The Hobbit to be extended to three films

Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will add a third film to turn the Tolkien novel into a trilogy, with the first set for release in December.

Cops kill naked man caught chewing off victim's face

Police in Miami have shot a naked man whom they found biting the face of another man. But even then he didn't stop chewing. So they shot him again.

Stage set for violent death

Did public opinion turn on murdered director Juliano Mer-Khamis for performing plays that went against conservative Islamic values?

Tunnels for hire as Gaza's smugglers risk their lives

The sun has dropped below the horizon and the muezzins in Gaza and Egypt produce two distinct walls of sound at either side of the deserted strip that buffers the border. Darkness falls quickly on the no-man's land that used to be patrolled by Israeli tanks. The 100m-wide strip is a graveyard of bulldozed houses. Mounds of rubble and steel spikes are monuments to what used to be streets.

Jordan's fragile calm destroyed

At least 57 people were killed and more than 100 injured when suicide bombers blew themselves up at three hotels in Amman, the capital of Jordan, on Wednesday night. The hotels -- the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn -- were popular with foreigners and many of the guests were involved in work in Iraq.

Israel's 'revenge killings'

From a distance of 70m and through the sight of his machine gun, Assaf could tell that the Palestinian man was aged between 20 and 30, unarmed and trying to get away from an Israeli tank. But the details didn't matter much, because Assaf's orders were to “fire at anything that moved''.
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