An avalanche killed at least 24 people early today when it struck a tiny mountain village in India’s portion of Kashmir while most of its residents slept, sweeping away dozens of houses and leaving scores of people missing, officials said.

Police arrested a Muslim prayer leader who condoned wife-beating today, after France’s highest administrative body ruled he can be expelled from the country.

A radar system installed in an Israeli border town provides a 20 second warning if Palestinian militants fire rockets from the nearby Gaza Strip, an Israeli arms manufacturer said today.

ROMANIAN Olympic 5,000 metre gold medallist Gabriela Szabo may quit athletics after French border police found a banned substance in her car.

Two Palestinian gunmen have opened fire on an Israeli border police patrol, killing one Israeli before they were shot dead. The gunmen were in a car travelling from the West Bank towards Israel when they encountered border police at Baka al-Gharbiya.