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Israel elections: Herzog concedes to Netanyahu after Likud takes most seats – live updates
Israel elections: Netanyahu scores dramatic victory after late surge in support
Women's rights activists call for UN to protect them in their work
Homebrew and house parties: how North Koreans have fun
Israel election: Bibi the magician pulls off a victory – but at what cost?
Cecil Rhodes statue pelted with excrement at Cape Town University
David Leyonhjelm wants native wildlife kept as pets to prevent extinction
The village that fell asleep: mystery illness perplexes Kazakh scientists
'The glances they withstand': inside the lives of Iranian women
Netanyahu claims victory in Israeli election as rival Herzog hangs on - video
Missouri executes Cecil Clayton, state's oldest death-row inmate
Letter sent to White House may contain cyanide, says secret service
Indonesian rescue teams end hunt for AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash victims
Food concerns mount in Vanuatu after cyclone Pam
Lawyer for Pakistani doctor who helped CIA find Osama bin Laden shot dead
Senegal leader Macky Sall offers to reduce presidential term as 'example to Africa'
US loses drone over Syria, which claims to have brought it down
Confiscated fireworks blow up in cloud of smoke - video
Friend says he gave handgun to Boston Marathon bomb suspect
Horse trading set to decide new Israel government after deadlock at the polls

Israel elections: Herzog concedes to Netanyahu after Likud takes most seats – live updates

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 01:40 AM PDT

With nearly 99.5% votes counted, Likud ahead winning 30 seats
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog calls Netanyahu to congratulate him
Exit polls had put Herzog and Netanyahu at dead heat with 27 seats
Netanyahu had appealed to right wing by rejecting Palestinian statehood
Arab Joint List, Yesh Atid and Kulanu vie for influence in outcome

Israel elections: Netanyahu scores dramatic victory after late surge in support

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 12:41 AM PDT

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog concedes election after prime minister recovers from low poll numbers ahead of elections to lead his Likud party to 30 seats in Knesset

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightwing Likud party has scored a dramatic election victory surging past its main rival, the centre-left Zionist Union, to win most seats in the Knesset.

A series of exit polls released at the close of voting on Tuesday night had suggested the Zionist Union and its leader, Isaac Herzog, were neck and neck with Netanyahu.

Women's rights activists call for UN to protect them in their work

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 12:00 AM PDT

Meeting in New York hears of sexual and misogynist attacks on female activists defending women's rights, amid pleas for greater UN support

Homebrew and house parties: how North Koreans have fun

Posted: 18 Mar 2015 12:00 AM PDT

Despite restrictions on money and free time partying is integral to North Korean culture. But how does it compare to cutting loose in the South?

Israel election: Bibi the magician pulls off a victory – but at what cost?

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 11:56 PM PDT

Election result shows Israel is divided internally but Binyamin Netanyahu's lurch to the right risks creating further divisions with an increasingly frustrated international community

Cecil Rhodes statue pelted with excrement at Cape Town University

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 11:22 PM PDT

Deep divisions over monument to British colonialist who donated land where leading South African university stands

David Leyonhjelm wants native wildlife kept as pets to prevent extinction

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 10:29 PM PDT

Liberal Democrat senator says: 'Just as dogs and cats are in no danger of dying out, the same will be true if native animals are privately owned'

The village that fell asleep: mystery illness perplexes Kazakh scientists

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 10:00 PM PDT

For the last two years the residents of Kalachi have been falling into unexplained bouts of sleep - sometimes for weeks at a time. With no cause yet identified, Joanna Lillis meets the victims resisting relocation by the authorities

'The glances they withstand': inside the lives of Iranian women

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 10:00 PM PDT

On a small stage in Tehran, three nameless women tell tales of love, loss and solitude in an ode Iranian women everywhere

Netanyahu claims victory in Israeli election as rival Herzog hangs on - video

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 09:11 PM PDT

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has declared a 'great victory' for his Likud party, as his rival Isaac Herzog refused to concede defeat. With more than 90% of the vote counted, Likud has scored what many are calling an emphatic victory, but Herzog said he was still focused on forming a 'socially-minded government' for Israel Continue reading...

Missouri executes Cecil Clayton, state's oldest death-row inmate

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 07:39 PM PDT

Inmate had appealed on grounds that he was diagnosed as severely mentally impaired

The state of Missouri executed its oldest death row inmate on Tuesday – a man who was mentally impaired from a work accident that removed a large portion of his brain – after his final appeals failed at the US supreme court.

The execution of Cecil Clayton, 74, was delayed for several hours, while the supreme court weighed appeals from Clayton's defense attorneys.

