Afghan handover to start this year

::2010-01-28

The province-by-province handover of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces will begin later this year.

Truck destroys bridge in Turkey

::2010-01-28

A truck travelling with its dumper raised has hit a pedestrian footbridge in Istanbul, injuring one person crossing over it.

Website Offers Reward For Tony Blair's Arrest

Sky News::2010-01-27

A website offering a reward to people who try to arrest former Prime Minister Tony Blair for alleged "crimes against peace" has raised over £9,000 in just two days. The website, called Arrest Blair, was launched on January 25 - just four days before he was due to give evidence to the Chilcott inquiry into the Iraq war.

90 Feared Dead In Plane Crash

::2010-01-25

Rescue teams are battling stormy weather to find survivors and recover bodies after a plane burst into a ball of flames and plunged into the Mediterranean Sea. The plane lost contact with airport control shortly after taking off from Beirut amid thunder and heavy rain and crashed into the water off Lebanon's south coast.

Haiti earthquake: Up to 100,000 may have died

::2010-01-15

Up to 100,000 people may have died in the Haiti earthquake, the Pan American Health Organisation has said, as the UN launches an appeal for more than $550m (£337m) in aid. "A variety of sources are estimating the numbers [at] between 50,000 and 100,000," said Jon Andrus of PAHO, the Americas arm of the World Health Organisation.

Blazing ring eclipse races across Africa, Asia

::2010-01-15

A solar eclipse that reduced the sun to a blazing ring surrounding a sombre disk plunged millions of people in Africa and Asia into an eerie semi-darkness on Friday.

Extremist Islamist groups to be banned under new terror laws

::2010-01-11

The Islamist group Islam4UK, which planned a march through Wootton Bassett, and its "parent" organisation, al-Muhajiroun, are to be banned under new legislation outlawing the "glorification" of terrorism.

British soldier killed in Afghanistan

::2010-01-11

A British bomb disposal expert died following an explosion in Afghanistan today, the Ministry of Defence said.

Israel to build surveillance fence along Egyptian border

::2010-01-11

Israel is to build a fence equipped with advanced surveillance tools along part of its border with Egypt to keep out African migrants and illegal workers.

3,021 people killed in terrorist attacks in 2009 – a 48% rise, according to Islamabad thinktank

::2010-01-11

Pakistan saw 3,021 deaths in terrorist attacks in in 2009, up 48% on the year before, according to a new report by the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS), an Islamabad-based defence thinktank. Researchers counted a total of 12,600 violent deaths across the country in 2009, 14 times more than in 2006.