Films built around existing characters from the Star Wars universe are being developed alongside the new trilogy of films, the Walt Disney studio reveals.

There has been a rise in the number of incidents in which hand held lasers are being used to distract airline pilots flying over London, police have said.

Security guards seize a man who tries to hit Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a shoe as he visits a mosque in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

Britain's "space-age" Halley research station in the Antarctic - the sixth in a storied history of stations at the locale - goes into full operation this month.

A sixth person is arrested on suspicion of murdering a 16-year-old boy who was stabbed in central London last month.

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong could face new criminal charges in the United States, after admitting drug-taking.

SABMiller agrees to buy China's Kingway Brewery Holdings in a 5.4bn yuan ($864m; £550m) deal.

France says hundreds of Islamist militants have been killed since its offensive began in northern Mali, and suggests troops may start pulling out in March.

Five people are feared killed after an avalanche hits a village in India's northern state of Himachal Pradesh, officials say.

China approves a plan to tackle the widening income gap between rich and poor, which includes raising its minimum wage.

The neighbour of the Alabama man who held a 5-year-old hostage in an underground bunker for nearly a week has described him as a 'dangerous, angry man'.

The Chinese economy is booming, but a crackdown on the extravagant ways of high-spending government officials has hit the luxury hotel and hospitality industry hard.

Searching for part of the Universe deep beneath a mountain

African elephants 'know' when they are in safe areas and become stressed when they leave them, according to a study.

EU drive for sustainable fishing gains momentum

How a publicity whizz kid toppled Chile's Augusto Pinochet

Eighteen people are charged in a credit card fraud ring accused of stealing at least $200m (£127m), possibly the largest in US history.

The Ministry of Justice is branded "shambolic" by MPs over its handling of a contract for court translation services in England and Wales.

The NHS must manage its consultants better to fully secure improvements linked to a sharp rise in pay a decade ago, the public spending watchdog says.

Two oil paintings that gave the British public their first chance to see a kangaroo and dingo in 1773 could stay in the UK after the government introduced a temporary export bar.