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First Minister Carwyn Jones says spending cuts mean Conservative and Liberal Democrat AMs must “behave responsibly” on the Welsh budget.
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Wacky moments from the US mid-term elections
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Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, husband of the current leader, has died after suffering a heart attack, hospital officials say.
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The bomb devastated the carriage at Aldgate Survivors of one of the 7 July bombings emerged from a tunnel looking like extras in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, the inquest has been told.
Detective Constable Antonio Silvestro was one of the first policemen on the scene of the Aldgate attack.
He said: “It was like Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. They were just covered in soot, their hair was all over the place, you just basically saw the whites of their eyes.”
The attacks killed 52 people.
Det Con Silvestro said smoke coming from the bombed train was like an erupting volcano.
He said survivors were coming out as he went into the darkened tunnel to get passengers out.
“I can best describe it as when a volcano erupts and you can see that really thick smoke,” he told the inquest.
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The leak of US military logs suggesting troops in Iraq ignored evidence of torture is a “propaganda gift” for terrorists, William Hague says.
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The Athena was rebuilt this year after another fire An air and sea rescue operation is under way to save 111 people from a ship which is on fire 230 miles south-west of the Isles of Scilly.
Falmouth coastguards are co-ordinating the rescue from The Athena, a 344ft (105m) long factory fishing ship.
There have been unconfirmed reports that lifeboats have been launched from The Athena, which may be beyond the reach of a helicopter rescue.
The ship is believed to be caught in gale-force winds and heavy seas.
The Faroe Islands-based Athena was constructed in 1992 and rebuilt in China this year after suffering another fire.
It has a maximum capacity of 123 crew and is managed by shipping company Thor.
A Thor spokeswoman said the company was dealing with the latest incident and could give no further details.
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Dozens of people have been killed by a collapsing roof at a wedding in northern Afghanistan.
The incident occurred in Jelga, a remote district in the northern province of Baghlan, early on Wednesday.
Baghlan’s governor said many of some 50 people killed were women and children, and that at least 15 more were injured.
“This is such a tragedy at a time when the family were gathering for a a happy moment,” Munshi Majeed told the BBC.
The death toll from the accident in the remote area remains unclear, with Afghan the Red Crescent saying 65 people had been killed and a further 40 wounded.
Most weddings in Afghanistan are segregated, with men and women in separate locations.
The country’s western-backed government has been embroiled in conflict against a Taliban-led insurgency since the Islamist group was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.
More than 150,000 foreign troops remain in the country, although the conflict is focused in the south and east.
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Prime Minister David Cameron vows to fight what he has described as a “completely unacceptable” rise in the European Union’s budget.
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A Labour MP has called for an apology from David Cameron, claiming he mistakenly told MPs BAE Systems would benefit from a defence contract.
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As many as 4,000 homes may have been destroyed by the tsunami Indonesian rescue teams are battling to reach hundreds of people believed to be missing a day after a tsunami struck small islands off the coast of Sumatra.
Officials say a 3m-high wave crashed into the Mentawai islands, leaving more than 100 people dead and 500 missing.
Rescuers continue to be hampered by bad weather and aftershocks from the quake that caused the tsunami.
US President Barack Obama, who spent some of his childhood in Indonesia, has spoken of his sadness at the deaths.
“At the same time, I am heartened and encouraged by the remarkable resiliency of the Indonesian people and the commitment of their government to rapidly assist the victims,” he said in a statement.
He said the US was ready to help in any way.
Officials said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would fly back from a meeting with regional leaders in Vietnam to help deal with the tsunami aftermath, and the rescue effort on Java, where an erupting volcano has caused chaos.
Regional disaster official Hermansyah said rough seas were making it difficult to ship aid to the Mentawai islands from Padang, the nearest major port on Sumatra.
“Yesterday a ship was forced to return,” he said.
Forecasters say the bad weather is likely to continue in the coming days.
Mr Hermansyah told BBC Indonesian that about 4,000 households had been displaced by the tsunami, and that many people had fled to higher ground.
