A giant tornado in the US, almost 2 kilometers wide, tore across parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs Monday flattening homes, flinging cars through the air and crushing at least two schools.

Syrian government forces pushed deeper into a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border, battling rebels in fierce street fighting, Syrian state-media said today.

A wave of car bombings across Baghdad's Shiite neighbourhoods and in the southern city of Basra killed at least 40 people today.

Two hot air balloons collided mid-air during a sightseeing tour of volcanic rock formations in Turkey today causing one of them to crash to the ground.

The US Embassy employee accused of spying in Moscow flew out of Russia on Sunday, five days after he was ordered to leave the country.

Rescuers recovered five more bodies from a collapsed underground room at a giant US-owned gold and copper mine in Indonesia, bringing the confirmed death toll to 14.

31 bodies, believed to be Myanmar citizens, have been found dead on the beach of Teknaf, in Bangladesh.

In the US, Police investigators revealed on Sunday, that a Hofstra University student who was taken hostage in her apartment and then shot to death during a police standoff with an armed robber on New York's Long Island was killed by a bullet fired from an officer's gun.

Cambodians marked Anger Day today, an annual commemoration of the estimated 1.7 million victims of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal regime.

In Chile, officials are investigating the mysterious death of hundreds of penguins, pelicans and other animals that have washed up on the county's shores.