Riot police clashed with demonstrators in several Turkish cities for a second day on Wednesday as mourners buried a teenager wounded in protests last summer, unrest which a defiant Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan cast as a plot against the state. Police fired water cannon, tear gas and rubber pellets on a major Istanbul avenue to stop tens of thousands of people chanting anti-government slogans from reaching the central Taksim square. […]

  Smokers who kick the habit appear to benefit from an improved mood, according to a new review of past studies. On average, quitting smoking was associated with improvements in mental health similar to taking an antidepressant drug, a team of UK researchers found. “The main message is that when people stop smoking, they feel better than they did when they were smoking,” Dr. Paul Aveyard, one of the review’s […]

  There are now 40 ships and 34 aircraft from nine different nations taking part in the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the seas off Vietnam and Malaysia. Cmdr William Marks from the US Seventh Fleet, which is taking part in the search, said the difficulty was in covering such a large area, spanning hundreds of kilometres. “Just from the air we can see things as small […]

How a Greenland glacier passed its tipping point — and what that means for a billion of the world’s coastal dwellers. Around the village of Ilulissat, Greenland are icebergs that broke off from the Jakobshavn Glacier. As sea levels around the globe rise, researchers affiliated with the National Science Foundation and other organizations are studying the melting glaciers and long-term ramifications. (Joe Raedle, AFP/Getty Images) A hundred years after it […]

Stuart Hutchinson, now 19, started suffering from headaches in 2011 Doctors repeatedly failed to notice he had brain cancer He was just 24 hours from death when medics discovered a giant growth It took two operations and 33 session of radiation to get rid of the tumour Recently Stuart discovered another growth but was told it was a cyst After seeking more advice he was told it was another tumour […]

FEARS that a missing airliner carrying 239 people could have been blown up by suicide bombers travelling on stolen passports increased last night. Two men from Austria and Italy, listed among the passengers on a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777, were not on board, officials in both European countries said on Saturday, and at least one of them had had his passport stolen. The revelation came as distraught relatives were told […]

STORY HIGHLIGHTS Missing plane crashed off the southern coast of Vietnam, Asian media report “We have no idea where this aircraft is,” Malaysia Airlines vice president says In Beijing, relatives gather in a hotel Flight was carrying 239 people, including 2 infants A missing Malaysia Airliner carrying 239 people crashed off the southern coast of Vietnam, Vietnamese and Chinese state media reported Saturday, both citing Vietnam’s military. More than half […]

Malaysia Airlines says it has lost contact with flight MH370, which was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board. The aircraft never made it to Chinese airspace as John Sudworth reports from Beijing International Airport Malaysia Airlines says it has lost contact with a plane travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board. The airline said in a statement that flight MH370 disappeared […]

Some farmers struggling because of the drought have started selling their cattle Australia’s Queensland is suffering its most widespread drought on record, with almost 80% of the state now included in the list of affected areas. Queensland received little rain in February, which is normally the wettest month of the year, local officials say. This contrasts to three years ago, when much of the state was flooded, forcing thousands to […]

Malaria parasites – seen here infecting red blood cells – and mosquitoes do not like cold temperatures   Warmer temperatures are causing malaria to spread to higher altitudes, a study suggests. Researchers have found that people living in the highlands of Africa and South America are at an increased risk of catching the mosquito-borne disease during hotter years. They believe that temperature rises in the future could result in millions […]