Former US President George W Bush's advisor, Karl Rove, says he is proud of waterboarding as he believes it prevented attacks.

First results from Iraq's election suggest a tight contest may be developing between PM Nouri Maliki and main rival Iyad Allawi.

Turkey withdraws its ambassador to Sweden after the parliament votes to describe as genocide the killing of Armenians in WWI.

Freedom of expression on the web has been curtailed in 2009, the US state department says in its annual human rights report.

Nine members of a Russian white supremacist group are jailed for up to 22 years in connection with the killing of an African man.

Ivory Coast and Chelsea striker Didier Drogba is named African Footballer of the Year.

Greek public and transport services grind to a halt and clashes break out during a third strike over austerity measures.

Rock legends Pink Floyd win a court battle with record label EMI over online royalties and how their music is sold online.

A student at a high school in Mississippi says the school board cancelled her school's prom rather than let her attend it with her lesbian girlfriend

Fifty-one decapitated skeletons found in a burial pit in Dorset were those of Scandinavian Vikings, scientists say.

Liverpool face an uphill task to progress from the last 16 of the Europa League after Eden Hazard's goal gives a lively Lille side a 1-0 first-leg lead.

England will make a last-minute call on the fitness of Stuart Broad for the first Test against Bangladesh in Chittagong.

Pressure on UK after arrest of ex-Bosnian president

US and Israel dodge settlement confrontation

New York and London have been ranked as the joint-top global financial centres according to new research.

US President Barack Obama has urged China to change its currency strategy to help re-balance the global economy.

Virgin Media has begun trials of technology to deliver high-speed fibre-optic broadband over telegraph poles in the UK.

The Conservatives say they will make Britain the first country in Europe to have widespread super-fast broadband.

Lost Boys actor Corey Haim was a "tormented soul", his friend and fellow actor Corey Feldman says.

R&B star Taio Cruz sets the record for the biggest jump to the top of US Billboard Hot 100 for an act's first charting single.

The mechanism by which thalidomide causes malformed limbs is revealed by scientists.

The UN secretary general asks the world's leading science academies to review the UN's climate science body.

Fluctuations in blood pressure could be more important than high readings as a warning sign for stroke, say researchers.

Hundreds of Nigerian women protest over last week's violence near Jos, where women and children were massacred.

US Vice-President Joe Biden says Middle East peace talks must resume, despite a row over Israeli settlement plans.

Mexican Carlos Slim overtakes Bill Gates as the world's richest man, according to the Forbes "rich list", with a fortune of $53.5bn.

Burma's leaders formally annul the National League for Democracy's 1990 election win, as more details of new poll laws emerge.

Japan voices opposition to a proposed ban on international trade in bluefin tuna, after the EU backs the plan.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych secures a coalition in parliament and one of his loyalists is confirmed as PM.

A Stockholm court rules a Swedish man can be extradited to Poland for trial over the theft of a sign from Auschwitz.

Hamas releases a British journalist it had held for a month in Gaza, saying at a news conference that it suspects him of being a spy.

At least one person is killed in clashes between police and separatists in southern Yemen.

Afghanistan does not want other countries' "proxy wars" fought on its soil, President Hamid Karzai says in Islamabad.

Defeated Sri Lankan presidential candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka is to be put on military trial next week, officials say.

Members of groups which may promote racism, such as the BNP, will not be banned from teaching in England, says a review.

Police arrest an 18-year-old on suspicion of manslaughter after a man collapsed and died outside his home in Greater Manchester.

The Chancellor Alistair Darling warns not to expect a "giveaway" when the Budget is announced later this month.

The amount of money paid as public sector pensions could more than triple in the next 50 years, says the National Audit Office.

Three MPs and a peer tell a court they are not guilty of charges of false accounting in relation to their expenses claims.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw meets the mother of murdered toddler James Bulger to discuss the return to prison of one of her son's killers.