Five days of rigorous cross-examination of Oscar Pistorius has come to an end in his trial for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. The athlete denied the state prosecution's claim that he had intentionally killed Ms Steenkamp. Forensic expert Roger ...

US Airways has apologised after an explicit photo was sent from its official Twitter account in response to a customer complaint. It said in a statement that it was trying to flag the image as inappropriate but instead mistakenly included it in a message. The tweet ...

Teams searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are to use a robotic submarine for the first time to search the sea floor of the southern Indian Ocean for wreckage. They have previously been using a pinger locator to listen for signals from the plane's ...

Teams searching for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane are to use a robotic submarine for the first time to search the sea floor of the southern Indian Ocean for wreckage. They have previously been using a pinger locator to listen for signals from the plane's ...

A UN panel has released its much-anticipated report into strategies for curbing global warming. In their "summary for policymakers" members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say the world must rapidly move away from ...

The world's energy system needs "large-scale" reform to limit climate change, the UK government has said. Speaking after the UN urged moving from fossil fuels to renewable sources, Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said the UK was "leading from the ...

A large forest fire has destroyed more than 150 homes in the Chilean port city of Valparaiso, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. People have been moved away from the city to escape the flames, which have been fanned by strong winds ...

A UN report on climate change is expected to call for a trebling of the planet's use of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. The report is also expected to argue that the trend of increased carbon emissions can only be reversed if a ...

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge courted controversy in New Zealand after they used a forward-facing baby seat. Are they unsafe, asks Tom de Castella. A minor storm has blown up in New Zealand over the Royal couple's choice of baby seat. The Duke ...

In 100 days in 1994, from April until July, 800,000 people - mostly ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus - died at the hands of Hutu extremists in the African nation of Rwanda. On the 20th anniversary of the genocide, BBC Northern Ireland's Noel Thompson ...

Ukraine's acting president has called an emergency security meeting in response to pro-Russian protests in three eastern Ukrainian cities. Olexander Turchynov cancelled a visit to Lithuania to deal personally with the unfolding events, his office said.

Rwanda will start a week of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of the country's genocide on Monday. President Paul Kagame is to light a torch which will burn for 100 days - the length of time the genocide lasted. A diplomatic row has prompted ...

Pro-Russian activists stand on the balcony of the Ukrainian regional office of the security Pro-Russian activists have seized government buildings in three cities in eastern Ukraine. In Luhansk, protesters ripped away some of the sign from the front of the ...

Hundreds of people have attended a Mass in the Rwandan capital ahead of a week of official mourning to mark the 20th anniversary of the country's genocide. But a diplomatic row has seen France pull out of the commemorative events. The Mass at ...

A UK ship carrying sophisticated deep-sea sound equipment is heading to an area where a Chinese vessel searching for the missing Malaysian plane has twice detected a pulse signal. An Australian naval vessel is first investigating a possible third signal ...

Vote counting is well under way in Afghanistan after Saturday's landmark poll to elect a new president. More than seven million Afghans turned out to vote, defying Taliban militant threats to the poll. The election marks the country's first democratic transfer of ...

Voter turnout in Afghanistan's election shows that the Taliban has become "marginalised" in the country, a member of the Afghan parliament says. Shukria Baraksai, who was also an election observer, said the turnout was a reaction against violent threats by ...

The French government has announced that it is pulling out of the 20th anniversary commemorations on Monday for the Rwandan genocide. The decision follows an accusation by the Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, that France participated in the mass ...

A volcano just south of Ecuador's capital Quito has erupted, creating a spectacular plume of ash, 10km (six miles) high. The Tungurahua volcano created the huge cloud on Friday in an eruption that lasted just five minutes. The volcano has been erupting ...

A soldier who killed three men at a US Army base on Wednesday had an argument over a request for leave shortly before the shooting, reports say. Specialist Ivan Lopez, 34, was denied leave to attend to family matters, officials speaking on condition of ...