Al Qaeda’s North African wing, known as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, said it is responsible for last week’s kidnapping of five French nationals in Niger, the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera reported Tuesday. The news agency...

Model Veruschka von Lehndorff, who was all the rage in the 1960s, hit the runway on Monday as part of London Fashion Week. The 71-year-old donned a gown and headdress at the Giles Spring/Summer 2011 show. Take a look at Veruschka’s return to the...

Somalia’s Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke resigned on Tuesday, paying the price for the government’s failure to rein in an Islamist insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians. Thousands of African Union peacekeeping troops...

Three people have died, almost 1,000 have been adversely affected in various ways and at least 170 homes have been severely damaged in the torrential rains that have fallen over the weekend in Panama, a government official said on Sunday. The head of...

The BBC is locked in talks with the government over drastic cuts to the World Service budget which could force it to withdraw from Burma and several other countries. The Foreign Office, which funds the World Service through an annual £272m grant, has...

A Saudi judge has asked several hospitals in the country whether they could damage a man’s spinal cord as punishment after he was convicted of attacking another man with a cleaver and paralyzing him, local newspapers reported on Thursday. Saudi...

Two sisters, aged three and four, are in the care of social services after spending two days trapped in a house on Merseyside with their dead mother. Officers were called to the property in Wallasey on Sunday when neighbours saw their legs dangling out...

In the world of Palestinian politics, the recent weeks have been a study in contrasts. The international media has trained its focus off the shores of Gaza, where the flotilla fiasco has generated dramatic images of dead civilians and battered Israeli...

Drive along the coast road in Cuba that passes the Bay of Pigs in spring or early summer, and you risk a distressing sight: a stretch of road, some 20 miles long, carpeted in a thick coating of crushed crabs. Cuba’s red land crabs have evolved to...

Two men who subjected their 76-year-old grandfather to a ‘merciless’ attack to satisfy their thirst for violence were jailed for life today. Paul Peters had suffered two years of abuse at the hands of Wayne Edwards and Anton Sanderson when...