Sydney / AFP Australia’s parliament was hit by a second day of protests by anti-offshore detention centre activists on Thursday with two people abseiling down the building to unfurl a banner reading “close the bloody camps now”. While the pair scaled Parliament House a dozen others waded into a forecourt pond and added red dye to symbolise blood while …

  London / AFP Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto on Thursday said that for more than three years it has faced an investigation by top US financial regulator SEC over a writedown of Mozambique assets. “In response to press reports regarding a US Securities Exchange Commission investigation, Rio Tinto confirms that it is cooperating with inquiries from the relevant authorities relating …

  Kiev / AFP Ukraine on Thursday unleashed a barrage of missile tests near Russian-annexed Crimea in a show of strength and defiance bound to irritate Moscow. The two-day military drills near the Black Sea peninsula are a first for the former Soviet republic and a sign that it is regaining assertiveness in the face of its arch-foe Russia. “No one …