Israeli tanks advanced briefly into the Gaza Strip following clashes with Palestinians in which two Israeli soldiers died, reports say.

Witnesses in Gaza said tanks and bulldozers moved towards the southern town of Khan Younis before withdrawing.

They also said there had been firing from the Israeli navy along the Gaza coastline.

It is the first time Israeli soldiers have died in Gaza since Israel's 22-day offensive there more than a year ago.

Reports say at least two Palestinians have also been killed.

Read more & watch video @ BBC News

A US marine is to go on trial over the killing of 24 men, women and children in the Iraqi town of Haditha in 2005.

The trial of Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich will go ahead after a military judge in California refused to dismiss the charges.

Read more @ BBC News

This is an especially strange one considering that there is no punishment for actions that did not happen...

Dubai jails Indian pair for 'sexy texts'

Steamy text messages have resulted in a three-month jail sentence for an Indian man and an Indian woman in Dubai.

Judges ruled that they had planned to "commit sin", a reference to an extramarital affair - which is illegal in the United Arab Emirates.

The unnamed pair, aged 47 and 42, were working as cabin crew for Dubai's Emirates airline.

Their "sexy texts" first surfaced last year, in a divorce lawsuit by the woman's estranged husband.

Read more @ BBC News

A Catholic adoption society has won a High Court battle over laws forcing it to consider gay couples as parents.

Leeds-based Catholic Care had warned it would be forced to give up its work finding homes for children if it had to comply with the legislation.

Its plea to be allowed an exemption was opposed by the Charity Commission.

However, Mr Justice Briggs has allowed Catholic Care's appeal and ordered the commission to reconsider the case in the light of his judgement.

Read more @ BBC News

Hundreds of women who came to the UK from South Asia to marry say they have been treated as domestic slaves by their in-laws, the BBC has learned.

More than 500 who applied for residence in 2008-09 after their marriages broke down were deported because they could not prove any abuse had taken place.

Police and charities are concerned the incidents are not reported because of family pressure and fear of reprisals.

The UK Border Agency said measures were in place to try to prevent such abuse.

Read more @ BBC News

Nice going morons.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said "This was to sabotage the operation and to show we can strike anywhere, any time we want."

I think he just forgot that Islam forbids such things like indiscriminate mass murder. Oops.

Kandahar blasts were warning to US and Nato - Taliban

Saturday's bomb attacks in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar were a warning to US and Nato forces, the Taliban say.

A Taliban spokesman said the attacks were in response to a planned major offensive by international forces against militants in the region.

At least 35 people were killed and some 57 injured in the blasts in Kandahar, Afghanistan's third largest city.

The main target appeared to be Kandahar's prison, officials said, though no prisoners escaped.

'Sabotage'

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the blasts were retaliation for comments made by the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, that the Kandahar region would be targeted to wipe out the Taliban.

"This was an answer to Gen McChrystal," Mr Ahmadi told the AFP news agency.

"This was to sabotage the operation and to show we can strike anywhere, any time we want," the spokesman said.

Read more @ BBC News

UK plans to end 'politically-motivated' arrest warrants

The UK is planning to stop attempts to secure "politically-motivated" private arrest warrants for visiting foreign officials, the prime minister has said.

Campaigners have applied to the courts to have a number of high-profile figures detained, most recently former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni.

Magistrates currently are asked to consider the applications.

The Crown Prosecution Service could now decide if warrants are issued for alleged international law violations.

A warrant for the arrest of Ms Livni was issued at Westminster Magistrates' Court in December last year after moves by pro-Palestinian campaigners angry at Israeli action in Gaza.

The move sparked complaints by the Israeli government and saw Ms Livni cancel her visit.

'National interest'

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Brown said that Britain would "continue to take action to prosecute or extradite suspected war criminals - regardless of their status or power".

He cited the case of Afghan warlord Faryadi Zardad, found guilty of torture and hostage taking in his home country who was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment at the Old Bailey in 2006.

Read more @ BBC News

A newborn boy left at an Islamic centre in Staffordshire has died.

The baby was found wrapped in clothes at about 1030 GMT outside the centre in Beresford Street in the Shelton area of Stoke-on-Trent.

He was taken to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire where he was declared dead at 1230 GMT, Staffordshire Police said.

The area has been cordoned off while officers investigate. Anyone with information should call police.

Members of the Makki Mosque in Shelton who found the baby told BBC Midlands Today he was left on the steps of the Islamic Centre with a note attached saying "please help to bury him".

Read more @ BBC News

Chilean Quake Likely Shifted Earth’s Axis, NASA Scientist Says

he earthquake that killed more than 700 people in Chile on Feb. 27 probably shifted the Earth’s axis and shortened the day, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientist said.

Earthquakes can involve shifting hundreds of kilometers of rock by several meters, changing the distribution of mass on the planet. This affects the Earth’s rotation, said Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who uses a computer model to calculate the effects.

“The length of the day should have gotten shorter by 1.26 microseconds (millionths of a second),” Gross, said today in an e-mailed reply to questions. “The axis about which the Earth’s mass is balanced should have moved by 2.7 milliarcseconds (about 8 centimeters or 3 inches).”

Read more @ Business Week

School bus drivers have been accused of racism after failing to stop for pupils wearing Muslim hijabs.

Young girls have claimed they are being bullied on board for dressing in the traditional veil which covers the head.

To avoid trouble, ‘cowardly’ drivers are allegedly ignoring pupils who wait at bus stops wearing the headscarf.

Following a police investigation, officers will now be drafted on to board the buses to protect the students from ‘racist’ taunts of other passengers.

The problems centre on Merseytravel and pupils attending West Derby's Holly Lodge Girls' College in Merseyside, where 10 per cent of the 11,274 11 to 18-year-old students are from ethnic minorities.

Members of the Muslim community said the issue was a long-running one.

Read more @ the Daily Mail