Police in DR Congo fire tear gas at opposition protesters accusing the electoral commission of fraud ahead of November polls.

Acheulian hand-axes, sometimes dubbed the "Swiss army knives" of the Stone Age, were being used in Africa much earlier than previously thought.

A 90-year-old Florida woman is in a critical condition after her leg had to be amputated following an attack by an alligator at a canal near her home.

Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last year was excessive but the blockade itself is legal, a UN report leaked to the New York Times says.

A painting by the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, stolen a decade ago from a museum in Belgium, has been recovered in Greece, police say.

US scientists warn Nasa that so-called space junk has reached a critical level, threatening spaceships and valuable satellites.

Louisiana declares an emergency and oil platforms are shut as a tropical depression threatens to dump up to 15in of rain on the state this weekend.

Fat cells in the skin have been identified as the source of chemicals needed to make hair grow, US researchers say.