A custom-made electric guitar played by Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison has sold at a New York auction for $US408,000 ($419,100).

Denmark's Emmelie de Forest has won the Eurovision Song Contest with a barefoot performance backed by flutes and drums.

Davis Cup coach Josh Eagle is confident the lure of a grand slam will ensure Bernard Tomic fronts up at the French Open.

Islamic fundamentalist politicians in Afghanistan have stopped a debate on whether to give parliamentary approval to a law protecting women against violence.

Thousands of protesters have rallied in Rome against the policies of Italy's new coalition government.

A Fijian delegation has accepted the delivery of another A330 aircraft from Airbus in France.

Hong Kong has introduced its first fleet of electric taxis in a bid to reduce the territory's high pollution levels.

Labor has launched a nationwide attack on the Coalition's plans for superannuation, warning millions of workers will be left worse off in retirement.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Coalition would delay an increase to the superannuation guarantee by two years.

But senior Labor figures say the system should be protected, and warn Australia will lose an advantage over its competitors if a boost to super is put off.

The Coalition's strategy, underlined by Tony Abbott's address in his reply to the budget, is to hold its nerve and allow the unpleasant aroma produced by the government over the past two-and-a-half years to continue to "waft through the country".

In line with this Abbott gave a political speech: big on a critique of the government and short on alternatives.

Perhaps it is the Abbott "aroma", intoxicating the public into believing what they want to believe; that whatever the details of the Coalition's economic policies when they are finally released, they will be an improvement on the status quo.

A defendant in the Delhi bus rape case has been attacked in prison.

Kiribati's North Tarawa is the first island in the Pacific where the entire community now has access to sanitation.

With 4K TV technology becoming more common in countries like the US and Japan, Australia must ensure it has a broadband infrastructure plan that can accommodate such technology.

It's deeply ironic that Labor's spin-merchants should reach into the conservative pantheon for inspiration, as they did by screening a film about the conservative icon Patton.

Labor now finds itself in an existential battle with utterly demoralised troops precisely because it is ideologically adrift.

What the party lacks is a homeland to defend. Six years in government has shown that there is barely a piece of ideological turf that it will not inhabit, or abandon.

Medical experts say many Australians with heart disease are suffering undiagnosed depression which is impeding their recovery.

Hobart will get its first walk-in sexual health clinic when a trial service begins in Hobart next week.

Hobart is Australia's only capital city where it is necessary to book an appointment for a sexual health check.

That is set to change when a free walk-in service begins next Thursday for a two month trial.

A Fijian delegation has accepted the delivery of another A330 aircraft from Airbus in France.

The UN General Assembly has put French Polynesia on the global body's decolonisation list at a meeting boycotted by France.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister has proposed a friendship treaty that would span the Pacific and Indian oceans, as a way of taking much of the tension out of the region.