World in Brief

Art thieves net Picasso | Saudi plea | Lava threat in Congo | Mud kills 64 in Rio de Janeiro

The new Al-Qaeda chiefs terrorising the world

Long a source of jihadis, Yemen has become fertile ground for extremists looking to take up the mantle of Osama Bin Laden

Haleh Esfandiari: I would not let them break me

Accused by Iran of aiding a US plot, this grandmother was flung into Evin jail. She tells her story in My Prison, My Home

Hello, we’re the humans of the sea

Researchers say it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food

The first superscraper

The world’s tallest building, the £1 billion Burj Dubai, opens for business this week — if it can find any

Love and honour, yes – but fidelity, non

A prominent female psychologist has warmed the hearts of French men by shining an unusually sympathetic spotlight on adultery

Sitting ducks of Helmand

On the road to Sangin: British supply convoys are a big target for the Taliban and have led to fierce battles

One boy’s journey to jihad

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab managed to slip through the net and launch a suicide mission that nearly brought carnage to America

Police ignored trail of skier in death fall

The family of the missing Briton found dead in Switzerland last week says searchers failed to follow up a clear clue

France say sorry for pimping charges

Mikhail Prokhorov was celebrating in 2007 with close friends and a posse of young women when he was arrested for soliciting

British gallery in secret Chagall scoop

The London Jewish Museum of Art picked up a painting worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in Paris for just over £25,000

What an anti-climax: G-spot is a myth

British scientists claim that there is no evidence for the existence of the G-spot outside the imagination of women

Soldier killed on New Year's Eve

Sapper David Watson, a bomb disposal expert, died from wounds suffered in an explosion near Patrol Base Blenheim, in Helmand

Cartoonist intruder: 'links to Islamic terrorists'

Somali who broke into Muhammad artist Kurt Westergaard's home connected to al-Shabaab and al-Qaeda says Danish intelligence

Armed man shot at Muhammad cartoonist's home

Suspect was trying to enter home of Kurt Westergaard, whose cartoons of Islam’s prophet sparked riots five years ago

British bomb disposal expert dies in Helmand

The latest death comes as figures reveal that the Army is seriously short of specialists capable of dismantling explosives

Hostage back home as ministers face criticism

Peter Moore flew back to RAF Brize Norton from Iraq as the Government's handling of the situation came under fire

Grasslands workshop turns yak hair into gold dust

Yak hair shawls, softer than cashmere and hailed as the next big thing by fashion experts, are being sold for up to £600