A nine-year-old boy has shot and critically wounded a girl in their classroom in Washington state.

The Prime Minister is appealing to international leaders to step up support for Somalia in an effort to stabilise the country described as "the world's most failed state".

Somalia's hard line Islamist rebels are reported to have taken delivery of up to 30 surface-to-air missiles smuggled to them from Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

More than 40 people have been killed and some 550 injured after a train packed with commuters slammed into the end of the line in Buenos Aires.

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have led tributes to two Western journalists, including Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times, who have been killed in an attack in the Syrian city of Homs.

She was not rare. Women who cover conflicts are frequently better at it than men. They handle the stress better, can be more compassionate towards their subjects and more effective in beguiling warriors on the front line. But Marie Colvin was peerless.

Internet surfers are to get the chance to go 'virtual diving' as part of a scientific survey of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Counter-piracy operations in the Horn of Africa equate to policing the whole of Europe with just 25 police cars, according to the commander of the military alliance tasked with the job.

The UN's humanitarian chief, Baroness Amos, is to travel to Syria to negotiate access for aid workers in the conflict-torn country as the reported death toll rises.

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been freed by French police after two days of questioning about an alleged prostitution ring - but he faces another grilling.