New worry raised by High radiation levels at Japanese plant

Reuters – A man cleans his bicycle at an areadestroyed by the tsunami in Kamaishi town,Iwate Prefecture in northern …TOKYO (Reuters) – Highly radioactive water has been found at a second reactor at a crippled nuclear power station in Japan, the plant's operator said, as fears of contamination escalated two weeks after a huge earthquake and...

Syria protest spreads troops

Pro-Assad demonstrators in Syria. Brief clashes in Damascus were reported between anti-regime demonstrators and loyalists. Photograph: Hussein Malla/APDemonstrations in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and elsewhere were met with force as security forces struggled to contain unrest that had begun in the southern city of Deraa a week ago.Thousands...

International journalists in Libya Targeted By Gaddafi's forces

New York Times journalists Stephen Farrell, Tyler Hicks, Lynsey Addario and Anthony Shadid with Levent Sahinkaya, centre, the Turkish embassy representive to Libya who helped secure their freedom. Photograph: Anatolian Agency/EPAJournalists from across the world have been targeted by Muammar Gaddafi's security forces while reporting a war...

Midwife Agnes Gereb found guilty of medical negligence and banned from practising for five years

Agnes Gereb, who is the leading advocate of home birth in Hungary, in court where she was sentenced to two years in prison. Photograph: Bela Szandelszky/APAn obstetrician considered the main advocate for home births in Hungary has been sentenced to two years in prison for malpractice, just weeks after the government decided to regulate the...

Barack Obama's distant Irish cousin (eight times removed) helps village get spruced up as US president returns to his Irish roots

President Barack Obama's Irish cousin (eight times removed) toured either side of the tiny village of Moneygall, picking out pavements to be repaired and houses to be repainted in preparation for the visit of the most powerful man on Earth.With a population of just 300, the residents will be heavily outnumbered by the US president's own entourage when Obama returns to his Irish roots in...

Gay couples in France say they do not get the same rights as they would in the rest of Europe

Gay couples in France are resorting to drastic measures to have children, according to campaigners.Couples were resorting to costly and legally precarious methods, said Philippe Rollandin, spokesman for APGL, the largest association representing homosexual parents in France.Campaigners are also unhappy that the children of homosexual couples have less protection than the offspring of heterosexual...

A brief guide to key facts everyone should know about Syria

1. Greater syria: Syria was the name once applied to most of the territory on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea and in the seventh century it became the seat of the Umayyad calliphate. The smaller modern state of Syria – adjoining Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon – began as a French mandate when the Ottoman empire was broken...

MPs accepted hospitality from Middle East regimes 107 times in a decade, with Qatar being the most visited country

MPs have accepted hospitality with a value of more than £1,000 from authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and north Africa on 107 occasions in the last decade, a Guardian investigation has revealed.Fifty-nine current and former MPs, including Alan Duncan, Liam Fox and Keith Vaz, have accepted flights, accommodation and hospitality from regimes including those of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia,...

Japanese nuclear fear crack in reactor core and causing a leak of high levels of radiation

Nuclear safety officials in Japan fear the core of a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have cracked, causing a leak of high levels of radiation.Growing uncertainty over the state of the stricken reactor prompted the government to tell people living within a 12-19 mile (20-30km) radius of the plant to consider leaving their homes temporarily.The government's chief spokesman,...