Heavy fighting broke out in the centre of Gaza City as a new phase of Israel's war on Hamas began.

Jacob Zuma the leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress is thought to be preparing to marry for the fifth time.

Europe has been plunged into an energy crisis after Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's staterun gas company to cut supplies by 20 per cent.

Israel has rebuffed a series of international mediation efforts and vowed to press on with its military campaign for as long as Hamas continues to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has up to 20000 men divided between its armed wing known as the Izzedine AlQassam Brigades and paramilitary police commonly known as Executive Force.

Israel allowed limited shipments of aid into Gaza today as humanitarian organisations spoke of the rapidly worsening conditions.

In a structure the size of three football fields American scientists at the National Ignition Facility are preparing to fire the most powerful laser in history at the tiny target below in order to understand at last what conditions are like at the heart of the planet

California is planning to phase out energyguzzling flat screen televisions to reduce pressure on the state's overstretched power grid.

Barack Obama got down to business in Washington today as he launched a charm offensive to win support for the biggest tax cuts in recent American history.

In the end we were snared by the very people we'd paid to keep us safe.

Two German children aged five and six were stopped by police from eloping to Africa on New Year's Day according to police.

An actor who played a clan boss in the widelyacclaimed Italian mafia film Gomorrah has been arrested for alleged reallife mafia activities.

Heavy fighting raged across the Gaza Strip today as Israeli troops fought gunbattles with Hamas fighters as they sought to break the group's hold on the territory.

India handed over a dossier of evidence to Pakistan which it claims proves the Mumbai attacks were linked to "elements" in the country.

Cubans will be allowed to build their own homes using private means in the latest reform announced by President Raul Castro.

PresidentElect Barack Obama's daughters formally begin their lives as presidential children travelling to their first day of school in Washington in a cavalcade of black cars and attended by a phalanx of cameras.

A teenager who scraped a living by rummaging through bins in Argentina has become one of the country's hottest fashion models.

A South African whistleblower who accused officials of corruption in the building of a 2010 World Cup stadium has been shot dead.

A retired British couple have been forced to live in a garage with no running water or mains electricity since they became the first expatriates to see their home demolished by Spanish authorities a year ago.

The Apple chief executive said he has a 'hormone imbalance' that has caused his dramatic weight loss and insisted he is well enough to remain in charge.

Marriages improve after children grow up and move out according to an academic study which suggests an "empty nest" is not always a bad thing.

Two British students have been fined for illegally carrying out a survey and making maps in the restive Chinese province of Xinjiang.

China launched a major crackdown on internet pornography on Monday targeting popular online portals and major search engines such as Google.

New Zealand Warriors star Sonny Fai is missing presumed drowned after being swept out to sea off a beach near Auckland.

After spending 40 days in the hands of Somali kidnappers Telegraph journalist Colin Freeman tasted freedom: "And believe me a beer has never tasted so good" he said.

A fouryearold girl's dismembered body has been found in a fridge in southern China leading to the arrest of a man who allegedly once said human flesh was "delicious" state media reported.

Government forces claimed to have taken Oddusudan which sits at an important crossroads leading to the Tamil Tiger stronghold

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is expected to form a new government by the end of February despite stalled talks with the main opposition party the staterun Herald newspaper said on Monday.

An Australian woman allegedly set fire to her husband's genitals because she believed he was having an affair a court heard.

A Greek policeman was seriously wounded on Monday after being shot at with a rifle and a handgun.

The death toll in Thailand's New Year's Eve nightclub fire has reached 64 after two of those injured died and police have said the club's owner faces criminal charges over the blaze.

Israeli forces closed in on Gaza City with raids on densely populated Palestinian settlements targeting Hamas fighters.

Terrorists would find it "relatively easy" to launch a devastating attack using swarms of insects to spread a deadly disease an academic has warned.

Five children have been killed in two separate Israeli strikes around Gaza City as foreign diplomats attempt to broker a ceasefire.

Foreign leaders and diplomats are rushing to the Middle East in an attempt to secure a ceasefire in Gaza as the death toll from the Israeli ground assault against Hamas mounts.

The body of John Travolta's 16yearold son Jett will be flown back to Florida from the Bahamas for a funeral on Tuesday.

India's government said that it had handed over evidence on the Mumbai attacks to Pakistan expecting a prompt investigation.

Japan has accused China of breaking the terms of an agreement signed in June over natural resources in the East China Sea.

Japan has announced plans to build its first new geothermal power stations in nearly two decades in a bid to tap the nation's domestic energy sources.

Presidentelect Barack Obama has arrived in Washington to prepare for his move into the White House.

A satellite that will measure how the earth "breathes out" greenhouse gases is to be launched into space this month.

Fighting is raging into the night in the Gaza Strip where Israeli tanks and infantry have effectively sliced the territory in two as their assault entered a decisive new phase.

A woman in Connecticut who checked her husband's lottery tickets weeks after his death has discovered he had won a 10 million £6.9 million jackpot.

Advertising will vanish from primetime on all stateowned television channels as part of an attempt to create a service to "rival the quality of the BBC".

George W Bush is to hold talks in Washington today with the main rival of Omar alBashir Sudan's embattled president.

The prominent antiapartheid activist Helen Suzman was buried in Johannesburg after dying on New Year's Day.

After Britain's toughest year in Afghanistan our defence correspondent argues that the public needs to be convinced that the campaign in Helmand is worth fighting

A judge in New York has ruled against a Liberian woman who cited religious reasons for smuggling meat from an endangered species of monkey into the United States.

Katie Holmes has singlehandedly come to the rescue of New York's economy spending £10 million in the city since she moved there six months ago it has been claimed.

The US Presidentelect Barack Obama has said he found it difficult to leave his old home in Chicago before flying to Washington.

The film star John Travolta has spoken for the first time about the death of his 16yearold son Jett "the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for".