The acclaimed British novelist Beryl Bainbridge, an acute and acerbic chronicler of human relationships, has died at the age of 75. Ed Wilson, of her literary agency Johnson and Alcock, says Bainbridge died in a London hospital on early Friday. She had been suffering from cancer.

Actors Alex Meraz (from left), Booboo Stewart, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene and Xavier Samuel arrive for the British premiere of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse in London on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

An acupuncturist who claims she can detect a man’s virginity based on a small dot on the ear has become a minor celebrity in Vietnam, where she is credited with helping to free three convicted rapists from prison.

Six suicide bombers attacked a USAID compound on Friday in northern Afghanistan, killing at least four people and wounding several others, officials said.
Two of the dead were foreigners.

Injured German captain Michael Ballack predicted on Friday that Germany would beat Argentina 3-1 in Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final.
The 33-year-old midfielder, who was ruled out of the finals after injuring his right ankle in the FA Cup final in May, told Bild that he had no advice to give to the predominantly young side that has produced some electrifying football twice scoring four goals.

Al Qaeda is preparing to launch its first online propaganda newspaper in English, a move that could help the terror group recruit inside the US and Europe.

Pakistani authorities now believe a dangerous new militant group, out to avenge a deadly Army assault on a mosque in Islamabad three years ago, has carried out several major bombings in the capital pr

An Israeli Cabinet minister met secretly in Europe with Turkey’s foreign minister on Wednesday in an attempt to improve relations rapidly deteriorating over the recent bloodshed on a Gaza-bound flotil

Preoccupied for months by the clerical sex abuse scandal, the Pope on Wednesday shuffled the Vatican bureaucracy before heading off on vacation.

A surgeon dubbed “Dr Death” in Australia for a string of botched operations was sentenced on Thursday to seven years in prison for killing three patients and permanently harming another.