The father of a 15-year-old Pakistani activist girl who was shot and wounded by a Taliban gunman says she will return home after medical treatment in the UK.

A massive mile-thick brown pollution haze has settled over vast areas of the planet, changing weather patterns and threatening health and crops, according to the UN.

A bus with 50 people on board plunged from a bridge into a river gorge in quake-stricken north-eastern Pakistan today, killing at least three people, police said.

Countries and other donors told the United Nations today they were pledging an additional £300m (€440m) for Pakistani earthquake victims, but UN officials said it was unclear how much was going to combined emergency relief efforts.