The first of Chile’s 33 trapped miners is expected to be lifted to the surface in the early hours of tomorrow after more than two months below ground.

Israeli commandos today stormed six ships carrying hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists on an aid mission to the blockaded Gaza Strip, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens more.

A passenger ferry sank in rough waters off the Indinesian island of Sumatra today killing at least 25 people on board.

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.

Rescuers searched for bodies today after a bridge collapsed under the weight of thousands of hungry cyclone survivors stampeding for food in southern Bangladesh, but were struggling to shift a massive concrete slab obstructing their efforts.

OVERBURDENED relief centres scrambled to help tens of thousands of cyclone survivors yesterday as fist fights broke out amongvictims waiting for rice.

THE US military has launched a new “Most Wanted” campaign offering rewards of up to $200,000 (€141,500) for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders.

Iraqi soldiers manned the gates of a central Basra base today after the bulk of British tanks and troops pulled out overnight.

Taliban militants wearing Afghan army uniforms attacked a remote Nato base in eastern Afghanistan today, leaving two Afghan soldiers dead and 11 alliance soldiers wounded, a statement from Nato said.

US troops clashed with suspected Sunni insurgents holed up in a mosque north of Baghdad and launched an air-to-ground Hellfire missile into the structure.

Two US Army soldiers have been charged with the premeditated murder of an Iraqi and a lieutenant colonel has been relieved of command in connection with the case, the US military announced today.

A senior American diplomat missing for four days has been found dead in a rural area of western Cyprus, state radio reported today.

A US search team on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima is zeroing in on a cave where a Marine combat photographer who filmed the famous flag-raising 62 years ago is believed to have been killed in battle nine days later.

The Al Aqsa TV and radio stations, allied with Hamas, came under fire from Palestinian security forces today, employees said.

Three US soldiers were killed and six others injured when a suicide bomber collapsed part of a road bridge in Iraq today.

Philippine troops defused a powerful bomb found in a packed bus after the US Embassy warned that terrorists might carry out attacks.

A body pulled from the Euphrates River south of Baghdad yesterday has been identified as one of three American soldiers abducted two weeks ago in an ambush claimed by al-Qaida.

Fresh airstrikes in a volatile southern Afghan region killed up to 10 Taliban fighters close to where villagers say about 40 civilians died during a battle earlier this week, and the US-led coalition said local Afghans feared more militant attacks.

Afghan politicians have called for direct talks with Taliban fighters and an end to military operations by international forces unless they first come under attack.

Government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels clashed AGAIN in northern Sri Lanka today, as Britain suspended some aid payments to the country amid the intensified fighting.

Afghan police clashed with Taliban militants today in eastern Afghanistan, and a subsequent Nato airstrike left 11 insurgents dead, officials said. Three police were wounded in the fighting.

A US Army lieutenant colonel has been charged with nine offences, including aiding the enemy, the US military announced in Iraq today.

A roadside bomb tore through a civilian bus in northern Sri Lanka today, killing seven people and wounding 26, the army said, blaming Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack.

An Iranian envoy is to be allowed to meet the five Iranians detained by US forces in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil, state media reported today.

Government soldiers killed four Tamil Tiger rebels in two separate clashes on northern Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula, the Defence Ministry said today.

Iraq’s Sunni deputy prime minister was wounded today in a suicide bombing near the heavily fortified Green Zone that killed as many as six, authorities said.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today issued a statement calling on his supporters to resist US forces in Iraq, and a local militia commander blamed an attack against the mayor of Sadr City on a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans.

The US military today said it was investigating Iraq reports of a US helicopter being shot down north of Baghdad.

Rescuers expanded their search for a missing plane to the sea today, after senior Indonesian officials mistakenly said yesterday that the Boeing 737’s charred wreckage had been found along with a dozen survivors.

Fiji was facing the prospect of suspension from the Commonwealth today after a military coup was staged in the South Pacific island.

The Iraqi prime minister's office said only 45 to 50 people had been kidnapped in a lightning raid on a Baghdad higher education office today, and 20 of them had been released.

A fire at a US army base in Iraq set off a series of explosions by detonating tank and artillery shells, causing buildings miles away to shake.

Iraqi officials are doing DNA tests on a killed militant to determine if he is al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the deputy interior minister said today.

Security forces are closing in on the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, a senior official said today, showing a captured video of the terror chief teaching followers how to build a car bomb.

Georgia today charged four Russian officers with spying and a court was to decide later whether they should continue to be held in custody as relations between the two ex-Soviet neighbours plummeted to a new low.

Clashes and bombings left up to 34 Taliban fighters and one policeman dead in five separate incidents in central and southern Afghanistan, officials said today.

Bombers and gunmen killed eight people in Iraq today as security forces prepared to further tighten security ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, when violence traditionally spikes across the country.

US government authorities diverted a San Francisco-bound United Airlines jet to Dallas as a precautionary security measure after finding an unclaimed BlackBerry hand-held computer on board.

A Lebanese police officer and his bodyguard were wounded by a remote-controlled roadside bomb today in an apparent assassination attempt.

A taxi driver assaulted a British flight attendant while she was on her way back from a Bangkok pub early today, police said.

The US Army has opened a review of casualty reports on American soldiers killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since 2001, a response to complaints that it has not always given families accurate information.

An Iraqi army medic told a US military hearing today he was sick for weeks after finding the naked and burned body of a 14-year-old girl allegedly raped and murdered by American soldiers south of Baghdad.

At least 44 people were killed today in Iraq’s spiralling violence, including 20 soldiers whose bus was blasted by a roadside bomb.

It emerged today that the senior Irish officer in Lebanon, Lt. Col. John Molloy, contacted his liaison officer in the Israeli Defence Forces to express his concerns about nearby attacks six times prior to the destruction of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike.