Before hitting the road for a 25,000km motorbike odyssey, Rob Gray meets some of the children at Living Hope, the charity in Vladivostok that will benefit from funds raised on the trip.

World shares markets have kept plunging overnight, as fears about Greece's debt problems fail to subside.

Intelligent, mischievous and absurdly glamorous, French model and eternally beautiful style icon Ines de la Fressange gives a rare interview.

Riots over harsh new austerity measures left three bank workers dead and engulfed the streets of Athens overnight.

He was prepared to steer his boat into any weather, ride his Harley fast and drive his Corvette faster. I never knew the guy, but it's clear he was a legend - and a hoot.

A general strike in Greece over the next 24 hours is expected to paralyse the country.

Everywhere in Tuscany is well-travelled - especially in summertime - but after Florence, anywhere will seem comparatively peaceful, even the hubs of Siena and Lucca.

EUROPE: Traffickers mixing cocaine with plastic to make innocent-looking goods for shipment.

Liz Light explores the Spanish city of Cordoba - Hamilton's antipodal opposite.

The filmmaker said yesterday that the US is demanding his extradition from Switzerland on a 33-year-old sex case largely to serve him "on a platter to the media".

At 20, actress Imogen Poots has already tackled the issues of incest, one-night stands and sex with older men without missing a beat.

Greece and the wider eurozone scrambled back from the brink of disaster again on Friday as the outline of an IMF/eurozone rescue package emerged.

A dozen naked blokes crowding into a freezing cold plunge pool, while socially unacceptable in New Zealand, is apparently perfectly normal in Russia, writes Rob Gray.

A leading figure in world rallying believes this may not be the last Rally New Zealand.

Giovanna Dell'Orto details her four favourite walks in Liguria, the arc-shaped slice of Italy that stretches from the border with France to Tuscany's coast.