He said that those displaced needed tents, blankets, food, drinking water and medicine.
The Indonesian Red Cross said it was despatching a team to the islands, and would send 1,000 tents.
Vice-President Boediono is due to fly to the area with top military and health officials later.
On Tuesday, local fisheries official Hardimansyah said most buildings in the South Pagai coastal village of Betu Monga had been destroyed.
Bad weather is hampering the rescue effort “Of the 200 people living in that village, only 40 have been found – 160 are still missing, mostly women and children,” he told Reuters news agency.
“We have people reporting to the security post here that they could not hold on to their children, that they were swept away. A lot of people are crying.”
The tsunami was caused by a 7.7-magnitude earthquake late on Monday.
Waves reached 3m (10ft) high and the water swept inland as far as 600m on South Pagai.
The vast Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most active areas for earthquakes and volcanoes.
More than 1,000 people were killed by an earthquake off Sumatra in September 2009.
In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Aceh triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed a quarter of a million people in 13 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
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A sex attacker has his prison sentence more than doubled, the day before he was due to be released.
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Rachel Harvey: “There’s a layer of ash on the roads, cars and buildings’
Villagers in Indonesia are trying to return to their homes on the slopes of a volatile volcano, despite eruptions that have killed at least 25 people.
Mount Merapi in Java has been spewing molten rock, heat clouds and ash into surrounding areas since Tuesday.
Thousands of people were evacuated but many locals are reported to be queuing to cross safety checkpoints.
Experts told the BBC that although ash levels had subsided their readings suggested there would be new eruptions.
I am at the edge of an exclusion zone, about 8km from the centre of the volcano.
There is thick cloud cover, like a looming storm, which may help dampen down the dust.
I have been out here for 15 minutes and my boots, clothes and hair are covered with a very fine layer of ash.
It feels very eerie – the usually verdant green landscape now has a grey sheen.
One government vulcanologist, known only as Subandrio, told the BBC that there was no way of telling when or how big they would be.
Another vulcanologist said pressure building up under a “lava dome” inside the volcano threatened to create a “pyroclastic flow” – a highly dangerous mix of heat and poisonous gases.
“At some point either there’s an explosion from below that causes it to collapse, or a simple addition of lava causes it to collapse. And this sends large, hot blocks of solidified lava down the slopes,” said Ed Venski, of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
Experts hope the volcano, some 500km (310 miles) south-east of Jakarta on Indonesia’s most heavily populated island, Java, will release steam slowly rather than erupt in a big blast.
At least 10,000 people have been evacuated to makeshift shelters.
The BBC’s Rachel Harvey, who is at the scene, says many people, particularly young men, are trying to return to their homes to check on their livestock and property.
Checkpoints, manned by police and volunteers, have been set up on main roads into the exclusion zone.
However, there are lots of small lanes that give access to the slopes, and this is making it very difficult for the authorities to keep track of people, our correspondent says.
“People are going home with sacks of grass to feed their cows. Some say they need to see the condition of their houses while others want to pick up belongings as they don’t have enough clothes at the shelters,” checkpoint volunteer Wawan Fauzi told AFP.
Many people ignored the initial warnings of an impending eruption.
It is feared that the death toll could rise. Among the 25 confirmed dead was a two-month-old baby.
The man known as the volcano’s spiritual gatekeeper, Mbah or grandfather Marijan, was also found dead in his house about 4km (2.5 miles) from the summit.
For many Javanese, Merapi is a sacred site. Marijan was appointed by the late sultan of Yogyakarta, Hamengkubuwono IX, to mediate with the spirits of the mountain.
Scores of people are being treated for injuries, including severe burns, local hospital workers say.
Eyewitnesses say the area is covered by a layer of dust.
A cameraman for Reuters was quoted as saying: “Several houses and cattle have been burned by the hot cloud from the mountain. All the houses are blanketed in ash, completely white. The leaves have been burned off the trees.”
The volcano last erupted in 2006, killing two people.
In 1930 another powerful eruption wiped out 13 villages, killing more than 1,000 people.
