David Beckham hails 'amazing' troops on visit to Afghanistan

 
David Beckham gets to grips with some of the military hardware during his visit to Camp Bastion where around 9,000 British soldiers are based

 
Are you sure the safety catch is on? Beckham tests out a heavy machine gun as soldiers look on

 
The footballer is shown one of the weapons used by the troops in Afghanistan

Beckham signing autographs for soldiers from 67 Squadron, 6 Regiment Royal Logistic Corps during his brief visit. The player said he was full of admiration for the men and women serving there

David Beckham paid tribute today to the "amazing" work of British troops in Afghanistan during a visit to the country.

The footballer posed for pictures and signed autographs for troops in Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, where around 9,000 British soldiers are based.

In temperatures hitting 45C the player was shown round the camp and even given a lesson in how to handle weapons.
'You know I've been here just one night so far and the experience has been even more than I could have ever hoped,' he said in an interview with BFBS: British Forces News.

Matador escapes death by the skin of his teeth after horrific goring in Madrid bullfight

Critical: The torero was lifted off the ground by the force of the bull's impact before being hurled to the sand floor.Impaled: Spanish bullfighter Julio Aparicio is gored through the throat during a packed bullfight at Las Ventas in Madrid

 

Spanish matador Julio Aparicio needed two operations after he was horrifically gored through the throat during a bullfight in Madrid.

The half-ton bull, called Opiparo, struck after Julio Aparicio lost his footing and stumbled while carrying out a pass with is red cape in a packed Las Ventas bullring.

One of the animal's horns tore into his throat and punched through the bottom of his mouth as the crowd screamed in horror at the bullfight last night.The force of the impact lifted the matador into the air, puncturing his tongue and fracturing his jawbone, before the bull threw him to the sand.

Deadly Plane Crash in India 158 deaths 8 survivor-Black Boxes Found in Deadly India Plane Crash-Key questions in Mangalore air crash

She's alive! Miracle of little girl snatched from fireball wreckage of plane crash that killed 158 people in India

Miracle: A rescuer carries a young girl plucked alive from the burning wreckage of the plane crash that killed 158 people. The foam-covered girl was rushed to hospital where she was treated for severe burns

Parts of the charred plane can be seen sticking up from the gorge

 
Indian firefighters spray foam on the Air India plane wreckage as they try to extinguish the fire

Indian firefighters and rescue personnel hose down the site while many residents look on

A little girl was miraculously snatched alive from the burning wreckage of the plane crash that killed 158 people in India yesterday.

Covered in foam, she was lifted from the mangled fuselage by rescuers as the Air India plane went up in flames.

The young girl was taken to hospital in the nearby city of Mangalore, where she was treated for severe burns.

Only eight people survived the crash after the plane overshot the runway in Mangalore at the southern Indian city's 'table-top' Bajpe airport, crashing into a gorge and killing most of the passengers on board.
Survivors have told how they jumped from the burning plane as it broke up and plunged into a valley.

Fergie faces up to losing royal home after she's caught offering access to the Prince for £500,000

 
Sales: Princess Beatrice and Sarah Ferguson at the Butterfly Ball charity function in South London on Thursday. The Duchess of York is said to have offered seats at their table, with Elton John, for sale to an undercover reporter

Prince Andrew, pictured addressing delegates at an Islamic economic forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was unaware of the arrangement

Tired and emotional: The Duchess of York arrives in Los Angeles last night after she was revealed to have offered access to her former husband for £500,000

The Duchess of York has offered to quit Prince Andrew's royal residence after she was exposed offering access to him for £500,000.

The prince last night arrived back from a visit to Singapore for crisis talks with the Queen on how to minimise the damage.

10 bodies reported found in Bangkok shopping centre ruins

Anti-government protesters are escorted by Thai police officers after they surrendered to authorities at a Buddhist temple in an area formerly held by anti-government protestors on Thursday

Firefighters sifting through the ruins of the Central World shopping centre in Bangkok found nine bodies in the basement on Friday and police discovered one other, Thai news reports said.

The centre was set ablaze in the wake of an army attack on Wednesday on anti—government protestors camped in the central Ratchaprasong commercial district.

Spring TV News quoted firefighters as saying they discovered nine bodies during an inspection of the remains of the giant shopping complex. The firefighters said they did not know the cause of death of those found and police and soldiers refused to allow reporters into the area.

Michelle Obama and a nude scandal: Does her champagne-colour dress highlight racial bias in fashion?

He doesn't mind: Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama arrive to welcome Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur last November

New do: Mrs Obama debuted a sophisticated new corkscrew curled hairdo for the state dinner

Michelle Obama has once more sent the fashion world into a flurry, but this time it's not about her super-toned arms or her penchant for American brand J crew.

At a recent state dinner to honour the indian Prime Minister, the First lady stepped out in a sequin-encrusted, strapless dress in a delicate shade of peachy-pink.

