A raid by Nato soldiers and a back-up airstrike killed 15 Taliban in southern Afghanistan today. Nato confirmed there had been an operation involving coalition and Afghan security forces to detain a senior Taliban leader followed by the airstrike in Helmand province. “Upon arrival at the suspected location the joint security force immediately took fire [...]

The German army has confirmed that pirates have seized a German freight ship off the coast of Kenya. The attack comes within 24 hours of the capture of a tanker from Singapore carrying 17 crew members. Somali pirates have long been active in the region, and are currently holding 19 vessels with 428 hostages. The [...]

Seven people died in a stampede while trying to gain access to a football match between two of Kenya’s most popular teams, the Kenyan Red Cross said tonight. Red Cross official Taitus Mong Mungou said that six people died at Nyayo National Stadium and one died after being taken to Kenyatta National Hospital. The Kenya [...]

A woman who sabotaged her love rival’s parachute, causing her to plunge to her death, was today jailed for 30 years. The judge in a Brussels court said the only mitigating circumstance was the killer’s unstable mental condition. The sentencing came a day after Els Clottemans, 26, was found guilty of sabotaging in 2006 the [...]

The £113m (€128m) EuroMillions Lottery jackpot won earlier this month has been claimed and paid out to a UK winner, Camelot said today. The winner, from the draw on Friday October 8, is deciding whether or not to go public with the windfall. The £113,019,926 (€128,407,000) jackpot is the biggest lottery prize to be paid [...]

Saudi intelligence services have warned of a new terror threat from al Qaida in Europe, “notably France,” Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said today. He said the warning of a potential attack by al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula was received “in the last few hours, few days”. Europeans were informed that “al Qaida in the [...]

Rush-hour bombings in Baghdad killed a government employee and wounded five other people today. Police blamed bombs that were surreptitiously stuck onto cars for both explosions. In the first, a hospital doctor and his driver were injured in the capital’s central business district of Karradah. A bystander also was hurt in the blast. Fifteen minutes [...]

Failed airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutalla has dismissed his legal team and will represent himself in court in Detroit today. The 24-year-old Nigerian, who tried to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to the city last Christmas Day, is due for a pre-trial hearing. He will be accompanied by a standby lawyer who can give [...]

The boss of the aluminium company responsible for Hungary’s flood of caustic red sludge was arrested today. Police said they were questioning managing director Zoltan Bakonyi on suspicion of public endangerment and environmental damage. Prime Minister Viktor Orban told parliament that the government wanted to take over the Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade Company because [...]

A senior Taliban commander and two other insurgents were killed in a firefight with Nato-Afghan forces in western Afghanistan, the military alliance said today. Another Taliban leader, Ajmal Agha Jan, also was killed on Saturday in southern Helmand province’s Marjah district after he pulled a pistol on a joint force that raided his compound, Nato [...]