Desire shares plunge on dry Falklands well

The shares of two companies drilling for oil and gas off the coast of the Falkland Islands plunged today after a disappointing early progress report.

Police hunt 'Black Widow' suicide bomb gang

Police in Moscow have identified CCTV footage of the two women suicide bombers who blew themselves up on packed underground trains this morning and said that they had been accompanied by other women.

Burmese bus drivers are spared the rod

There are few regimes in the world with a worse human rights record than the military dictatorship of Burma. But now comes a rare piece of good news: in an unaccustomed act of soft-heartedness, the Government has ordered that bus drivers are no longer to be caned for accepting passengers.

In depth: the Black Widows

Chechen terrorist groups have regularly recruited women to act as suicide bombers or ?Black Widows?.

On-the-spot: they didn't close the Metro down

Moscow failed to shut down its underground network today despite the 8am bomb attack at Lubyanka station ? sending passengers blindly into the path of a second rush hour blast and possibly increasing the death toll.

South Korean warship 'may have hit old mine'

The explosion which split in two a South Korean naval ship may have been caused by a sixty-year old sea mine, the country?s defence minister said yesterday, as rescuers spent a fourth day searching for the 46 missing sailors believed to have gone down with the vessel close to the disputed border with North Korea.

Analysis: why have the Moscow bombers struck now?

The return of devastating terrorism to Moscow has brought horror back to the lives of ordinary Russians and represents a defeat for the Kremlin?s strategy of containing an Islamist insurgency inside the confines of North Caucasus.

Rio Tinto sacks four executives jailed in China for bribery

Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining giant, has sacked four iron ore executives after a Chinese court sentenced them to jail terms ranging from seven to 14 years for commercial espionage and taking bribes.

Timeline - terror linked to Russia's Chechen wars

Russia has repeatedly been racked by violent acts since the first Chechen war of December 1994 to August 1996, in which the Russian security forces invaded the internally-divided rebel republic and tried to bring it to heel. Tens of thousands of civilians died in the conflict, which was highly controversial even in Russia.

Rio Tinto executive sentenced to 12 years in China

A Chinese court has sentenced an Australian executive of mining giant Rio Tinto to 12 years in jail on charges of bribery and commercial espionage.

Divers to search South Korean wreck for survivors

South Korean military divers will attempt later today to reach the stern of the naval frigate torn apart by a mystery explosion, in an attempt to discover the fate of the 46 crewmen still missing after the 290-foot Cheonan was sunk on Friday night.

Women suicide bombers 'kill 38' in Moscow Metro attacks

Two female suicide bombers have blown themselves up aboard packed underground trains at the height of the rush hour in Moscow this morning, killing 38 people and leaving an estimated 65 injured, according to the Russian security service.