FRANCE’S new ban on Islamic face veils was met with a burst of defiance as several women appeared veiled in front of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral and two were detained for taking part in an unauthorised protest.

Automatic weapons fire pounded the anti-government protest camp in the Egyptian capital before dawn today in a dramatic escalation of what appeared to be a well-orchestrated series of assaults on the demonstrators.

Six world powers sidestepped Iran’s refusal to discuss scrapping uranium enrichment today, offering instead to revive smaller-scale talks in hopes they will lead to broader dialogue about Tehran’s nuclear activities.

Four people were killed today when a pick-up truck laden with explosives blew up outside a police station in north-western Pakistan today.

CHARGES of fraud in Afghanistan’s presidential election are extensive enough that they could sway the final result, the commission investigating the complaints said yesterday.

Gaza militants launched two rockets into southern Israel early today, further straining a ceasefire that ended Israel's Gaza offensive two weeks ago.

More than 100 people have been killed in an earthquake in south-western Pakistan today.

Anti-government protesters have vowed to avenge those killed and injured in clashes this week with the police.

Thailand suffered its worst political violence in more than 16 years as police battled protesters who besieged the Parliament in their struggle to change the country’s system of democracy.

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, the alleged architect of war crimes including Europe’s worst massacre since the Second World War, was in custody today after more than a decade on the run.

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan defended his bombshell book about the Bush administration today, saying he did not speak up against the overselling of war in Iraq because he gave the president the benefit of the doubt.

Opposition parties dealt a crushing electoral blow to allies of President Pervez Musharraf, a private TV network reported today, winning enough seats to form a new government that could threaten the eight-year rule of America’s close ally in its war on terror.

HUNDREDS of people, including many children, chanted slogans praising Saddam Hussein as they tossed flowers on to his tomb one year after he was executed.

Hundreds of people, including many children, chanted slogans praising Saddam Hussein as they tossed flowers on to his tomb one year after he was executed.

Iran has sent a formal protest note to Washington for “spying” on Iran’s nuclear activities, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai declared three days of national mourning today, a day after a suicide bomb killed at least 41 people.

A strike by Air France flight attendants grounded more than 30% of its planes for a third day today – the start of a holiday in France – and unions predicted more of the same after unanimously rejecting a proposal.

US forces targeting militants believed to have kidnapped two coalition soldiers raided the main Shiite district in Baghdad today. At least 13 people were killed, including a woman and children, Iraqi officials said.

US forces targeting militants believed to have kidnapped two coalition soldiers raided the main Shiite district in Baghdad today. At least 13 people were killed, including a woman and children, Iraqi officials said.

The death toll from a powerful earthquake rose to at least 337 today, a day after the magnitude-7.9 quake rocked Peru’s coast, toppled buildings and shattered roads, officials said.

Iraqi security forces seized 200 explosive belts today along the Syrian border, a police spokesman said, reinforcing Baghdad’s claims that its western neighbour isn’t doing enough to stop the flow of fighters and weapons to al Qaida in Iraq.

Several explosions were heard near a radical mosque besieged by security forces in the Pakistani capital Islamabad this morning.

The chief cleric of a radical mosque in Islamabad was arrested and more than 1,000 of his followers surrendered today as troops backed by armoured vehicles and helicopters tightened their siege of the complex, officials said.

US-led forces conducting a crackdown on al-Qaida killed a senior member of the insurgent group who was responsible for the high-profile kidnappings of several Westerners, a military spokesman said today.

Police are trying to identify dozens of people captured by security cameras at the Jamaican hotel where World Cup cricket coach Bob Woolmer was murdered.

A grisly video circulating in Pakistan allegedly shows a child beheading Ghulam Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official killed in a December air strike in Afghanistan.

Afghan journalists covering the aftermath of a suicide attack and shooting in eastern Afghanistan say US troops deleted their photos and video and warned them not to publish any images.

US forces opened fire on civilians in eastern Afghanistan today as they fled a militant ambush involving a suicide car bomb and gunmen, Afghan witnesses said.

Israel’s largest raid in the West Bank for months entered its second day today, with tens of thousands of Palestinians confined to their Nablus homes as soldiers searched for suspected militants.

A suicide car bomber struck a mostly Shiite neighbourhood today in central Baghdad, killing 26 people, hours after the prime minister promised the coming US-Iraq security sweep in the capital would pursue militants wherever they were hiding.

US and Iraqi troops clashed with gunmen firing heavy weapons from concrete high-rises in a Sunni insurgent stronghold north of the heavily fortified Green Zone today. Iraqi’s defense ministry said as many as 30 militants were killed and 27 captured.

US troops killed six people today during a raid on a possible safe house for al-Qaida in Iraq, the military said, while the death toll of American service members in Iraq rose above 3,000.

Eddie Murphy has said he is not sure if he is the father of former Spice Girl Mel B’s unborn child. The singer, however, says she is quite certain he is.

Suspected insurgents set off a car bomb to stop a minibus carrying Shiite government employees in Baghdad, then shot and killed 15 of them, the Iraqi government said.

Iraq’s parliament voted on today to extend Iraq’s state of emergency through December, but the US military warned of even worse sectarian violence after last week’s deadly insurgent attack on Shiites in Baghdad.

A US airliner bound for India was diverted to Amsterdam under escort of two Dutch F-16 jet fighters, after air marshals and the crew grew suspicious of several passengers they saw exchanging mobile phones as the plane was taking off.

The American military flew in two forensic specialists today to examine the body of slain al-Qaida chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi “to see how he actually died” in an effort to reconstruct the last minutes of his life, a US general said.

In Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s first broadcast interview since their daughter was born, Pitt said the event was “truly peaceful”.

STUNT artist David Blaine had to be pulled from his aquarium in New York by divers after falling short of his goal of setting a world record for holding his breath underwater.

Emergency crews and volunteers struggled to keep embankments and sand barriers from giving way yesterday amid record flooding along the Danube and its tributaries in northern Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans.

Emergency crews and volunteers today struggled to keep embankments and sand barriers from giving way amid record flooding along the Danube and its tributaries in northern Serbia and elsewhere in the Balkans.

Judges began inspecting more than 80,000 contested ballots, with Italian politics in turmoil and the country’s future mired in uncertainty following Romano Prodi’s narrow electoral victory and Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s demands for a recount.

Like many residents of Cernobbio, a quiet northern Italian town, restaurant owner Holmes Sitta was unimpressed by rumours of a weekend wedding here of Hollywood glamour couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Slobodan Milosevic’s remains will be flown home today for a funeral in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, later in the week, a family lawyer said.