Irish politician building your kitchen cabinet.

The battlefield execution of a 12-year-old boy is fresh evidence of war crimes. Gordon Weiss was close to the drama as UN spokesperson in Sri Lanka.

A furore over the public ranking of school teachers in New York has ignited a debate about the quality of education in the United States.

American politics on the whole may be broken, but the country’s original democracy thrives — in New England, where voters decide on every dollar.

They are rivals now, each a possible Prime Minister. But in earlier times, Malcolm Turnbull, Bob Carr and Tony Abbott all worked for The Bulletin.

After Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president in a poll many say was rigged, the Kremlin reviews the jailing of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The Global Mail has created a new online tool for consumers to check the oversight records of hundreds of aged-care facilities.

As Syria slides into civil war, moderate voices inside the country want to know: Why isn’t anyone listening to us?

Hungary flatly denies it's on the brink of bankruptcy, but that hasn’t quashed the fears of bankers, economists and its neighbours.

Journalists race to be first with the news. A new report calls for an umpire to stop this becoming a race to the bottom.

Bob Carr has pined to go to Canberra and been denied, and he has been wined and dined to go to Canberra and rebuffed the offers.

Russia’s presidential election is on March 4 and Prime Minister Putin is expected to win. Beyond the big cities, Russians have mixed views on Putin and his main competitors — an oligarch, a communist and an ...

Chinese study centres are rapidly multiplying at schools and universities around the world, including Australia. They come Communist Party-approved.

The real reason Australia’s big four banks have jacked up mortgage rates? Because they can.

The Syrian army continues to shell Baba Amr; families are crammed into shelters as their wounded die beside them.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard decisively won the leadership ballot, sending Kevin Rudd packing. But Rudd is not her only enemy.

The North Korean capital is going through a surprising (and slightly mysterious) boom.

Labor tactician and strategist Bruce Hawker once stayed in the background, but he’s front and centre for Kevin Rudd’s march on the PM’s office.

Saudi Arabia's King has been unusually outspoken against Syria's regime. But what about the rebellion in his own Kingdom?

The polls show people would prefer Kevin Rudd over Julia Gillard as leader. But who are they polling, and would they be Labor voters anyway?

An email contained a bad joke, but led to concerns over the independence of some aged-care advocates.

One small player in Australia’s banking industry is keeping its interest rates down ... will its shareholders revolt?

For a generation Canberra has been taking up Washington ways, but lately Australian politics has gone septic.

The government admits aged-care costs have ballooned by nearly $2 billion, but has kept quiet on the real reasons why.

Kevin Rudd’s stealth challenge against Julia Gillard is gathering momentum.

On a tour introducing China’s future leader to the world, we all got a good look at Xi Jinping.

The Gonski Report is back in the news — here’s our report from February. We ask: Are private schools making Australia dumber?

Australian Senator Nick Xenophon is on Malaysia's "watch list". Detained at the airport, he's going to be deported instead of meeting opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim — this backstory explains him.

American conservatives are under-whelmed by the Republican candidates for the Presidential election.

If you can translate from banker-ese, the outlook for Australia’s economy is very good for a very long time.

Why is Egypt's military regime trying to scare journalists away from the factory town of Mahalla?

As Indonesia’s wealth grows, so too does criticism of the nation’s ubiquitous corruption—and its “auto-pilot” president.

China’s Vice President Xi Jinping is in the US for talks which could shape the uneasy relationship between these two rivals for years to come.

In remote territory beyond the reach of Myanmar’s generals, rebels create their own jarring sense of normality.

A monopoly, a subsidy and a mandate forcing consumers to buy your product; the Manildra business model is hard to beat.

Announced on Thursday as a finalist for the Walkley award for international journalism, this February report is from behind the lines of a largely unacknowledged war in Myanmar's north.

New Speaker of the House Peter Slipper is Tweeting, togging up in robes and tweaking the parliamentary culture.

In Egypt, violent protests have rocked the capital for over a week. Why? It’s all a matter of trust.

With General Motors Holden cutting 500 jobs, Australia’s governments are reconsidering auto subsidies. Consider the New Zealand approach: lift the tariff on used-car imports and lose manufacturing jobs.

After 14 years and USD1 billion, the International Criminal Court finally delivers a verdict. Why does it take so long?

Chongqing is China’s frantic boom city with an inward twist: a perplexing mixture of materialism and Mao.

To the newly arrived or recently returned, the reality of contemporary economic Australia is startling. So is the mythology.

As Europe wallows in a mire of navel-gazing and finger-pointing, The Global Mail meets students from the College of Europe.

Torch-lit marches, school segregation and talk of labour camps has the Roma fearing for their lives in Gyöngyöspata.

Some disciplinary records don't show up on the national register — a new tool meant to improve transparency.

He came to power amid soaring rhetoric and high expectations. President Obama needs more than Republican infighting to win four more years.

Australia's one per cent has as much wealth as the bottom 50 per cent of the country — and the gap is growing faster than in the US.

A new draft mineral law would end the freewheeling approach of Monogolia's minerals industry. Aubrey Belford toured Monogolia's "Wolf Economy" back when people made their fortune, legally or otherwise.

Still shivering after the New York protest packed it in, Occupy London is encamped in St Paul's.

In New York, as the birthplace of Occupy is vacated for the winter, it's a time to reassess and, supporters hope, renew.

With parliament resuming amid leadership speculation, can Julia Gillard carefully win back the party, and the people?