Why numbers are not enough in Afghanistan

Like other ‘Coalitions of the Willing’ from Nato, some of the 7,000 troops will be more willing and able to fight than others

Clinton urges unity as surge backed

Georgia and South Korea offer soldiers for Afghanistan at meeting in Brussels, but France and Germany delay decision

ElBaradei may run for president in Egypt

Outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says he has political aspirations, if elections are fair and monitored

Confidence will never return in Dubai

The price of restoring confidence is likely to be much more than just more prudent borrowing and greater transparency

The likely stars in South Africa

We look at six of the best players who should set the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa alight

US-born giant panda to be sent to China

Tai Shan, one of the biggest stars of the National Zoo in Washington, is prepared for his big move to his parents' homeland

My Week: Tiger Woods

My wife Elin has spent the week practising her own swing, using our wedding crockery instead of a golf ball

Martial law declared in massacre province

Philippine police seize heavy weaponry from homes of Ampatuan family, suspected of killing 57 civilians in Maguindanao province

Suicide gunmen kill 40 at Pakistan army mosque

Group of attackers stormed mosque in Rawlpindi during Friday prayers, throwing grenades starting hour-long firefight

SolarAid brings village its first picture show

A charity chosen for The Times Christmas Appeal is offering light to remote areas of Africa that can save lives and money

IN DEPTH: the climate change doubters

The sceptic landscape ranges from those scurrilously pursuing scientific truth to others with more obvious aims

Nepal holds Cabinet meeting on Everest

Ministers in oxygen masks gather on mountain to highlight the danger global warming poses to Himalayan glaciers

Iraq 'suffered from flawed reconstruction effort'

Senior military official tells inquiry into Iraq war that reconstruction agency lacked staff, funds and a clear mission

ANALYSIS: too big for a conspiracy

The idea that global warming is an elaborate hoax suffers from the fatal flaw that afflicts most conspiracy theories

Clinton, Miliband and a very special relationship

Hillary Clinton's admiration for her 'vibrant, vital' British counterpart clearly in evidence at Nato meeting

World's religious heads demand climate action

Archbishop of Canterbury to preach in Westminster before a 'stop climate change' march by up to 10,000 protesters

Nato chief finds 7,000 more troops for Afghanistan

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said troops pledged by 25 countries to join the 30,000-strong US surge

Guards suspended over White House gatecrashers

Three Security Service personnel stood down over 'human error' that allowed Tareq and Michaele Salahi to attend state dinner