Pirates boarded an oil industry supply vessel off Nigeria on Wednesday and seized three French seamen, in the second hostage drama for French energy workers in West Africa in less than a week.
Galileo returns to Io this week for an encounter that is even more daring than its previous close flyby one and a half months ago.
Three people were in serious condition in hospital in eastern China on Sunday after setting themselves on fire to protest over being forcibly evicted, state media reported.
Three Canadian soldiers were killed and five wounded in an insurgent attack on their armored vehicle in Afghanistan, the military said Wednesday.
An unlikely and unique cradle of biodiversity that runs the length of the world's most heavily-militarised border is being threatened by encroaching development, conservation experts say.
In Pakistan's fertile south, a grim-faced soldier found himself in a standoff with 100 flood-stricken protesters demanding help for their communities marooned by the surging water.
Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes in northern California on Friday as a wildfire spread rapidly across more than 1,000 acres in extremely hot conditions.
Around 40,000 homes across California were without power Tuesday as searing temperatures roasted the region and drained the electricity grid, authorities said.
Thousands of people remained stranded in western Japan Tuesday as the death toll from a fierce typhoon rose to 42, heaping more misery on a nation recovering from the March earthquake and tsunami.
Almost 4,000 people who fled a deadly forest fire in mountains near the Spanish resort of Marbella returned home on Saturday after the blaze was brought under control, local officials said.
More than 15,000 Romanians took to the streets for the eighth straight day Sunday to protest a Canadian company's plans to open Europe's largest gold mine in a picturesque Transylvanian village.
Thousands of people demonstrated in Brussels on Monday in solidarity with the workers of a nearby Audi factory making electric vehicles that the German carmaker is considering shutting down amid slumping in sales.
Angry demonstrators attempted to storm the Japanese embassy in Beijing Saturday, state media said, as tens of thousands of people across China protested against Japan over a growing territorial dispute.
Thousands of people took to the streets of Romania on Sunday to protest against shale gas exploration and a controversial Canadian gold mine project using cyanide.
Mauritians on Saturday marched for the second time in a month as public anger festers over the government's handling of a devastating oil spill off the coast.
Thousands rallied in southern Malaysia on Sunday against a government-backed $56-billion petroleum hub they say will force thousands out of their homes and damage a fishing community.