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Iman Omar Yousef has been declared unfit to stand trial A mother accused of stabbing her three-year-old daughter and then dousing the body in acid rang police several times the day before, a court has heard.
Alia Jama’s body was found at a house in Birmingham on 13 February.
Her mother Iman Omar Yousef, 25, phoned police six times the previous day to complain that people were outside trying to get into her house.
She has been declared unfit to stand trial. A jury has been asked to decide if she unlawfully killed her daughter.
They have been told to disregard any question of intent.
Det Ch Insp Tim Bacon told Birmingham Crown Court two police officers who discovered Alia’s body on 13 February had been to the house, in Milverton Road, Erdington, the previous day after Ms Yousef, who had paranoid schizophrenia, made the emergency calls.
He told the court Ms Yousef, an asylum seeker of Somali origin, was convinced there were people from Leicester, where she had relatives, who were “after her” and told officers she was frightened and did not feel safe at the property.
Two officers spent about an hour-and-a-half at the address and found no evidence of anyone outside, he said.
“I am certain there were no people from Leicester or otherwise who were putting Mrs Yousef in this fear,” he said.
“I observed Pc Roder walk out of the room and collapse on the landing”
Pc Cavan O’Connell
He added she could not be specific about who these people were.
Two hours after the officers left, Ms Yousef went to a police station with her daughter and demanded to be moved to a hostel, the court heard.
She was given security advice and sent home, after being told she was not eligible for such accommodation.
The court also heard one of the police officers who found Alia’s body collapsed at the scene.
In a written statement Pc Cavan O’Connell said he first noticed a smell he thought to be sulphuric acid before spotting the body on the floor, covered in bin liners.
He said he lifted one of the bin liners which revealed the torso of a young child.
“I observed Pc (Alan) Roder walk out of the room and collapse on the landing.”
The rest of the incident had been a blur, he said.
Earlier, prosecutor James Burbidge QC had said the scene was “truly a shocking sight”.
The case was adjourned until Thursday.
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Police in the Netherlands have taken the unusual step of using the servers commanding millions of hijacked PCs to warn victims.
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Sales of new homes remain subdued thanks to a glut of repossessed houses on the market Sales of new homes in the US rose 6.6% in September to a seasonally-adjusted annualised rate of 307,000.
The figure beat market expectations of a rise to just 300,000.
However, the rate is still 21.5% below the level of a year ago.
Meanwhile, the head of the US Treasury’s housing office said that an investigation into faulty foreclosure documentation may hold up the sale of thousands of repossessed houses for months.
“This would hurt homeowners and home buyers alike at a time when foreclosed homes make up 25% of home sales,” Phyllis Caldwell, chief of the Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office, told the Congressional Oversight Panel in prepared testimony.
“Together, these two factors may exert downward pressure on overall housing prices both in the short and long-run.”
She said that the investigation would delay the sale of thousands of vacant homes, and may also raise question markets over the legal ownership status of other foreclosed properties, making their sale more difficult.
“The basic message coming through is the extremely depressed state of the housing market is continuing”
Robert Tipp Chief investment strategist at Prudential, New Jersey
“The issues that have been alleged raise significant questions about the accuracy, fairness and even legality of several mortgage processes,” she said.
Earlier this month, attorneys general in all 50 of the country’s states announced a joint investigation into the process of repossessing homes from defaulted mortgage borrowers.
The investigation was launched after it emerged that the mortgage service companies employed by the banks may have provided fraudulent documentation to the courts.
The affected lenders include JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America.
Sales of new homes in the US have remained particularly subdued during the economic recovery thanks to a glut of repossessed houses on the market.
Moreover, sales of both new and existing homes fell sharply again in the summer, following the expiry in April of a tax credit for homebuyers.
“While the number, on the face of it, is slightly better than expectations, the general level is still so moribund that the basic message coming through is the extremely depressed state of the housing market is continuing,” said Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist at Prudential in New Jersey.
Earlier in the week, data from rating agency Standard and Poor’s showed that US house prices also began falling again in August, mainly in response to the expired tax credit.
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