When the next United States ambassador to New Zealand, Mark Gilbert, takes up his post he will be the latest beneficiary of an Obama administration trend that alarms US diplomats.

United States President John F. Kennedy agreed to visit Australia and New Zealand weeks before deciding to travel to Dallas, Texas, where he was assassinated 50 years ago.

Swiss scientists have concluded Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is likely to have died from polonium poisoning.

Space is vast, but it may not be so lonely after all: A study finds the Milky Way is teeming with billions of planets that are about the size of Earth, orbit stars just like our sun, and exist in the Goldilocks zone.