Africa/International

Fifa is investigating allegations that two of its officials offered to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 World Cup. Reporters from The Sunday Times posed as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies who wanted to…

Richard Villaroel holds up a red plastic bottle cap no bigger around than two of his fingers. Three-quarters full of canned tuna or salmon -- that's how little he ate every day in the Chilean mine that caved. And the mine water he drank…

The battle over a planned overhaul of France's pension system has intensified, with hundreds of thousands of people taking part in the latest of a series of protests across the country. Labour unions said that more than 2.5 million…

A South Korean fishing boat with 43 sailors aboard has been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Kenya, South Korea's foreign ministry says. The ministry said the crab fishing vessel was seized off Lamu Island on 9 October. South Korean…

A free book published this week by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Birdlife International and Pavan Sukhdev — leader of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study, has noted that nature’s riches…

The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Professor Olivier De Schutter, has backed citizens worldwide who are demanding a fundamental shift in food and agricultural research to make them more democratic and accountable…

Liverpool's tortured takeover battle ended on Friday with the owners of Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox completing their 300 million pounds ($480.8 million) purchase of the Premier League club. New England Sports Ventures (NESV)…

Political rows over currencies and a harsh dose of fiscal austerity are set to test financial markets in the coming week, just as investors appear to be settling in for a solid end-of-year stock rally. The G20 finance meeting in South…

Google is preparing to pick up the gauntlet Microsoft Bing and Facebook threw down with their social search arrangement. Google CEO Eric Schmidt doesn't like private data deals. Microsoft and Facebook have temporarily one-upped Google in…

"It felt like the earth was giving birth and I was the child of the Earth Mother. I was reborn." Omar Reygadas is relaxing in his back garden as he tells me about his journey up the escape shaft from the San Jose mine. His grandchildren…