INTERNATIONAL

At least 46 students have been killed by a suicide bomber at a school assembly in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Potiskum, police have said. The explosion at a boys’ school in the town is believed to have been caused by a suicide bomber dressed as a student. The militant group Boko Haram is believed to have carried out the ...

The leaders of China and Japan have met for formal talks after more than two years of severe tension over a territorial dispute. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Beijing. The talks are the first between the two leaders. Mr Abe said it was the ...

Celebrations are being held in Germany to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Chancellor Angela Merkel attended a service for victims of the communist East German regime, and will go to a huge party at the Brandenburg Gate. White balloons marking a stretch of the wall will be released to symbolise its disappearance. The Berlin ...

Suspected gang members have confessed to killing more than 40 students missing for six weeks, Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo has said. He said three alleged gang members claimed the students were handed over to them by police. They said some were already asphyxiated and they shot the others dead, before setting fire to all the bodies. A total of ...

A public row has arisen over which US commando fired the shot that killed Osama Bin Laden, more than three years after the al-Qaeda leader’s death. Ex-Navy Seal Robert O’Neill, 38, has told the Washington Post in an interview that he fired the fatal shot. This contradicts the account of Matt Bissonnette, another former Seal involved in the raid, in ...

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor says she will not take action over Israel’s raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists. Fatou Bensouda said despite “reasonable basis” to believe war crimes had been committed, the ICC had to prioritise larger-scale events. Israel said the ICC had wasted time on a “politically motivated” complaint. Lawyers who ...

Burkina Faso’s political parties have agreed that the country’s political transition should last a year, followed by elections in November 2015. But the crisis talks in the capital Ouagadougou ended without a deal on who would head a transitional government. The military has been in charge since President Blaise Compaore was forced to quit last week amid mass protests. The ...

The Republican Party has won control of the Senate in the US mid-term elections, increasing its power in the final two years of Barack Obama’s presidency. The party won in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Montana, North Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. And it is expected to post more gains as votes are counted in other states. The party is also ...

Burkina Faso’s military has said it will install a transitional government, days after it seized power as President Blaise Compaore’s resigned. The move came after soldiers had fired shots at the state TV station and barricaded the capital’s main square as thousands of protesters demanded the military give up power. At least one demonstrator was killed in Sunday’s clashes. The ...

The investigation into the Virgin Galactic spacecraft crash in California’s Mojave Desert could take about a year, the head of the US transport safety agency has said. Christopher Hart said Virgin Galactic would be able conduct further test flights while the investigation took place. SpaceShipTwo broke up in mid-air during a test flight on Friday. One of the pilots was ...