At least two people have been killed and 44 others injured after two Tamil Tiger aircraft attacked the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, officials say. Sri Lankan military officials said one aircraft was shot down over the international airport on Friday, while the other was shot and crashed into a government building in Colombo’s Fort area. [...]

Barack Obama, the US president, has announced a $75bn plan to help millions of US homeowners struggling to pay their mortgages and those at risk of losing their homes. The plan will help as many as five million families restructure or refinance mortgages to avoid foreclosure, the president said on Wednesday in a speech delivered [...]

Barack Obama, the US president, has approved the deployment of an extra 17,000 troops for Afghanistan, the White House has confirmed. The deployment would include an additional US army brigade and a marine expeditionary force, along with support staff, Obama said in a statement on Tuesday. “This increase is necessary to stabilise a deteriorating situation [...]

A UN-backed tribunal in Cambodia has begun the first ever war crimes trial of a Khmer Rouge leader – 30 years after the fall of the regime. Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, was taken by bullet-proof car from his jail cell to the court in the capital Phnom Penh for initial procedural hearings [...]

 Venezuela’s president has won a referendum to scrap term limits for elected officials, allowing him to seek re-election indefinitely. Hugo Chavez greeted cheering supporters at the presidential palace in Caracas on Sunday, moments after the country’s electoral commission chief declared victory for the “yes” vote. “Long live the revolution,” shouted Chavez, as he stood pumping [...]

 The US senate has approved a $787bn economic stimulus bill aimed at boosting the country’s ailing economy, in what is seen as a major victory for Barack Obama, the US president. The senate voted 60-38 for the compromise bill hours after the House of Representatives also passed it. But Democrats who control congress failed to win over many [...]

 All 48 people on board a commercial aircraft that crashed into a house in New York are reported to have been killed. Forty-four passengers and four crew members were on the Continental Airlines aeroplane which was arriving from Newark, New Jersey, when it crashed about 16km from an airport near the suburb of Buffalo. There were no survivors, officials from [...]

Sudan’s ambassador to the UN has vowed his country will not co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) amid reports it has issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president. His comments came after an unnamed diplomat at the UN told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that the ICC had “decided it [...]

The leaders of the centrist Kadima party and the right-wing Likud party have both declared victory in Israel’s general election. With all the votes counted on Wednesday, the Kadima party led by Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, had won 28 parliamentary seats, one more than the Likud party of Benyamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister. [...]

Israelis have begun voting in a general election dominated by security concerns following last month’s offensive in Gaza. Tuesday’s election is likely to see large gains for right-wing parties, but a record 20 per cent of voters remained undecided in final opinion surveys. Polling stations opened at 7am (05:00GMT) and were due to close at [...]