The Vatican newspaper has criticised French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo for depicting God as a Kalashnikov-carrying killer, saying it was “woeful” and disrespectful to true believers of all faiths.

As the aftermath of the Tunisia beach massacre unravels, more is being learned about the “warped” gunman.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the legendary AK-47 assault rifle, turned to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the months before his death to express remorse for those killed by his invention.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, apparently wrote a regretful letter several months before his death asking the head of the Russian Orthodox Church if he was to blame for those killed by his gun.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the AK47 assault rifle, the world’s most popular weapon, has died aged 94.

Police officers whose vehicle was hit by gunfire as they were on patrol in Belfast are lucky to be alive, their commander has said.

If we took economic collapse, soaring unemployment, evaporating pensions, and the prospect of years of austerity imposed on us to pay off private bankers’ gambling debts half as seriously as we took sport, then we’d have a revolution more or less the second Tuesday of every month.

Rebel forces routed troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in a fierce battle over an oil port, scrambling over the dunes of a Mediterranean beach through shelling and an air strike to corner their attackers.

Members of a radical Muslim sect shot and killed a political leader in northern Nigeria, the latest attack by a group that engineered a massive prison break last month, police said.

THE United Nations warns of food shortages. Hospitals refuse all non-emergency care to avoid running out of medicine.

GUNSMITH Mikhail Kalashnikov says he designed the assault rifle that bears his name to fend off the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Mauritania’s pro-West leader battled an apparent coup attempt today, as gun and tank cannon fire erupted near the presidential palace.

IRAQI forces, with a hail of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades, downed two Apache helicopters yesterday and forced 30 other helicopters in their brigade back to their base.

Iraq today claimed to have shot down two Apache helicopters and said it was holding the two Allied pilots prisoner.

US-led coalition forces are making “rapid and in some cases dramatic” progress in Iraq but have also met sporadic resistance, US General Tommy Franks said today.

The hunt for the serial sniper stalking Washington suffered a setback today when a witness to the latest attack was labelled “not credible” by police.

The serial sniper stalking Washington used a Kalashnikov to kill his latest victim, a witness said today.

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has proposed a duel between US President George Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar to decide once and for all who will stand and who will run.