MANILA: Gunmen kidnapped and killed at least 21 people in the southern Philippines yesterday, apparently in a bid to prevent one of them filing her husband's nomination for elections next year, the military said.

MANILA: Philippine police searched for an American who escaped after allegedly killing a government official's son in a road-rage shooting - the second homicide case against him, officials said yesterday.

LONDON: A first edition of Charles Darwin's seminal On the Origin of Species will be sold this week after it was found in a family's toilet in southern Britain, an auction house said on Sunday.

BERLIN: Germany yesterday criticized Israeli plans to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank, in unusually explicit terms a week before the two countries' leaders meet in Berlin.

CONCORD, New Hampshire: Forget cookies and milk. Santa wants the H1N1 flu vaccine.

H1N1 toll doubles weekly

2 schoolchildren snatched

Green partnership touted

Insurers eye floods cost

H1N1 shuts border

NEW ORLEANS: The creatures living in the depths of the ocean are as weird and outlandish as the creations in a Dr Seuss book: tentacled transparent sea cucumbers, primitive "dumbos" that flap ear-like fins and tubeworms that feed on oil deposits.

LONDON: The average British mother relies on just nine different meals to feed her family, a study has found.

Kangaroo wounds man

Women skiing to South Pole

Gauge your tweet importance

TOKYO: Japan's defense ministry is moving towards selecting Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 jet as the mainstay of its next-generation fighter force, Kyodo news agency reported yesterday, citing ministry sources.

LONDON: A leading climate change scientist whose private e-mails are included in thousands of documents that were stolen by hackers and posted online said on Sunday the leaks may have been aimed at undermining next month's global climate summit in Denmark.

SEOUL: The Republic of Korea (ROK) launched an ambitious and costly project this week to overhaul its four major rivers in a way the government says will be a model for green growth but conservationists say will do far more harm than good.

Mt Qomolangma record

Early presidential election

Twins out of intensive care

Foreigners' home fired on

Chopper crashes, 3 dead