Nelson Mandela, 91, may be increasingly frail but he remains a towering icon of peace and tolerance including for his role in the defeat of apartheid and as South Africa's first black president. The white minority government sentenced him to life imprisonment in 1964 for sabotage but, amid mounting international pressure, released him on February 11, 1990 -- an historic event remembered across the world Thursday.

Catherine Ashton made a spectacular rise through British and European politics by becoming the consumate low-key negotiator. Named on Thursday as the European Union's new foreign policy supremo, Ashton ran a local health authority, went on to herd fussy British lords and was last year sent to Brussels to negotiate banana imports from Latin America and free trade with the United States and China.

Catherine Ashton made a spectacular rise through British and European politics by becoming the consumate low key negotiator. The woman expected to be the European Union's first foreign policy supremo ran a local health authority, went on to herd fussy British lords and was last year sent to Brussels to negotiate banana imports from Latin America and free trade with the United States and China.

As life in the White House beckons, Barack Obama and his family could be forgiven if over the past weeks the stray thought "What have we got ourselves into?" has flittered across their...

PARIS, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - A novel experiment has dealt a setback to a theory that life on Earth was kickstarted by bacteria that hitched a ride on space rocks.The 'pan-spermia' hypothesis is that cells were transported to the infant Earth on rocks that were bumped off other planets or even came from another star system.

PARIS, Sept 25, 2008 (AFP) - A novel experiment has dealt a setback to a theory that life on Earth was kickstarted by bacteria that hitched a ride on space rocks.The 'pan-spermia' hypothesis is that cells were transported to the infant Earth on rocks that were bumped off other planets or even came from another star system.

NEW ORLEANS, September 1, 2008 (AFP) - Hurricane Gustav buffeted New Orleans and much of the US Gulf Coast region, but appears not to have caused loss of life in the fabled jazz city, emergency officials here said Monday.

CANNES, France, May 25, 2008 (AFP) - US director and actor Clint Eastwood and French actress Catherine Deneuve on Sunday were awarded a special prize for their body of work at the Cannes film festival Sunday.

PARIS, April 26, 2008 (AFP) - The founder of Internet-based virtual world Second Life has said he is stepping down as the company's head because he doesn't like managing real people.

JAKARTA, Jan 27, 2008 (AFP) - Lauded by some as a pro-market Cold Warrior who brought stability to Indonesia, shunned by others as a corrupt autocrat, Suharto -- who died Sunday aged 86 -- dominated his country's politics for 32 years.

Key events in his life and career: