Two Royal Marines have been sentenced for assaulting an Afghan prisoner after he had been detained on suspicion of planting a roadside bomb. Devon-based Sergeant Mark Leader was found guilty by a court martial panel of assault causing actual bodily harm to Mohammad Ekhlas on 19 March 2009. Captain Jody Wheelhouse, from 45 Commando, Arbroath, Scotland, admitted the same offence at an earlier hearing
24 August, AD79. The day one volcanic mountain came to life and two cities met their deaths. Pompeii and the nearby settlement of Herculaneum were consumed by a mixture of heat, falling pumice stone and ash
The US will announce on Friday that it is to begin profiling US-bound passengers to determine who should get extra screening, reports say. The measures would replace mandatory enhanced screening of all travellers from 14 nations, brought in after the failed attack on a flight in December.
Two police officers have been killed in two explosions in the town of Kizlyar in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, reports say. Russian news agencies said the second blast came 20 minutes after the first
Serbia’s parliament is debating a resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 – the worst incident of the Bosnian war. The text apologises that Serbia did not do more to prevent the tragedy
France’s top administrative body has advised the government that any total ban on face-covering Islamic veils could be unconstitutional. The State Council also said a ban could be justified in some public places
A bomb explodes outside a public building in Athens, killing a man and injuring a girl, police sources in the Greek capital say.
By Peter Bowes BBC News, Los Angeles A US marine is to go on trial over the killing of 24 men, women and children in the Iraqi town of Haditha in 2005. The trial of Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich will go ahead after a military judge in California refused to dismiss the charges
British armed forces are being banned from using cluster munitions under a law passed by the House of Commons. The law comes after the UK in 2008 signed an international convention outlawing the weapons – which have maimed and killed thousands of people
Ten people are reported to have been killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province.