A US burglar has been identified by his dance moves.

The cemetery where Whitney Houston was laid to rest has been closed to the public indefinitely.

A busy bridge in central Indonesia has collapsed, killing at least three people and injuring scores of others.

Medical staff were today trying to reverse the spiralling problems that led to Britney Spears being committed to a hospital psychiatric ward while police defended the huge escort they provided to take her there.

SOUTH African reggae star Lucky Dube has been shot and killed in a carjacking.

At least 14 people, nine of them schoolchildren, were killed in a six-vehicle accident on a major road in South Africa, the South African Press Association reported.

A pair of mortar rounds slammed into a football field while young men were playing a game in a Shiite district of Baghdad today, as more than 60 people were killed in attacks nationwide.

A British military helicopter crashed in Basra today, and Iraqis hurled stones at British troops and set fire to at least one armoured vehicle that rushed to the scene. Clashes broke out between British troops and Shiite militias, police and witnesses said.

Nearly a year after the tsunami separated them from their daughter, a German-Thai couple say they are certain their missing five-year-old child will be back with them as a special Christmas present.

TWO men strapped with explosives detonated them at Baghdad’s police academy today, killing at least 43 people and wounding 73 more, officials said, while al-Jazeera broadcast an insurgent video of a man purported to be a US security consultant.

A suicide car bomber attacked a police patrol today on a busy commercial street, killing at least 17 people and wounding 26, officials said.

BOMBERS killed 42 people yesterday at a Baghdad restaurant favoured by police and an army recruiting centre to the north, while Iraqi troops along the Iranian border found 27 decomposing bodies, unidentified victims of the grisly violence plaguing the country.

TO the estimated 10,000 residents still holed up in this ruined city, the mayor had a blunt new warning: get out now or risk being taken out by force.

Gunmen have attacked cars owned by Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, wounding four of his bodyguards, police said.

A suicide attacker detonated explosives strapped to his body today at a gas station near a Shiite mosque south of Baghdad, triggering a huge explosion in a fuel tanker and killing at least 54 people and injuring 82, police said.

Iraqi insurgents fired at least six mortar rounds towards a US military base today, but hit a bus station instead, killing four Iraqi civilians and wounding 21, officials said.

A man wearing a police uniform drove a car bomb inside the headquarters of police in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit today, setting off a massive explosion that killed at least 15 police and wounded 22 others, police and witnesses said.

A trio of suicide attacks has killed at least 27 people and injured dozens in Baghdad, officials said.

Two car bombs shook Baghdad in quick succession today, killing at least eight Iraqis and wounding 16, police said. One American soldier was also injured.

Three people have been charged in connection with last month’s bombings of two Russian airliners, the Interfax news agency reported today.

An explosion outside a former Saddam Hussein-era palace which is now a British base and which houses a United States consular office killed at least one person and wounded two others, police and witnesses said today.

Police had to break up a shoving match at a club after rapper 50 Cent and his entourage jumped from the stage during a surprise appearance and scuffled in the audience.

A convertible car struck several spectators at a St Patrick’s Day parade in Savannah, Georgia, today after accelerating through an intersection along the parade route.

Four spectators were shot and wounded during a Massachusetts town’s annual St Patrick’s Day Parade after a fight broke out among two groups of young men.

A four-year-old boy died from burns in Los Angeles after his father allegedly doused his mother in a flammable liquid and set her on fire.

Yugoslav police have revealed the site of a mass grave believed to contain dozens of bodies of ethnic Albanians.

An 18-year-old student has opened fire at his Californian high school, wounding three classmates and two teachers.

The family of a teenage British holidaymaker watched in horror as she was crushed to death in a cable car mechanism as she prepared to abseil down a South African mountain.

The family of a teenage British holidaymaker watched in horror as she was crushed to death in a cable car mechanism as she prepared to abseil down a South African mountain.