 | Turkish plane crashes on landing in Amsterdam
Dutch authorities are trying to identify the fatalities of an air-crash at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Authorities said nine people were killed and over 80 injured when a Turkish airliner crashed while attempting to land. The Turkish Airlines Boeing 737, en route from Istanbul with 135 people on board, broke into three parts when it hit the ground just short of the runway. All flights in and out of Schiphol, Europe's fifth largest airport, have been suspended. The cause of the crash is not yet known. |  | | India charges Mumbai gunman
Indian prosecutors have charged a man they say is the sole surviving gunman involved in last year's Mumbai terrorist attacks. Mohammed Ajmal Kasab is charged with 12 crimes, including murder and waging war on India. Prosecutors have filed the same charges against two alleged accomplices, both Indian nationals. They also named 35 other people, all Pakistanis, as wanted in connection with the attacks. The Pakistani government has denied involvement in the attacks, but concedes that the operation was planned on its soil. Some 165 people were killed when 10 gunmen arrived in Mumbai by boat and attacked a string of targets last November. | | | Bangladeshi mutineers agree to lay down arms
In Bangladesh, mutinous border guards have agreed to surrender after the government said it would grant them an amnesty. Fighting between the mutineers and the army has subsided following a meeting between representatives of the guards and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It is not yet clear if the government will accede to the guards' demands, which include the chance to participate in lucrative United Nations peacekeeping missions. The guards, who are angry over pay, had turned their weapons on their officers and seized their headquarters as well as a nearby shopping mall. The army was called in to quell the unrest. At least two people were killed and 14 injured in the clashes. | | | Netanyahu turns right in search for Israel coalition
Officials from Israel's right wing Likud Party have begun negotiations with rival right wing parties to form a governing coalition. Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu invited fellow hardliners for talks, after the leader of the centrist Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, refused to serve under Netanyahu in a coalition. President Shimon Peres tasked Netanyahu with forming government last week. Leading a coalition of right-wing parties could put Netanyahu on a collision course with Washington, where the Obama administration has pledged to pursue swiftly an Israeli- Palestinian peace deal. | | | Iran tests first nuclear plant
Iran has begun testing its first nuclear reactor. Officials said Iranian and Russia technicians began a test run of a power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr. The Russian built plant is meant to be the first in a number of reactors for an energy program. The West, which suspects Tehran of seeking to produce its own nuclear bomb, has been critical of Russia's involvement in the plant's construction. Russia took over construction at Bushehr in 1995. The plant's completion has been complicated by construction problems and the nuclear standoff between and Iran and the international community. | | | Germany suffers largest contraction since reunification
The German economy shrank by 2.1 percent late last year, its largest contraction since the country was reunited in 1990. Official data has confirmed that the fourth-quarter-drop marked the third straight quarter of economic decline, suggesting Germany is in its worst recession in over 60 years. The main reason given for Germany's economic troubles was a fall in exports, which plummeted by 7.3 percent between October and December. | | | Pakistan bars opposition leader from office
Pakistan's Supreme Court has barred opposition leader Nawaz Sharif from elected office. The court ruling also nullified last year's election of his brother, who is the chief minister of the country's most-populous province, Punjab. The verdict is likely to widen a rift between Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari. Two-time premier Sharif is the most popular leader in Pakistan. His party has the power to destabilise Zardari's government, which is struggling against rising Islamic militancy. | | | Holocaust-denying bishop arrives in London from Argentina
A Roman Catholic bishop who caused an international uproar by downplaying the Nazi Holocaust has arrived in London, after being expelled from Argentina. The Argentine government ordered Bishop Richard Williamson out of the country last week, citing irregularities in his immigration application. Authorities also said his remarks on the Holocaust were offensive to Argentine society, the Jewish people and humanity. Williamson, who headed a seminary near Buenos Aires until earlier this month, said he believed that no more than 300,000 Jews died in Germany's Nazi concentration camps, rather than the widely accepted figure of 6 million. | | | Somalia death toll rises in renewed fighting
African Union peacekeepers and Somali police are battling Islamist insurgents in the capital Mogadishu for a second day, in the worst bout of fighting for weeks. Witnesses and rights groups say the civilian death toll has risen to 48. Meanwhile Somalia's hardline Shebab militia have reportedly wrested control of a town near the border with Ethiopia from pro-government forces. The fresh fighting began just days after new President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed returned to Mogadishu to set up his new unity government. It's the 15th attempt to bring peace to the Horn of Africa country since 1991. | | | Residents flee as volcano erupts again in Chile
In Chile, the Chaiten Volcano has rumbled into activity threatening to devastate surrounding areas. The mountain erupted for the third time within 24-hours on Tuesday spewing ash and chunks of molten rock thousands of metres into the air. Experts warn that lava flows could destroy nearby homes. Authorities have been working to move residents to safety. The Chaiten volcano erupted in May 2008 forcing the evacuation of Chaiten town, which is inhabited by 4,000 people and located just 10 kilometres from the mountain. | | | | |
Turkish Airlines Flight Crashes in Amsterdam
