Sudan 'drives Darfur rebels back'
Sudan says Darfur rebels have retreated from Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, after a surprise attack.

Burma eases restrictions on aid
Increased amounts of aid reach cyclone-hit Burma amid signs the government is easing restrictions on access.

Serbian reformers claim victory
Serbian President Boris Tadic's pro-EU alliance declares victory in elections, but falls short of a majority.

Zimbabwe police arrest activists
Nearly 60 opposition activists are arrested in Zimbabwe as their leader Morgan Tsvangirai is set to return for elections.

Gaza blackouts as fuel runs low
Electricity blackouts hit Gaza as the territory's only power station shuts down, with officials citing lack of fuel.

Fighting spreads east of Beirut
Clashes flare outside Beirut as Lebanon's army struggles to contain fighting between Shia and pro-government groups.

Sri Lankan government wins vote
Sri Lanka's ruling coalition wins a provincial election seen as key to its strategy against the Tamil Tigers.

Nepal arrests 560 Tibetan women
Nepalese police arrest more than 500 Tibetan women demonstrating against China's crackdown in Tibet.

German band topples Madonna
German techno group Scooter knock Madonna off the number one spot in the UK album chart.

F1: Massa holds off Hamilton
Felipe Massa wins the Turkish Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton's McLaren holds off Kimi Raikkonen for second.

Tennis: Rome hit by injuries
Novak Djokovic faces Stanislas Wawrinka in the Rome Masters final after their respective opponents withdraw injured from their semi-finals.

Zambia seizes 'Chiluba millions'
Assets worth nearly $60m stolen under former President Chiluba have been recovered, Zambia's government says.

Burundi arrests condemned
A Burundian rights group accuses the security forces of illegally detaining about 200 people suspected of helping rebels.

Tornado wrecks central US towns
Tornadoes and severe storms sweep the central US, severely damaging two towns and killing at least 18 people.

Gunmen kill top Mexican policemen
Three top Mexican police officials are shot dead in as many days as the fight against drug gangs continues.

Oxfam warns 1.5m Burmese face catastrophe
International aid agencies are struggling to scale up their work in Burma as desperate survivors of cyclone Nargis pour out of the Irrawaddy delta in search of water and food

Civil war fear as Lebanon clashes escalate
Fierce clashes involving rockets and heavy machine guns erupted in Lebanon between pro-government forces and opposition gunmen in mountains east of Beirut as Arab foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in a bid to find a solution to worsening crisis.

UN prison holds death-row convicts
A state-of-the-art jail in Kabul, built to hold Afghanistan's drugs barons, is being used to house ordinary prisoners awaiting execution, embarrassing the UK government

Doubts as Turkish IMF deal expires
The end of a $10bn loan agreement removes an anchor for Ankara's economic and structural reform programme just as the economy appears to be heading into difficulties

Japan wary of China's panda diplomacy
Officially, Tokyo was delighted that Beijing was to offer two replacement animals after one died in a zoo. But the popular reaction has not been so clear cut

UK bank losses to hit public finances
Losses suffered by large UK banks because of the credit crunch will add further pressure on public finances by cutting the amount of corporation tax paid by financial services

Pensions sector strives to win VAT parity
The UK pensions industry is to announce a �300m legal bid to claw back overpaid tax, in the latest challenge by taxpayers to the implementation of European VAT rules

Whitehall performance has long way to go
The Home Office, the Department of Health and Revenue & Customs have emerged as the worst departments in the UK government after a ground-breaking review of officials' ability

Tsvangirai to contest Zimbabwe run-off
Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, sought to reclaim the initiative in his country's political crisis, saying he would return to his homeland to contest a run-off election against President Robert Mugabe

Iran and Syria accused over Beirut chaos
A senior US official has claimed that both states have a hand in the disturbances in the Lebanese capital, the scenes of confusion worrying the Bush administration

Oil and corn hit record high
Crude oil and corn prices surged to record highs as the world's hunger for fuels continued to convulse the energy and agriculture markets

Obama takes lead among super-delegates
Barack Obama for the first time overtook Hillary Clinton's support among the unelected "super-delegates" who will ultimately settle the Democratic nomination

Pressure to quit builds on Israeli PM
Ehud Olmert has admitted receiving funds from a US-Jewish businessman while serving as mayor of Jerusalem and minister for trade, but said the money was for his campaigns

Lebanese army attempts to restore order
Troops attempted to restore order after four days of heavy sectarian and factional fighting that has claimed at least 37 lives, as Hizbollah said it had started withdrawing fighters from Beirut

Ex-Halliburton unit in bribery probe
US anti-bribery investigators are targeting a former Halliburton subsidiary over its work on a key Royal Dutch Shell project in Nigeria, widening a corruption probe into the country's troubled oil industry

Teen Depression Worsens with Marijuana Use
A new report from the US Office of National Drug Control Policy has concluded that depressed teens who self-medicate by using marijuana risk compounding their symptoms. Also reported was the fact that depressed teens are more than twice as likely as their non-depressed peers to abuse or become addicted to the drug. Smoking marijuana was also found to increase the risk of developing mental disorders by more than 40 percent. While marijuana use among teens has declined 25 percent over the past 7 years, more teens use the drug than all other illegal drugs combined.


Premature Babies No More Likely to Survive
A UK study of survival rates for prematurely born babies has concluded that while babies born at 24 and 25 weeks of gestation are more likely to survive than they were in the 1990s, the survival rate for premature babies born at only 23 weeks has not changed. During the course of the study, a mere 1 in 5 infants born at 23 weeks survived the ordeal; none of the babies involved in the study lived after being born at 22 weeks. Human pregnancy usually lasts around 40 weeks, beginning from the first day of a woman's last menstrual period; babies born before the 37 week mark are considered premature.


Immediate Benefits to Smoking Cessation
According to new research, women’s risk of dying from coronary heart disease drops 21 percent within the first five years after quitting smoking. The risk of death from any cause, vascular or otherwise, is reduced 13 percent during these first five years, and after 20 cigarette-free years, a female ex-smoker’s risk of death is equivalent to that of a woman who never smoked at all. There is also a significant, 21 percent reduction in the risk of lung cancer death within five years of smoking cessation, though it takes 30 years for any excess risk due to smoking to disappear.