About 45,000 people joined a massive opposition rally today in Malaysia’s largest city in a show of force ahead of key general elections due in months.

Friends of a mother and her four children killed in a suspected arson attack have paid tribute to a “beautiful, well-behaved family”.

A doctor who lost his wife and four children in a suspected arson attack on their home "fought hard" to save them, British police said.

A mother has been left “inconsolable” over the death of her nine-year-old son after a fire at their home early today.

Malaysian prosecutors have finished questioning all their witnesses in opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial.

Malaysia’s High Court refused to let prosecutors use crucial evidence that might link opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to semen found on the man who accused Anwar of sodomising him.

Five young American men under investigation in Pakistan for alleged terror links had established contact with a Taliban recruiter and have told FBI officials they were on a mission to be martyred, a Pakistani police official said.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim asked a Malaysian court to throw out a sodomy charge against him, two weeks before the start of a trial he maintains is politically motivated, his lawyer said today.

Police have raided a Malaysian opposition party’s headquarters to search for seditious material, sparking accusations today of a crackdown on political dissent.

'Slumdog Millionaire', the rags-to-riches tale set in Mumbai, has had a triumphant run through awards ceremonies this year, and fans will be hoping this continues at the Oscars.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim took his place today as a member of Malaysia’s Parliament, a major step in his goal to topple a government weakened by electoral defeats and internal dissent.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim today won a landslide victory in a special election, marking a triumphant return to parliament more than a decade after he was thrown out for alleged sex crimes.

An inter-island ferry carrying more than 700 passengers and crew caught fire today as it neared port on the island of Borneo, an Indonesian television channel reported.

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese has urged governments to do more to protect human rights workers under threat in their own countries.

Malaysia’s newly elected parliamentarians have taken the oath of office to join the lower house.

Al-Qaida’s number-two leader tonight criticised the Palestinian group Hamas for agreeing to respect past agreements with Israel as part of an accord to form a national unity government.

A Kurdish witness at Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial today told the Baghdad court that he survived a massacre by running and falling into a ditch full of bodies as Iraqi troops fired on his group of detainees.

The death toll in the powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake near the Pakistan-India border climbed to more than 2,000 today and included 250 girls who were crushed by rubble when their school collapsed.

British and American diplomats walked out of a human rights conference in Malaysia today, after the country’s former prime minister called their countries terrorist states and said coalition pilots whose bombs killed Iraqi civilians were murderers.

A Yemeni prosecutor today accused eight suspected al-Qaida militants of plotting to carry out attacks in six Arab states, including Yemen.

Malaysia’s highest court overturned the sodomy conviction of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim today and freed him from prison – exactly six years after his removal from office triggered the country’s worst political crisis.

A website that champions jailed Malaysian former deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim returned online today after it was shut down following a complaint that it contained defamatory content.

Terrified tourists were fleeing the island resort of Bali today and the US Embassy in Jakarta ordered all nonessential staff and dependants to leave Indonesia, after a bomb attack that killed 188 people.

Afghan president Hamid Karzai has dismissed allegations that the United States tried to cover up a deadly airstrike and said a continued American presence was crucial to Afghanistan’s future.

Malaysia’s highest court today rejected former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s appeal against his conviction and six-year prison term for corruption.

Malaysia’s jailed former deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim today attacked the testimony of key prosecution witnesses as he launched his final appeal against a corruption conviction he claims was politically engineered.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has warned that foreign government ministers will be arrested if they violate anti-homosexual laws while visiting the mostly Muslim country.

Malaysia’s former police chief was sent to prison today by the Court of Appeals for beating jailed politician Anwar Ibrahim in 1998.

Police wielding canes and backed by water have broken up a rally of about 500 people against Malaysia's longtime leader Mahathir Mohamed.