US Vice-President Joe Biden condemns Israel's approval of 1,600 new homes for ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem.

Dutch bishops order an inquiry into alleged sexual abuses of children by Catholic priests, threatening a new scandal.

The US apologises for comments made after Libya's Col Gaddafi called for a holy war against Switzerland.

Northern Ireland's assembly backs a key measure to devolve the highly sensitive issues of policing and justice from London.

Ban Ki-moon pays tribute to the 101 UN staff who died in the Haiti quake, as President Preval seeks US support on boosting the economy.

Three men are arrested in connection with the theft of the corpse of Cyprus's ex-President Papadopoulos, officials say.

A Nigerian governor accuses the army of ignoring warnings of attacks, as communal tension remains high near Jos.

A US woman from Pennsylvania faces charges of using the internet to recruit female militant fighters for deadly attacks abroad.

A US TV producer pleads guilty to attempting to blackmail US chat show host David Letterman over his affairs.

The eggshells of long-dead and extinct species are a particularly good source to find preserved DNA, researchers say.

The UK donates £1m ($1.5m) to South Africa to buy 42m condoms, as the nation builds up to the football World Cup.

Nicklas Bendtner silences his recent critics with a hat-trick as Arsenal see off Porto in emphatic fashion to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

Two goals from Cameron Jerome inspire Birmingham to a battling win against bottom-club Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

Joe Biden is in the region to encourage talks between the Palestinians and Israel. What can be achieved?

Paedophile priest left untouched by Church and state

Can all species live side by side in unique ecosystem?

Women's quotas - historic moment for largest democracy

Whales and tuna tied up in Eurotangle

Lone stand of anti-Taliban militia in Pakistan

Families fight 'racist' Israeli marriage and citizenship law

President Barack Obama has 'responded positively' to calls to clamp down on market speculators, says the Greek PM after talks.

Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.

Aer Lingus announces plans to lay off 670 staff, including nearly a quarter of its cabin crew, as part of restructuring plans.

Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years but it could cause problems for Windows XP users.

A plan to create a .xxx net domain for adult content will be revisited three years after it was rejected by internet regulators.

A never-before-seen reaction in nanotubes could make for batteries that pack a mighty punch, say researchers.

Pink Floyd launch legal action in the High Court against EMI over payment of online royalties and marketing of their music.

This year's Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles was the most watched in the US for five years, early figures suggest.

The Large Hadron Collider must be shut down for a year starting in late 2011 to address design flaws, the BBC has learned.

Research shows some EU countries "import" about a third of their carbon emissions from developing countries.

The US soft drinks industry says it has dramatically cut full-calorie beverages available in schools as part of a drive to tackle obesity.

Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed says efforts are being made to release a UK couple held by pirates as soon as possible.

The son of Rwanda's first President, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, protests at orders to exhume his father's remains.

Brazil is backed by the WTO as it slaps trade sanctions against US imports in retaliation for illegal subsidies to cotton farmers.

Greece's prime minister asks the US to crack down on speculators he blames for worsening his country's debt woes.

Indonesian security forces kill three alleged militants and investigate whether one is key Bali bomb suspect Dulmatin.

Japan confirms the existence of a secret Cold War pact allowing nuclear-armed US vessels to call at its ports.

Seven people are arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

Row as Irish crunch match Munster v Leinster is a mouth-watering clash for any rugby fan, but most drinkers in the Irish Republic wanting to toast the Magners League fixture in a bar next month will have to leave the country.

A former Israeli spy who played a key role in Africa, the Middle East and the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal has died.

Israel and Syria both tell a conference in Paris they want to use nuclear power to generate electricity.

India's upper house sees a second day of uproar as it backs a bill to reserve a third of all parliamentary seats for women.

Bangladesh's government is ignoring the plight of thousands of starving Burmese refugees, a US medical charity warns.

A former head of MI5 says she did not know US intelligence services were mistreating terror suspects until after she retired.

The coroner at an inquest into the death of four soldiers in an Afghan blast says there were training "inadequacies".

The Ministry of Defence names two British soldiers killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan on Sunday.

Fraudsters are continuing their switch from traditional card fraud to raiding online bank accounts, new research shows.

Attempts to reach a cross-party deal on funding social care appear to be dead in the water ahead of a key summit.

A £1bn government scheme to regenerate former coalmines has been poorly co-ordinated and lacks vision, MPs argue.