Cecil Clayton had – literally – a hole in his head. Executing him without a hearing to determine his competency violated the constitution, Missouri law and basic human dignity.

Mr Clayton was not a 'criminal' before the sawmill accident that lodged part of his skull into his brain and required 20% of his frontal lobe to be removed. He was happily married, raising a family and working hard at his logging business.

Letter sent to White House may contain cyanide, says secret service

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 06:46 PM PDT

US Secret Service says it has had a 'presumptive positive' result after testing a letter for the deadly poison. An initial test had come back negative

An envelope mailed to the White House has tentatively tested positive for cyanide, US Secret Service officials confirmed on Tuesday.

The agency, which is charged with protecting the president, said testing on the envelope "returned a presumptive positive" for cyanide and that it would undergo further testing to confirm the results.

Indonesian rescue teams end hunt for AirAsia flight QZ8501 crash victims

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 06:09 PM PDT

Hunt ends with bodies of 106 of 162 victims found, with little light still having been shed on what might have caused crash ahead of a report expected in August

Indonesian search and rescue teams have ended the hunt for victims from last year's AirAsia plane crash, with 56 people still unaccounted for.

Flight QZ8501 went down in stormy weather during what was supposed to be a short trip from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore on 28 December, killing all 162 people on board.

Food concerns mount in Vanuatu after cyclone Pam

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 05:35 PM PDT

Aid agencies say some crops have been wiped out and fishing boats destroyed by the category five storm

International aid agencies ramped up appeals for cyclone-hit Vanuatu on Wednesday, warning that the powerful storm which affected more than two-thirds of the south Pacific island nation had wiped out crops and destroyed fishing fleets, raising the risk of hunger and disease.

Residents of the southern island of Tanna said food and basic supplies were running low while relief workers were still battling to reach many islands pummelled by cyclone Pam's gusts of more than 300km/h (185 miles per hour) on Friday and Saturday.

Lawyer for Pakistani doctor who helped CIA find Osama bin Laden shot dead

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 04:38 PM PDT

Two militant groups claim responsibility - one claiming the killing of Samiullah Afridi was in retaliation for his support of Dr Shakil Afridi

A Pakistani lawyer under death threats for defending a doctor who helped CIA agents hunt al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead on Tuesday, police said.

Samiullah Afridi represented Dr Shakil Afridi, who was jailed in 2012 for 33 years for running a fake vaccination campaign believed to have helped the US intelligence agency track down bin Laden. That sentence was overturned in 2013 and the doctor is now in jail awaiting a new trial.

Senegal leader Macky Sall offers to reduce presidential term as 'example to Africa'

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 04:23 PM PDT

Macky Sall proposes a referendum on reducing his mandate from seven to five years

Senegal's President Macky Sall on Tuesday proposed a referendum on reducing his mandate by two years, a stance in contrast to several fellow African leaders criticised for clinging to power.

The pledge came with countries including Benin, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo-Brazzaville all said to be considering constitutional change to allow their leaders a third term in office.

US loses drone over Syria, which claims to have brought it down

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 03:58 PM PDT

US says reason for loss of unarmed Predator as yet undetermined
Syrian state media say plane was brought down in province of Latakia

The United States lost contact with an unarmed Predator drone over Syria on Tuesday, US officials said, stopping short of confirming the plane was taken down by Syrian air defences, as reported by Syrian state media.

Confiscated fireworks blow up in cloud of smoke - video

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 03:45 PM PDT

Twenty thousand pounds of illegal fireworks went up in smoke in Midland, Texas, after authorities carried out a court-ordered disposal. The Midland police department posted a video on its Facebook page that showed a giant cloud of smoke billowing in the sky. The police department's bomb squad assisted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in destroying the confiscated fireworks over the course of three and a half days. The operation was carried out during the day, according to a statement on the MPD's Facebook, because 'it was not meant to be a fireworks show'. There was no word on why and from whom the fireworks were confiscated. Continue reading...

Friend says he gave handgun to Boston Marathon bomb suspect

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 03:19 PM PDT

Stephen Silva says Dzhokhar Tsarnaev made excuses for not returning weapon
Prosecution say gun was used to kill MIT police officer

A close friend of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev testified on Tuesday that Tsarnaev borrowed a gun from him two months before the 2013 attack and "kept coming up with excuses" for not returning it.

Horse trading set to decide new Israel government after deadlock at the polls

Posted: 17 Mar 2015 02:35 PM PDT

Smaller parties in pivotal position to play kingmaker, as both Binyamin Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog seek majority to take control of the Knesset