Extremists detonated three explosive devices in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, in Nigeria’s north-east.

The revelation that only one-in-three children under seven know what chips are made of is almost a perfect opportunity for a certain kind of Col. Blimp rant but in reality it must be a cause for a kind of almost hopeless sadness and resignation.

The body of a 62-year-old American woman has been found stuffed inside a suitcase on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

An overcrowded tourist ferry capsized and sank near a popular Thai seaside town today, killing six tourists, including two Russians and a Chinese, police said. The rest of the roughly 200 people aboard were rescued.

For hours, the young cadets waited, standing at attention by the freshly dug grave — a striking tableau in their crisp, green tunics and brown breeches, rifles by their sides.

A US jury has sentenced Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan to death for killing 13 people during the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas.

Country singer Slim Whitman, the high-pitched yodeller who sold millions of records through TV ads in the 1980s and 1990s and whose song saved the world in the film comedy “Mars Attacks!”, has died in Florida aged 90.

Five UN peacekeepers from India and up to seven civilians have been killed by rebels in South Sudan.

The Philippines remains committed to deploying troops in UN peacekeeping hotspots despite the brief hostage-taking of 21 of its soldiers, military officials have said.

Former CIA boss David Petraeus is “devastated” after being forced to resign over his affair with a younger woman, one of his former aides has said.

Hurricane Sandy blasted across eastern Cuba today as a potent Category 2 storm and headed for the Bahamas after causing at least two deaths in the Caribbean.

The UN's top human rights official said today that there should be no amnesty for serious crimes committed in Syria, even if the threat of prosecution might motivate members of the regime to cling to power at all costs.

It is grotesquely hilarious to witness the Haughey family demanding and receiving an apology from the estate agents Savills because the agency mistakenly claimed that Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi and Margaret Thatcher had visited the former Taoiseach’s home in Kinsealy.

A military judge has refused to dismiss all charges against the US Army private accused in the biggest leak of government secrets in the country’s history.

Jubilant revolutionary forces raised their flag today over a convention centre in Sirte that served as a base for Muammar Gaddafi’s loyalists, but fighting surged elsewhere in the town.

Troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, including his security chief, have fled into neighbouring Niger in multiple convoys but the dictator’s location is still unknown.

Rebel reinforcements converged on one of Muammar Gaddafi’s last strongholds in Libya today, even as they gave the town a last chance to surrender.

Scattered battles flared across Tripoli today with pro-regime snipers cutting off the airport road while others launched repeated attacks on Muammar’s Gaddafi’s captured private compound.

A FRENCH fighter jet has destroyed a Libyan plane after it violated the no-fly zone over the country.

Muammar Gaddafi has toured the Libyan capital Tripoli, trying to rally loyalists amid widening anti-government protests, the state news agency said.

Three journalists covering the World Cup were robbed in their South African hotel today.

In the face of world-wide condemnation North Korea today claimed damning evidence that it torpedoed a South Korean warship was fabricated.

A Red Shirt aide has said a military strategist involved with protestors in Thailand had been shot in the head as gunfire and explosions echoed through central Bangkok today.

Gunfire and explosions echoed through central Bangkok today hours after the government warned it was going to seal off the area occupied by thousands of protesters.

A band of murderers who killed people to extract and sell their body fat to the cosmetic industry have been arrested in Peru.

Libya is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to power with a parade, lavish dance spectacles and fighter jets streaking overhead.

Two Russian air force jets rehearsing aerobatic manoeuvres collided today near Moscow, killing one stunt pilot and sending one fighter crashing into nearby holiday homes, a military official said.

Brazil has called off the search for more bodies and debris from the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean but an American officer said the search for the black boxes would likely continue for at least another 16 days.

Crews searching for the wreckage of the Air France jet which crashed in the Atlantic have found a key part that could tell experts why the plane went down, Brazil’s air force said today.

A suicide car bomb attack today on a heavily guarded road between the German Embassy and a US military base in the Afghan capital killed two Afghan civilians and wounded five US troops, officials said.

Thousands of new UN peacekeeping troops should arrive in Congo within weeks, it was announced today.

Iraqi forces clashed with Shiite militias in the southern oil port of Basra today as a security plan to clamp down on violence between rival militia factions in the region began.

Turkish troops have launched a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels.

American troops killed up to four bank staff on their way to work in Baghdad today after firing on their minibus.

An executive jet crashed in a heavily populated neighbourhood of Sao Paulo today, killing at least seven people and leaving a pile of smoky rubble just months after the city suffered the nation’s deadliest air disaster.

All 38 passengers and crew aboard a boat that capsized and sank today near a Thai resort island have been rescued, said the governor of the southern province where the accident took place.

Dozens of people were missing after a boat capsized and sank today near a Thai resort island, police said.

The Nigerian Defence Ministry has asked 40 top army officials to retire, a Nigerian defence spokesman said today, two months after the country swore in a new president.

Police arrested a Thai soldier for participating in an attack by 30 men on three British tourists as they ate at a food stall north of the Thai capital, police said today.

Suicide bombers killed 13 people in a pair of attacks today around the Iraqi Sunni city of Ramadi, in what local officials said was part of a power struggle between al-Qaida and tribes that have broken with the terror network.

Roadside bombs killed eight American soldiers in separate attacks today in Diyala province and Baghdad, and a car bomb claimed 30 more lives in a wholesale food market in a part of the Iraqi capital where sectarian tensions are on the rise.

Thailand's prime minister said today he supported allowing Buddhists to arm themselves against Muslim insurgents who are targeting civilians.

The Virginia Tech gunman sent photographs, videos and writings to US broadcaster NBC in New York before he died in the massacre that left 33 people dead, authorities said.