Suspected drug cartel killers in Mexico dumped 49 headless bodies on a highway near the northern city of Monterrey, a sickening atrocity that prompted the government to condemn the “inhuman” violence plaguing the country.

IN A co-ordinated move, the world’s major banks yesterday provided cheap dollar funding for Europe’s banks in what is seen as a first major step to save the single currency.

SYRIA’S opposition yesterday urged the Arab League to stand strong against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime as the United Nations said its crackdown on dissent has left more than 3,500 people dead.

CALLS are growing for eurozone states to consider issuing bonds jointly underwritten by all 17 countries in the bloc — so-called eurozone bonds.

A body which investigates alleged miscarriages of justice has been given permission to release details of the case of the Lockerbie bomber, it was announced today.

BRITAIN yesterday condemned celebrations in Tripoli to mark the return of the Lockerbie bomber and scrambled to deflect international fallout from the decision to free him on humanitarian grounds.

There is a time and a place to catch most horses right and a sweltering afternoon at Plumpton is just what Pan The Man likes.

ANIMAL rights activists campaigning for a chimpanzee to be legally declared a person yesterday vowed to continue their fight after an Austrian court threw out their latest appeal.

Iran must pay $2.65bn to the families of the 241 US service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, a judge declared today.

SOME 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists yesterday marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas. This is seen as a direct challenge to the new president’s market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor.

Pedro Almodovar's Volver has picked up five honours at the Goya Awards in Madrid, Spain, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Penelope Cruz.

The former Iranian president said today that talk of US contingency planning for a military attack on Iran was overblown because such a move would be too dangerous.

Iraq’s constitution will be sent to the government printing house tomorrow, according to Baha al-Araji, deputy head of the Constitution Committee.

The head of American hostage Paul Johnson, who was kidnapped and beheaded in Saudi Arabia last month, was found today by security forces during a raid on a hideout that left two militants dead.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar pledged today to find those responsible for the worst terrorist attack in Spanish history as the nation mourned the 198 who died in the string of train bombings.

The UN Security Council plans to vote today to lift more than a decade of sanctions against Libya, but France could block the long-awaited deal to settle the Lockerbie bombing case.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard had to urge Australians not to panic, after health authorities ordered the recall of 219 medical products and suspended the licence of the country’s largest manufacturer of herbal vitamins and nutritional supplements.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern was urged yesterday to press the president of Mexico on his government’s human rights record during his visit.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela will visit Scotland tomorrow to meet the Lockerbie bomber, it was confirmed today.

Negotiators are close to an agreement on the amount of compensation Libya will offer families of the 270 people killed in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, a lawyer involved in the talks said today.

Twelve divers have been rescued from the British coast after their boat took in water.

Syria is refusing to co-operate with the Lockerbie trial.