So far, so stylish. But it was the way the dress was subsequently described that caused the hoo-hah.

British couple and daughter, 22, shot dead in Pakistan graveyard in 'arranged marriage dispute'

Gunned down: Mohammed Yousaf and his daughterTania, who were killed along with mother Pervaze Yousaf in Pakistan yesterday

Mother Pervaze Yousaf also died in the attack

One of the two suspects captured in the killing stares out from behind bars in a Pakistani jail

A British couple and their daughter were gunned down in a graveyard in Pakistan after their son's arranged marriage with a local woman went wrong and sparked a 'family dispute'.

Mohammad and Pervaze Yousaf and their 22-year-old daughter Tania, from Nelson in Lancashire, were visiting the country for a wedding when they were attacked, according to police.

A mouse in the (White) House? Mystery rodent disrupts Obama press conference

Pip-squeak: A small rodent runs in front of President Barack Obama as he delivers remarks on Wall Street and Financial reform

 

Hello there: The President failed to spot his little furry friend as it scampered across the step

President Barack Obama was upstaged by a rodent as he spoke on Wall Street legislation.

Mr Obama had just begun a Rose Garden statement lauding the end of a US Senate filibuster on his financial overhaul when a rodent dashed out of the bushes to his right, just outside the Oval Office.

15 dead bodies, black box of crashed Afghan plane found

Afghan troops unload the remains of the bodies of victims of an aeroplane crash from a helicopter in Parwan province May 21, 2010.  (Xinhua/AFP Photo)



Afghan troops unload the remains of the bodies of victims of an aeroplane crash from a helicopter in Parwan province May 21, 2010. Fifteen dead bodies of the victims of the Afghan passenger plane which crashed five days ago have been found in mountains of Gorband district, in the country's northern Parwan province, officials said Friday.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)


Afghan troops leave a helicopter that has returned from the crash site of a Pamir Airways passenger jet which went down in the mountains north of Kabul, in Parwan May 21, 2010.

Fifteen dead bodies of the victims of the Afghan passenger plane which crashed five days ago have been found in mountains of Gorband district, in the country's northern Parwan province, officials said Friday.

"So far 15 bodies of the plane crash victims have been found," a member of parliament Fatima Aziz who visited the crash site told Xinhua.

Malawi gay conviction is alarming precedent: UN

Tiwonge Chimbalanga (centre) and Steven Monjeza were arrested on December 28 after holding an illegal same-sex wedding

The UN human rights chief on Friday slammed the "blatantly discriminatory" jailing of a gay couple in Malawi, saying that it sets an alarming precedent for the treatment of homosexuals in the region.

"I am shocked and dismayed by the sentence and reports of the treatment of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga while in detention," said Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"The law which enabled the conviction dates back to the colonial era and has lain dormant for a number of years -- rightly so, because it is discriminatory and has the effect of criminalising and stigmatising people based on perceptions of their identity," she added.

Today's geometry lesson: How to shoot Barack Obama, by the teacher questioned by the Secret Service

A teacher who used the hypothetical assassination of President Barack Obama to help his students understand geometry has been questioned by the U.S. Secret Service.

Maths teacher Gregory Harrison used the mock killing of Mr Obama so his students could better understand how to use angles, officials said.

Nasa images reveal Gulf of Mexico oil spill entering powerful current that could carry it to Florida and beyond

Disaster: This image taken by a NASA satellite shows the oil spill perilously close to the U.S. coastline

Aerial shot: Oil emanates from the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil leak

Spread: The top Nasa image shows the powerful 'loop current' of faster moving water the oil is hitting which circulates around the Gulf before bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast. The bottom image shows the extent of the spill

Oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill has for the first time reached a powerful current that could take it to Florida and beyond, say scientists.

A small portion of the slick has entered the so-called 'loop current', a stream of faster moving water that circulates around the Gulf before bending around Florida and up the Atlantic coast, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Its arrival may herald a wider environmental catastrophe affecting the Florida Keys and tourist-dotted beaches along that state's East coast.

Thais Hope Visitors Will Return Post Protesters-Thai army in fresh mop-up operation against Red Shirt militias-Bangkok burns as the Red Shirts' stand-off continues-Bangkok emerges from curfew to smoke, gunfire

Thailand extends curfew as troops try to crush hardline protesters in battered Bangkok

Clean-up: Firefighters spray water at the huge Center One shopping mall, which was set on fire by anti-government Red Shirt protesters in Bangkok

Gutted: Firermen work long hours to try and extinguish a blaze inside the Central World shopping mall

Mangled mess: A Thai soldier inspects Siam Theatre cinema in Bangkok, burnt down by protesters

Buildings smouldered across central Bangkok early today and troops exchanged sporadic fire with pockets of die-hards a day after the army routed anti-government protesters in a push to end Thailand's deadliest political violence in nearly 20 years.

The government quelled most of the violence in the battered Thai capital after a major military operation that killed at least seven people and left 88 wounded.