Italian police today arrested a Pakistani father and son accused of helping fund and providing logistical support for last year's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Prosecutors are expected to request life in prison for an American student and her former boyfriend accused of killing a young British woman in Italy.

Sri Lanka will release 136,000 ethnic-minority Tamil war refugees on 1 December, allowing the civilians to leave squalid and overcrowded government camps after a half-year detainment, a top official said today.

Hugo Chavez has defended the alleged terrorist mastermind Carlos the Jackal, saying the Venezuelan imprisoned in France was an important "revolutionary fighter" who supported the cause of the Palestinians.

At least 42 miners were killed and 66 remain trapped 500 metres underground following a gas blast at a mine in China early today.

At least 31 miners were killed and 78 remain trapped 500 metres underground following a gas blast at a mine in China early today.

Fears are intensifying for the plight of the British couple captured by pirates in the Indian Ocean in October, after a new video aired yesterday showed the pair surrounded by gunmen and desperately urging the British Government to negotiate a ransom.

A US senator has written to Gordon Brown, demanding the immediate return of the Lockerbie bomber to prison. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's early release from Greenock jail in Scotland on compassionate grounds was granted on the assumption that he had only three months to live because he was suffering from prostate cancer.

Maoist rebels in India have blown up a railway track, leading to the derailment of a crowded passenger train, killing two people and injuring dozens.

Never mind the "hand of Henry" the "foot of Yahia" has caused an even greater World Cup fallout in north Africa as rioting erupted in the early hours of yesterday morning in Cairo. It was Algerian defender Antar Yahia's powerful right-foot volley that settled their play-off with bitter rivals Egypt in the week's most contentious match.

A French murder suspect who caused a media sensation after escaping from prison in a cardboard box and evading a huge manhunt during weeks on the run, has been recaptured, the interior ministry said on yesterday.

A body believed to be that of a Brazilian prostitute involved in a scandal that brought down the governor of the Rome area was found in an apartment fire yesterday.

Limp waves of polite puzzlement circled the globe yesterday as leaders adjusted to the news that the much ballyhooed EU President would be a mild-mannered, competent manager rather than a charismatic new "face" for Europe.

Thierry Tilly looks like a geography teacher or a chartered accountant, or a French version of Bill Gates. He claims, variously, to be a Nato "master-spy", a confidant of presidents and prime ministers, a financial genius, a 21st-century representative of an ancient, secret order descended from the Knights Templar and a man with superhuman powers sworn to fight the forces of evil.

Tony Blair will not seek another big international job after being rejected for the new post of "President of Europe", his allies said yesterday.

Holy mackerel! Look over there! Isn't that Richard Gere, with his dreamy silver hair and professorial wire spectacles, taking a leak in the Gents?

Were there vampires in Volterra? Probably not, but the Etruscans had their own brigade of gods and demons representing night, death and resurrection.

Debate about the risks faced by the international community in supporting President Hamid Karzais corrupt Afghan government regularly omits the people that matter most: Afghans.

A Melbourne man who strangled his controlling de facto wife in a fit of rage has been jailed for 14 years.

The Grinch stole Christmas back in the days of innocence, but today climate change and sexual alarmism are doing just as good a job as Dr Seuss's mean critter.