Consternation grew on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday at leaks in the US media over the foiled al-Qa'ida bomb plot – the latest of them that the key infiltrator into the terrorist organisation's Yemen network was a British citizen apparently of Saudi origin who was recruited, according to some accounts, by MI5.

Horst Faas, a prize-winning combat photographer who changed the way photojournalists covered conflict, has died aged 79.

The Vatican is investigating seven priests from the troubled Legion of Christ religious order for alleged sexual abuse of minors and another two for other alleged crimes, The Associated Press has learned.

Updated version of 2009 device is seized as al-Qa'ida planned attack during flight

The Taliban launched a series of coordinated attacks on as many as seven sites across the Afghan capital on Sunday, targeting Nato bases, the parliament and Western embassies. Militants also launched near-simultaneous assaults in three other eastern cities.

Syrian President accused of accelerating violence as international ceasefire deadline looms

An 80-year-old woman with little flying experience knew her husband had died after he fell unconscious at the controls of a small plane, yet she remained calm as she landed the aircraft at a northeastern Wisconsin airport, her son said.

Roy Essoyan, who died on 22 March aged 92, was a reporter who in 1958 exposed a serious split between China and the Soviet Union. Born in a Japanese fishing village just after his refugee family, originally from Armenia, landed there in 1919 after fleeing the Russian revolution, Essoyan arrived in the Soviet Union nearly four decades later as an American journalist, having become a US citizen after the Second World War.

Rick Santorum won the Louisiana Republican presidential primary, beating front-runner Mitt Romney in the race to challenge President Barack Obama.

The British are going! Then, so are we ...

A police report says a Florida couple locked an extremely malnourished boy inside a closet as punishment for stealing food they were withholding from him.

Four hours after a tsunami swept into the Fukushima nuclear power plant a year ago today, Japan's leaders knew the damage was so severe that the reactors could melt down, but they kept their knowledge secret for months. Five days into the crisis, the then prime minister, Naoto Kan, voiced his fears that it could turn worse than Chernobyl.

A suicide bomber attacked the headquarters of a rival insurgent group in northwest Pakistan today, killing 23 of its supporters in an outbreak of factional fighting, an official said.

Kim Dotcom, the founder of the file-sharing website Megaupload, was released on bail today after a New Zealand judge determined that authorities have seized any funds he could have used to flee the country.