Israeli ships intercept Gaza-bound aid flotilla

Israeli warships intercepted a six-ship Palestinian aid convoy sailing for the Gaza Strip earlier today, killing at least two and wounding up to 30 people on board, local television networks reported.

British father and son die during practice flight Menorca air competition

A British man and his son were killed when their light aircraft crashed as they practised for a race in Spain. Bruce Hook, 63, and his son Ian, 26, had just taken off when their plane crashed and exploded.

?Difference of opinion? on BP?s oil rig hours before explosion

It was shortly before noon on April 20, only ten hours before a torrent of crude oil ripped through the Deepwater Horizon rig, that the quarrel broke out.

Graham Norton is unsung hero of another Eurovision disaster for Britain

It was a dreadful night, even for a nation so well accustomed to crushing defeats on the international stage.

This scares everybody ? that we can?t make it stop, says BP chief

With the failure of its latest attempt to stem the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, BP was running out of time, money and friends yesterday as it prepared another, even riskier, plan of attack.

Failings on Deepwater Horizon oil rig put thousands of jobs at risk

President Obama?s six-month moratorium on new exploratory deepwater drilling ? ordered after revelations of flawed safety procedures on the Deepwater Horizon ? will remove thousands more jobs from the local economy, local officials fear.

British man died in attack on mosques in Pakistan

A British man died during attacks by a suicide squad on two mosques in the Pakistani city of Lahore.

How Dudus stayed ahead of police

The fugitive whose supporters have reduced the Jamaican capital to a war zone used improvised bombs, closed-circuit TV and cross-dressing mercenaries to defend his stronghold, police said yesterday.

Henry II?s mistress returned to righful resting place

With her porcelain skin, blonde hair and dark blue eyes she was once hailed as the most beautiful woman in Europe. Yet for more than 200 years the bones of Diane de Poitiers were left in a common grave after her tomb was destroyed in the French Revolution.

Terror link alleged as Saudi millions flow into Afghanistan war zone

Millions of dollars of Saudi Arabian money have flowed into Afghanistan over the past four years, the country?s intelligence officials say, with the sponsorship of terrorism its most likely use.

Sarah Palin erects 4m fence to stop journalist from prying

It is the Iron Curtain of Wasilla: a 4m (13ft) fence, made from sturdy wooden planks, and designed to enforce a freeze in relations between the former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her new neighbour.

Cries from the beloved country

The glare of a strip light flickers inside a sparse, clinical playroom. Through the window I can see toys piled haphazardly. They have been shown no love by their users: a battered doll, its purple hair ripped from its head; some dismal plastic building blocks. I am told that this room, in a drab residential home in central Johannesburg, is rarely empty.