A ferry packed with about 300 people has collided with a cargo boat and capsized in a Bangladeshi river, killing 31 people and leaving up to 200 more missing.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted today that rioters who opened fire on police would be brought to justice and called the violence that has raged for three nights in a Paris suburb unacceptable.

An Indian unmanned mission to the moon will carry two Nasa scientific devices designed to find minerals and ice on the lunar surface.

French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder were meeting in Paris today for talks on economic co-operation and the European Union constitution as polls overwhelmingly show the French could reject the treaty.

Alfred Millot was among the first to set eyes on the horrifying scene, an overcrowded budget hotel ablaze at night, with panic-stricken people dangling from flaming windows.