A passenger plane has crashed after a failed emergency landing in Taiwan, killing more than 40 people, local officials say. The domestic TransAsia Airways flight crashed near Magong airport on the outlying Penghu island, reports said. There were a total of 54 passengers and four crew on board, Taiwan’s CNA news agency reported. Aviation officials said flight GE222 aborted its initial landing and then crashed, local media reported. Fifty-one people were feared dead and seven {....}

The Netherlands has received the first victims’ bodies from crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in a solemn ceremony at Eindhoven air base. Forty hearses left for the town of Hilversum where the formal identification process will begin. The Netherlands is observing a national day of mourning for the 298 victims, most of whom were Dutch. Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels have been widely accused of shooting down the plane on 17 July. UK government sources say intelligence shows rebels {.....}

The head doctor fighting the deadly tropical virus Ebola in Sierra Leone has himself caught the disease, the government said. The 39-year-old Sheik Umar Khan, hailed as a “national hero” by the health ministry, was leading the fight to control an outbreak that has killed 206 people in the West African country. Ebola kills up to 90 percent of those infected and there is no cure or vaccine. Across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, more than 600 people have died from the illness, according to the {.....}

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has told parents of the girls abducted by militant Islamist group Boko Haram that the government is doing everything possible to secure their release. He met parents for the first time on Tuesday after being accused of handling the 100-day crisis badly. More than 150 people attended the meeting after the government chartered a plane for them, reports say. The abduction of the more than 200 girls in April sparked global outrage. Parents pulled out of a meeting {....}

Chinese branches of fast food chains, including McDonald’s and KFC, have stopped using meat from a supplier in Shanghai following allegations it sold them out of date meat. According to Xinhua, the state-owned news agency, authorities in Shanghai have ordered the suspension of operations at Shanghai Husi Food Co. Reports by local media said that Husi had re-processed expired meat products. McDonald’s and KFC said they had stopped using meat from Husi. In a statement posted on its {.....}

Nigeria’s militant Islamists are in control of the key town of Damboa in north-eastern Nigeria, a local vigilante leader has told the BBC. The vigilante force defending the town fled on Sunday, and Islamist group Boko Haram’s black flag is now flying over Damboa, he said. At least 40 people were killed when Boko Haram attacked Damboa on Friday, the vigilante leader added. The group has been fighting since 2009 to create an Islamic state in Nigeria. In April, it sparked international outrage by {.....}

A surface-to-air missile struck a Malaysia Airlines plane carrying 298 people that went down Thursday in Ukraine near the Russian border, a U.S. official told ABC News. The official said U.S. intelligence and analysis of the situation determined that it was a single missile that struck the Boeing 777-200 aircraft while at cruising altitude. It is unclear whether the missile was fired from inside Ukrainian or Russian territory and who fired it, the official added. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was traveling {....}

On Thursday, a Malaysia Airlines flight crashed in Ukraine and Israel began a ground invasion into the Gaza strip. The Dow Jones index fell 161.39 points, or 0.94%, to 16,976.81, closing back below the symbolic threshold of 17,000. The S&P 500 plunged 23.45 points or 1.18%, to 1,958.12, and the Nasdaq index dropped 62.52 points or 1.41% to 4,363.45. ‘Eggshells’ Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 – a Boeing 777 with 298 people aboard – crashed on the Ukrainian border near Russia. That followed news earlier {....}

A collection of unusual items signed by South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela is to be auctioned later in Johannesburg. The lots include a chess set, of figures from either side of the apartheid battle, and salt and pepper shakers of Mr Mandela and FW de Klerk. The sale items is expected to raise around $450,000 (£260,000) for charity. Mr Mandela, who died in December aged 95, was revered around the world for fighting minority rule in South Africa. He spent 27 years in prison {.....}

Close-up shots of people's feet may not be the first choice of subject for a photo project, but Jo Farrell's pictures of the last remaining women in China with bound feet act as both a link to the past and a fascinating portrait of those involved. Foot-binding is believed to have begun during, or just before, the Song Dynasty in China around the 10th Century, and became widespread within a couple of hundred years. Bound feet were seen as a status symbol for wealthy women who did not need to work {....}

There is a chance the AIDS epidemic can brought under control by 2030, according to a report by the United Nations Aids agency. It said the number of new HIV infections and deaths from AIDS were both falling. However, it called for far more international effort as the “current pace cannot end the epidemic”. And charity Medecins Sans Frontieres warned most of those in need of HIV drugs still had no access to them. The report showed that 35 million people around the world were living with HIV {....}

Nigerian police have arrested a man claiming to be Boko Haram’s “chief butcher” in an area identified as the Balmo Forest of northeastern Nigeria. Detectives arrested Mohammed Zakari, 30, as he fled from what police and the military describe as an intensive counterinsurgency sweep in the area. Zakari is accused in connection with the deaths of seven people, including women and children, according to Nigerian police. He is also accused of taking part in an April attack against Nigerian customs {....}

William Hague shocked MPs by quitting as Foreign Secretary and announcing that he will leave the Commons at next year’s general election. David Cameron will name a new Foreign Secretary on Tuesday, when he completes a wider than expected Cabinet reshuffle. It will not be George Osborne, who has expressed an interest in moving to the Foreign Office if the Conservatives retain power next year but is likely to remain as Chancellor until the election. On Monday night the Defence Secretary Philip {.....}

South Africa’s Anglican Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu says he supports assisted dying for the terminally ill. Writing in Britain’s Observer newspaper on Sunday, Tutu explained that he had been convinced the humans had the right to decide on their own fate, after a 28-year-old terminally ill South African took his own life because doctors were unable to end his life. “Some people opine that with good palliative care there is no need for assisted dying, no need for people to request to be legally given [......]

Sanele Masilela is now nine and his wife, Helen Shabangu, is 62 years old. Yesterday's wedding was held to introduce the groom to the bride's family in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga. According to an agreement between the two families, much of last year's formal wedding needed to be repeated before the couple changed into traditional gear for the second part of the ceremony. The traditional marriage took place in Mkhuhlu township, where Shabangu has a home. Last year, their white wedding [.....]

There were reports of heavy explosions near the airport in Tripoli At least seven people have been killed and 30 hurt in clashes between rival militias at Libya’s airport near the capital, Tripoli, officials say. Rebels from the Zintan region who control the international airport have been attacked by a rival group trying to take over the area. Flights have been suspended amid reports of heavy shelling and gunfire. Libyan leaders have struggled to bring stability to the country since Muammar Gaddafi was removed [.....]

South Africa’s engineering and metal workers union has rejected a 10 percent pay-raise offer from employers, calling on its 220,000 striking members in the sector to intensify strike action. Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers in South Africa (NUMSA), the country’s biggest trade union, said the workers would continue with indefinite strike action. “We are making a very clear statement that [....]

The Lagos State government had claimed the attack was not caused by a bomb The extremist group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for a deadly blast that killed at least two people at a fuel depot in Lagos June 25. The explosion followed an earlier one same day at Emab plaza in Abuja, in which over 20 people were killed. The Lagos State government, and the police, denied the blast at Apapa was caused by a bomb, claiming it was a fire incident caused by a canister. In a new video reported [.....]