A business firm is to create 400 new jobs across the UK, targeting graduates and former military personnel.

Paul Fussell, who died on 23 May aged 88, was an acclaimed literary scholar who won a National Book Award in 1976 for The Great War and Modern Memory. Over a 50-year career he wrote memoir, literary criticism and social commentary. He made his greatest mark writing about war, a subject he knew well, and his disdain for its romanticisation.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad met peace envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that UN observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants.

A US drone strike aiming for an al-Qa'ida leader has killed five militants as part of a Yemeni offensive against the Islamist group, Yemeni officials said today.

Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister, has admitted that his office was "overwhelmed" during the Fukushima nuclear meltdown last year, and he recommended that Japan scrap all its reactors to avoid a repeat.

The father of a young protester who was killed during the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square has hanged himself after more than 20 years of seeking justice for his son, a human rights group said yesterday.

The Algerian FLN regime got away with it, after 200,000 dead – compared to the mere 10,000 killed so far in Syria's war

The runoff vote for Egypt's next president will pit the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate against the last prime minister to serve under Hosni Mubarak, according to full official results released by the election commission.

Protest groups left to wonder if struggle to overthrow Mubarak has backfired on them

Police have made four arrests whilst investigating the murder of a 23-year-old man who was gunned down in front of his friends and family in a pub in Greater Manchester.

The Labour leader reacts angrily to reports of uniformed soldiers being discriminated against

Fighting in the central African state has reached the national park where a dwindling population of primates lives

A man has died and three others wounded after a shooting in a pub, police said.

President Bashar Assad's forces killed at least 90 civilians, including 13 children, in central Syria, activists said.