Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, marrying beautiful women - even hiring caterers to prepare Western-style food for their hostages.

A cutting-edge monitoring station to help preserve the ozone layer protecting all life on Earth from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays is to be established in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar under a United Nations-backed project announced today.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has promised Cuba at least $78 million in donations, credit and hurricane relief to 1 of the few communist allies China has left.

An Indian naval vessel sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats into the night, officials said today, yet more violence in the lawless seas where brigands are becoming bolder and more violent.

A group of doctors in Zimbabwe says President Robert Mugabe's government is to blame for a cholera epidemic sweeping the country.

The US administration found itself in an awkward position on Monday after Afghanistan's offer of peace talks with Mullah Mohammad Omar, the fugitive Taliban leader long seen by Washington as an arch-enemy.