Hurricane Sandy has hit Cuba after lashing shanty towns, stranding travellers and downing power lines across Jamaica.

Authorities have issued evacuation orders for villages in south-western Greece where wildfires, aided by strong winds and soaring temperatures, have ravaged large areas.

A pair of suicide bombers attacked the house of a top military officer in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta today, killing his wife and 18 other people, at least eight of them soldiers, authorities said.

The Chinese government has ordered a two-month, nationwide safety campaign on its railway system after a collision between two bullet trains killed at least 39 people.

AT LEAST 40 people were killed when four bombs ripped through Shi’ite areas of Baghdad last night — the worst violence the capital has seen in months — Iraqi officials said.

A suicide car bomber crashed his vehicle into a barrier outside a police building in central Iraq this morning, killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens more, officials said.

An amphibious plane carrying former US Republican Senator Ted Stevens crashed into a remote mountainside during a fishing trip, killing Alaska's most beloved political figure and four others and stranding the survivors on a rocky, brush-covered slope overnight.

Authorities say a very strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 has struck south-western Greece.

FRANCE’S best-known mercenary Bob Denard, who had a hand in numerous African wars and coups d’etat over 30 years, has died at the age of 78.

Four US soldiers and their Iraqi interpreter were killed by a roadside bomb north-west of Baghdad today and at least two dozen Iraqis died in violence across the country, as politicians put the final touches on a national unity government they hope will restore security to Iraq.

Gunmen stopped a Baghdad minibus and killed all eight Iraqis on board today.

Demonstrators blocked off a French wholesale market and two mail sorting centres in small, scattered protests today that followed a day of massive marches against a youth jobs plan.

Mining company Glencar has executed an agreement with Orogen Holdings BVI , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gold Fields Ltd, relating to the Sankarani project in Mali, West Africa.

A threatening phone call that forced the United Nations to close offices in south-western Pakistan said al-Qaida would attack the world body’s offices there.

Roadside bombs exploded near three US convoys in and around Baghdad today, wounding two soldiers.

More than 150 people have died in a 10-day heat wave across Pakistan, officials said today.

INSURGENTS killed five US soldiers in separate attacks in Baghdad yesterday and bombed more polling stations across the country, sending a message that if Iraqis suffer on election day, "you have only yourselves to blame."

Dusan Stojanovic, Baghdad

Pakistani security forces have arrested the head of a militant Islamic group suspected in the kidnapping of three UN workers - including Irishwoman Annetta Flanigan - in Afghanistan in October.

US forces battled insurgents around the rebel stronghold of Fallujah today after two American soldiers died as their helicopters crashed south of Baghdad.

THREE Saudi men were beheaded yesterday after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young boy after a drinking spree.

Three Saudi men were beheaded today after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young boy after a drinking spree.