Fred Hollows Foundation changing lives in East Timor

Treatable cataract blindness is the main cause of vision impairment in East Timor where around 10,000 are waiting for sight restoring surgery.

• Despite all the nice talk, US partisanship reigns

  Partisanship is reaching new heights in Washington, even as President Barack Obama makes almost daily pleas to get along.

• Snow shuts down federal government, life goes on

  If snow keeps 230,000 government employees home for the better part of a week, will anyone notice?

• LA foothills under mudslide threat

  Homeowners in mud-ravaged foothill towns north of Los Angeles packed their cars and left as evacuation orders took hold and a new winter storm arrived.

• Ice buildup caused Heathrow crash landing

  A British accident report has confirmed that a build-up of ice in the fuel lines of a Boeing 777 jet caused its crash landing at London's Heathrow Airport two years ago.

• 64 feared dead, 400 hurt in Afghan avalanches

  Massive avalanches roaring down a mountain pass north of Kabul may have killed more than 60 people, Afghan officials said, as rescuers evacuated about 400 injured victims.

• UN slams Haitian hospitals for charging patients

  The United Nations has warned that it will cut off shipments of free medicine to any Haitian hospitals that it finds are charging patients.

• Arrest made 25 years after murder during riot

  A man, who was only 15-years-old when policeman Keith Blakelock was murdered during a riot, has been arrested on suspicion of killing him.

• Brooke says 'sorry' for inappropriate behaviour

  Former All Black Robin Brooke has apologised for his inappropriate behaviour towards a 15-year-old girl in Fiji.

• American Superbowl makes TV history

  When the New Orleans Saints won American sport’s biggest prize, the Superbowl, they took a nation with them.

• Palin hints at 2012 bid for the White House

  Former Republican US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has given one of the strongest indications yet that she will run for president at the next election.

• Reports: Haiti man rescued four weeks after quake

  A 28-year-old man has been pulled from the rubble of a collapsed supermarket building in Haiti’s capital.

• Senior UK police officer jailed for corruption

  A senior London police officer has been ordered jailed for four years for assaulting and falsely arresting a man over a minor financial dispute.

• Cameron's highly personal attack on Brown

  David Cameron has launched a highly personal attack on Gordon Brown calling him “secretive, power hoarding and controlling”.

• British death toll in Afghan war matches Falklands

  A bomb killed two British soldiers in southern Afghanistan, the military said Monday, raising Britain's death toll to that of the Falklands war.

• Iran moves closer to nuke warhead capacity

  Western powers blame Iran for rejecting an internationally endorsed plan to take Iranian low enriched uranium, further enriching it and return it in the form of fuel rods for the reactor.

• Haitians confront new threat: deadly spring rains

  Survivors of Haiti's catastrophic earthquake have had one saving grace: There's been no significant rain since the disaster. But that won't last.

• 17 soldiers dead, 53 rescued in Kashmir avalanche

  A massive avalanche has ploughed into an Indian army training centre at a ski resort town in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing 17 soldiers and critically injuring 17 others.

• Mongolia: Extreme winter weather kills 1.7 million livestock

  Blizzards and freezing temperatures have killed nearly two million livestock in Mongolia since winter began in December.

• Sword swallower breaks own world record

  An Australian street performer is no doubt nursing a sore throat today.

• Formerly conjoined twins celebrate third birthday

  It has been nearly three months since conjoined twins Krishna and Trishna were separated in Australia.