Eleven protesters have been detained in the north-eastern Brazilian city of Salvador during a protest against the World Cup.

Syria’s president has harshly criticised US and British aid to the country’s rebels and set harsh terms for talking to his opponents in a newspaper interview published yesterday, as fighting raged across the country.

Tens of thousands of people across Spain today protested against education and healthcare spending cuts as the country slid into its second recession in three years.

A group of protesters stormed the Syrian embassy in Germany's capital last night in what appeared to be a protest against the killing of a Kurdish opposition leader, police said.

The European Union has opened a humanitarian office in Tripoli and France has reopened its embassy as the process of resurrecting the Libyan capital gets underway.

A Briton, six Americans and another foreigner on a medical mission were shot and killed by the Taliban who ambushed their vehicles in a remote part of northern Afghanistan, a charity said today.

Iraqis voted today in an election testing the mettle of the country’s still-fragile democracy as insurgents killed 25 people across the Iraq, unleashing a barrage of mortars intent on disrupting the historic day.

Dublin: Holidaybreak, the seller of Eurocamp and Keycamp holidays, is looking for acquisitions in Ireland and north-eastern or southeastern England.

Raging torrents from a ruptured dam swamped a rural Brazilian city, killing four people and destroying at least 120 homes in a region already devastated by more than a month of floods.

At least six people were killed by an avalanche in north-eastern Turkey, according to a government official.

Malaysia’s 13th king formally ascended to the throne today, pledging to reign wisely and safeguard the sanctity of Islam in a ceremony marked by traditional Malay rites and imperial pageantry.

Soldiers and Tamil Tiger rebels traded artillery and mortar fire in northern Sri Lanka today, an official said, as schools closed in the capital over fears that civilians could be targeted by insurgent bombings.

Youths set schools ablaze and torched cars before dawn today as pockets of violence persisted across France.

An Iraqi police commander was gunned down today in north-eastern Baghdad.

NORTH Korea said yesterday that it has completed removing spent fuel rods from an atomic reactor, enabling it to harvest more weapons-grade plutonium. The move comes amid deadlocked talks over its nuclear programme.

North Korea today dismissed reports that it was preparing a nuclear test, calling them US propaganda, and blamed Washington for the impasse in international talks to disarm the hard-line state.

Police have information on more than 500 Australians who access child porn and more arrests are likely, Australia’s police chief said today, a day after announcing the country’s largest ever crackdown on the industry.

A bomb blast in a crowded bus killed at least five people and critically wounded 17 today in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam.

At least two people were killed and eleven others injured when a car bomb exploded morning while the vehicle was being examined at a checkpoint as it tried to enter the UN compound in Baghdad.

At least two people were killed and seven others injured this morning when a car bomb exploded while being examined at a checkpoint as it tried to enter the UN compound in Baghdad, Iraqi police reported.

DOZENS of ministers in Congo’s new power-sharing government were sworn in yesterday in a move that is hoped will end a war that has killed more than three million people in five years.

Dozens of ministers in Congo’s new power-sharing government were being sworn in today in a move that is hoped will end a war that has killed more than three million people in five years.

A blistering series of attacks, coming nearly hourly, left seven US soldiers wounded in and around the Iraqi capital.

Ali Akbar Dareini