The Gillard government wants the constitutional power to fund local government directly. Here’s why that’s a bad idea.

European media are hailing a historic agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, but the underlying problems haven’t really been solved.

The EU has responded to Zimbabwe’s constitutional referendum by suspending most of the sanctions on government figures, although not President Mugabe himself.

Election news from Zimbabwe, Western Australia, Bulgaria, Kenya and Venezuela.

The Falkland Islanders want to stay British; Britain still seems happy to have them. So does anyone else get to have a say in this?

There’ll be feel-good images out of Canberra today as parliament votes on recognition of indigenous people. But the idea that the bill represents a step forward on a constitutional referendum is simply not true.

Austrians voted yesterday to retain military conscription, in a victory for the centre-right ahead of this year’s general election. But that’s very much going against the trend in Europe. It’s also something of a reversal of the usual position.