A 54-year-old man was arrested in England today in connection with the murders of three members of a British family and a French cyclist who were shot dead in the Alps in September last year.

Police probing the murder of a British-Iraqi family in the French Alps last year are looking into telephone calls to Romania made from the phone of the brother of one of the victims, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation said.

A relative of the British-Iraqi family shot dead in the Alps last month has criticised the French police’s murder investigation.

The four-year-old girl who survived the execution-style killing of her family in the French Alps returned to Britain last night, as police again quizzed relatives and scoured the family home.

A neighbour of the British family who were brutally killed in the French Alps has described Saad al Hilli as a “massively helpful man” and “a wonderful engineer”.

Nearly 24 hours later, there is still no idea why three members of a British family were gunned down in an act of “savagery” in the French Alps.

Japan maintained their pursuit of double Olympic football gold as the men followed the women into the last four of the tournament.

Any child born today will celebrate their birthday every four years. Margaret Neylon looks at the significance of emerging on Feb 29

PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad extended a tank onslaught in Syria’s Sunni Muslim tribal heartland, residents said, in an escalating crackdown on protesters that prompted an extraordinary rebuke from the Saudi king warning the Syrian leader to adopt reforms or risk defeat.

A key Hezbollah ally has warned that an international indictment of members of the Islamic militant group in the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could lead to new civil strife in Lebanon.

A UN-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has issued four arrest warrants.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was welcomed by thousands of Lebanese supporters today in a visit that underscores the deep divisions between the Hezbollah militant group and Lebanon’s pro-western factions.

A battle by a pair of paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport ended with one of them in the hospital and the other in jail.

A Libyan teenager who threatened to follow an employee of the Refugee Reception and Integration Office home and burn down her house after his request for accommodation was refused has been given a partly suspended sentence.

A daughter of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has taken refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran after eluding guards who have held her, her sister and four brothers under house arrest for eight years, it was reported.

A Libyan teenager who threatened to follow an employee of the Refugee Reception and Integration Office home and burn down her house after his request for accommodation was refused has had his sentence adjourned.

A US counterterrorism official said one of the many sons of al-Qaida leader Osama bin laden may have been killed by a US missile strike earlier this year - but that it’s not certain.

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Police and army troops in Lebanon sealed off downtown Beirut today as the parliament tried to meet to elect a new head of state.

Pakistan’s government today urged exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif not to return home, saying he should honour a promise he made to stay away after being ousted from power.

A Lebanese convicted sex offender with an Australian address, who attacked four women over two days while he was in Ireland attending a wedding, has been sentenced to two years in prison by Judge Katherine Delahunt.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese paid tribute to Rafik Hariri on the first anniversary of the former premier’s assassination today, waving flags and shouting anti-Syrian slogans in a show of strength aimed at reviving the “people power” spirit that helped break Damascus’ domination.

OPEC producer Kuwait will adhere to its oil policy aimed at keeping global markets well-supplied following the death of the Gulf Arab state’s Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Kuwaiti oil officials said yesterday.

The mayor of Jesus’ traditional home town today asked pilgrims to visit in large numbers during Christmas and help pressure Israel to dismantle the barrier that rings the city and cuts it off from Jerusalem.

Syria is fighting back hard against the UN inquiry into the killing of a Lebanese politician, touting a witness who now says his testimony against Syrian officials was false. But some in Lebanon say Syria is just manoeuvring to discredit an investigation that could lead to its doorstep.

A man has claimed on Syrian state TV that he was bribed to accuse top Syrian officials of the murder of Rafik Hariri in his testimony to the UN commission into the former Lebanese premier’s assassination.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud appointed the anti-Syrian coalition’s candidate Fuad Saniora as prime minister today to head the first Cabinet in 30 years to be free of Syrian interference.

The family of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri announced today that his second eldest son, Saad, would assume the political mantle left by the assassinated Lebanese leader.

Buffralo Soldiers stars Joaquin Phoenix as Ray Elwood, a drug-dealing thief who keeps his fellow soldiers at a US army base in Germany supplied with the bare essentials.

AL-QAIDA terrorists are training to use a chemical-based bomb which could be stuffed into clothes, pillows or toys and smuggled on board an airliner, it was reported yesterday.

While Saddam Hussein is spearheading what he dubs a holy war against occupying Anglo-American troops in Iraq, two of his daughters and their nine children are leading a low-profile, Western-style life under the protection of King Abdullah.

What they said:

A report that two of Osama bin Laden's sons have been wounded and captured in Afghanistan, still hasn't been confirmed.

TWO of terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden’s many sons may have been wounded and captured in an Afghan gun battle with US troops that left seven al-Qaida members dead, a senior Pakistan official said tonight.

The claim made by Pakistan's home minister, Sanaullah Zehri, that two of Osama bin Laden's sons have been captured have not been confirmed by other Pakistani ministries.

Two of terror leader Osama bin Laden’s sons were today reported to have been wounded and captured in an Afghan gun battle involving US troops.

In Washington, US counter-terrorism officials have strongly disputed the report by a Pakistani provincial minister that sons of Osama bin Laden have been arrested in south-eastern Afghanistan.

Bin Laden’s sons were injured in the gun battle that led to their capture, said reports.

Pakistani and US forces have intensified the search for Osama bin Laden along a south-western stretch of the border with Afghanistan following information from a newly captured al-Qaida deputy, Pakistani intelligence and military officials say.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks and a senior operative in Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network, was in the hands of US authorities today, after being been captured in a joint raid by CIA and Pakistani agents.

Some of Osama bin Laden’s bodyguards have been captured and are among the prisoners at the US military base in Cuba, American officials say.

Osama bin Laden's son Saad has become a rising star in his father's terrorist network, gaining so much new authority that US counter-terrorism officials now consider him among their top two dozen targets in al-Qaida.

Residents of Mazar-e-Sharif sacrificed sheep to celebrate the defeat of the Taliban.