CULTURE AND SPORT

The spectre of hooliganism and crowd trouble stalked the World Cup countdown as a group of hardcore fans were deported.

BP says the cost of the company's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached about $1.25 billion.

The carcass of a critically endangered Javan rhino had been found in Indonesia, bringing the the world’s scarcest mammal one step closer to extinction.

South Africa is to throw a ring of steel around Johannesburg's sparkling new Soccer City stadium.

Don't bother showing up for school on Mondays. The doors are locked and the lights are off.

The smell of oil hangs heavy in the sea air. Children with plastic shovels scoop up clumps of goo in the waves.

The Group of 20 leading economies should seek to support growth in the developing world to help ensure a sustainable long-term global recovery, WB said.

Rescuers called off the search for survivors Friday as the death toll from one of Bangladesh's worst fires rose to 108.

Japan's Finance Minister Naoto Kan was widely tipped to become prime minister of the world's second-largest economy Friday.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill approached the sandy white beaches of Pensacola Thursday, threatening Florida's tourist industry just ahead of its prime summer season.

Six men from will be voluntarily locked away in a module for almost one and a half years to simulate the psychological effects of a mission to Mars.

A bank robbery suspect who jumped bail and fled after his arrest in 2008 has been captured in Vietnam.

A gunman killed at least 12 people in a deadly rampage through a popular tourist region in northwest England Wednesday.

The South African national anthem includes verses in five of the country's 11 official languages.

Cancer could claim 13.3 million lives a year by 2030, the World Health Organisation's cancer research agency said Tuesday.

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama tearfully resigned, his brief reign derailed by a row over an unpopular US airbase.

The UN Human Rights Council will hold an urgent debate Tuesday on Israel's military interception of an aid flotilla heading for the Gaza Strip.

Al-Qaeda has announced the death of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, its number three leader and Osama bin Laden's one-time top money man.

German President Horst Koehler quit on Monday, creating fresh problems for Chancellor Angela Merkel.