A SUICIDE bomber and gunmen wearing military uniforms attacked a hotel near Somalia’s presidential palace yesterday, sparking a one-hour gun battle with security forces.

An explosion in Somalia’s capital has killed at least 20 people, an African Union spokesman said today.

A home-made bomb planted by suspected Muslim rebels exploded prematurely in a market in the southern Philippines today, killing a would-be attacker and wounding 15 civilians, officials said.

Two Co Armagh soldiers have broken a Guinness World Record for running – in the blazing heat of the southern Afghanistan front line.

A suicide car bomber attacked an army convoy in Pakistan’s volatile north-western tribal area today, killing three civilians and three soldiers, an army spokesman said.

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.

Benazir Bhutto supporters ransacked banks and burned train stations in furious rampages across Pakistan today.

A woman accused of promising couples she would be their surrogate mother has been charged with cheating at least six people out of $14,000 (€9,500), police said.

Nato is investigating claims that its planes killed 14 members of an Afghan civilian road construction crew while hunting Taliban fighters in a mountainous region.

Eight people died after a section of stands at a football stadium in Brazil collapsed as fans cheered at the end of a game on Sunday, police 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.

Three mass graves have been discovered in an eastern area of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the DRC formerly controlled by a rebel warlord that has been the scene of recent clashes, the United Nations said today.

A roadside bomb rocked an eastern Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood this morning, killing at least 13 people and injuring 25 others when it exploded next to buses used by morning commuters, police and hospital officials said.

A roadside bomb rocked an eastern Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood early today, killing at least 11 people and injuring 19 others when it exploded next to buses used by morning commuters.

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

Saudi Arabia will set up a 35,000-strong special force to protect its oil facilities due to the increasing threats against al-Qaida, the Interior Ministry said.

At least 72 people were killed when a truck carrying soldiers and their families overturned in eastern Uganda, an army spokesman said today.

A military jury has found a soldier guilty of murder following the rape and death of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family.

An inquest jury in the UK heard today how 16-year-old Daniel Greening managed to survive a plane crash which killed four others.

A massive three-day battle in southern Afghanistan between Nato and Taliban militants has killed more than 100 people, including insurgents, civilians and police, Afghan officials said today.

A suicide car bomber attacked a convoy of US contract workers and military personnel in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul today, killing at least four civilians, officials said. A soldier opened fire on the crowd after the attack, killing one civilian.

Rwandan combatants attacked a village in eastern Congo today, killing 17 people, wounding 28 others and taking as many as a dozen people hostage, a local rights worker said, citing survivors’ accounts.

Afghanistan can no longer accept or understand civilian deaths, President Hamid Karzai said today, after officials reported that 51 villagers died during a US-led operation against Taliban militants in western Afghanistan.

Taliban militants have seized control of a district in Afghanistan’s volatile south after an hours-long clash that killed five people, including the local police chief and the political leader.

Iraq's government opened a probe today into a British-Iraqi raid on a police intelligence headquarters in southern Iraq.

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s younger brother remains detained on the Indonesian island of Bali on heroin possession charges.

The Pentagon has released new details of allegations against three high-profile terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in a move condemned by a defence lawyer as a tactic to inspire moral condemnation.

A top al-Qaida-linked militant, long wanted by the US and Philippine authorities for deadly terror attacks, has been killed in a clash with troops in a major blow to his brutal rebel group, the military said today.

Sri Lankan officials today said commandoes had found torture chambers at a captured rebel base, but the separatists said the cement cells were for holding prisoners and denied any torture had taken place.

The US Embassy in Baghdad today said it was investigating reports that an American had been kidnapped in southern Iraq.

Fiji’s military regime today took the unprecedented step of halting all meetings of the nation’s powerful council of indigenous chiefs – accusing it of failing to accept that the military now controls the affairs of the South Pacific nation.

More than 1,000 British and Danish troops stormed five houses in southern Iraq today, using ground forces, boats, helicopters and jets in a raid that detained five Iraqis and confiscated a large cache of weapons.

More than 1,000 British and Danish troops stormed five houses in southern Iraq today, using ground forces, boats, helicopters and jets in a raid that detained five Iraqis and confiscated a large cache of weapons.

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 roadside bomb killed two Nato soldiers and wounded two others on patrol in eastern Afghanistan today, the alliance said.

A car bomb killed three people and wounded five others in Baghdad’s Sadr City neighbourhood early today.

At least 80 people were killed or found dead in Iraq on today, including 33 victims of a bomb attack on labourers lined up to find a day’s work in Baghdad’s Sadr city Shiite slum. The U.S. military announced the death of the 100th service member killed in combat this month.

A clash between insurgents and Nato-led troops in eastern Afghanistan left three soldiers wounded, an alliance spokesman said.

The Shiite militia run by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of the southern Iraqi city of Amarah today in one of the boldest acts of defiance yet by the country’s powerful, unofficial armies, witnesses and police said.

Suicide bombers struck in Afghanistan’s two main cities today, killing three civilians and wounding six, while seven suspected militants died in fighting with coalition and Nato forces in outlying provinces.

Nato took over eastern Afghanistan from US-led forces today, assuming control of 12,000 US troops and expanding their security mission to the entire country.

Nato was today set to expand its security mission to the whole of Afghanistan, taking command of more than 13,000 US troops in the east of the country.

Nato will soon assume direct control over most military operations in Afghanistan, a move that will place 12,000 more US troops under its authority, a spokesman for the alliance has said.

A suicide bomber blew himself up next to a Nato convoy in Kabul today, wounding three soldiers and three civilians.