President Joyce Banda says Malawi will overturn its ban on homosexual acts - the first African country to do so since 1994.
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More than 20 monarchs lunch at Windsor Castle to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, including the controversial heads of Bahrain and Swaziland.
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Facebook shares are to start trading in one of the highest-profile flotations of recent years, making co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's stake worth about $20bn.
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European markets suffer a nervous session with investors unsettled by a downgrade for Spanish banks and the political crisis in Greece.
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Thieves steal a metal plaque erected in memory of two young boys killed by IRA bombs in the Cheshire town of Warrington.
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The EU Commission and European Central Bank are making contingency plans for a possible Greek exit from the euro, an EU commissioner says.
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Barry George, who spent eight years in prison after being wrongly convicted of the murder of BBC TV presenter Jill Dando, can fight a test case for compensation, a judge rules.
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US President Barack Obama is set to announce a $3bn (£1.9bn) plan to boost food security in Africa ahead of a G-8 summit near Washington.
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Kings and queens from around the world have arrived in Windsor for a lunch to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
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The German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, famed for his performances of songs by composers like Schubert and Mahler, dies at the age of 86.
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A man is jailed for life for two murders and a string of "senseless" assaults in north London.
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A notorious Belfast prison that held IRA inmates during the worst of the city's sectarian troubles is to be transformed into a whiskey distillery.
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JP Morgan chairman and chief executive Jamie Dimon will appear before a Senate committee to explain the bank's $2bn trading loss on a failed hedging strategy.
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Watch the latest news summary from BBC World News. International news updated 24 hours a day.
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Swansea boss Brendan Rodgers is not interested in speaking to Liverpool about their vacant managerial position.
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Micro-blogging service Twitter will support an initiative that lets people browse the web without being monitored.
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24 hours of news photos from around the world
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A painting showing President Jacob Zuma with his genitals hanging out sparks the anger of South Africa's ANC, which says it will go to court.
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Angola's Supreme Court blocks the appointment of the election commission head, seen as a close ally of President dos Santos.
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Lai Changxing, extradited from Canada to face one of China's most notorious smuggling and bribery cases, is jailed for life, state media says.
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Researchers reveal details of a promising way to make a fundamentally different kind of computer memory chip.
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Sweden is the frontrunner to win at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, while Engelbert Humperdinck believes the UK can triumph.
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Prime Minister David Cameron defends free parenting classes in England, denying they are the policy of a "nanny state".
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The first pictures are released showing inside the "world's most expensive house", owned by the Ambani family in Mumbai.
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The UN chief Ban Ki-moon says that Islamist militants from al-Qaeda must be behind two recent devastating suicide car bomb attacks in Syria.
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First privately operated delivery to the space station will open new era
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Japan urges businesses and households to cut electricity use by up to 15% to avoid possible blackouts.
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Sacha Baron Cohen steps out of character to give a rare interview as himself, but admits it is 'probably a mistake'.
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President Barack Obama joins a host of music industry luminaries in paying tribute to Donna Summer following the disco star's death at the age of 63.
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Italy has a history for creating spectacular architecture, as seen in cities like Rome and Venice, yet one town in Sicily has found itself blighted by modern building disasters.
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How blind activist fled heavily-guarded village
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Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan is banned from Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium for five years following angry exchanges with staff at an IPL cricket match.
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Chinese property prices continued to fall during April after the government kept policies in place to curb speculation.
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The lasting appeal of the photo booth
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Obama will relish Francois Hollande's anti-austerity support
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A photographer's view of Hackney
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Nearly half of babies in Malawi are affeced by stunted growth because of malnutrition.
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How will Nato remove troops and hardware from Afghanistan?
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Coping with the pressure of flying the Olympic light to the UK
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A Florida neighbourhood watch volunteer who shot an unarmed black teenager had a bloody nose and a cut on his head, according to police reports.
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The wettest April in more than a century has caused problems for many UK butterflies, bees and other bugs, say conservationists.
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Japan completes its first successful commercial launch of a foreign-made satellite early on Friday, marking its entry into the launch business.
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Dieting in pregnancy is safe and does not carry risks for the baby, a review of research has suggested.
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How did Obama provoke this response from Beckham?
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Eating the fish that contains a poison stronger than cyanide
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The perils of being a reporter on live TV, the cafe just for cats and the $1,500 hot dog.
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Relatives of the blind Chinese activist, Chen Guangcheng, have given detailed accounts of the torture and retribution they have allegedly suffered at the hands of Chinese authorities.
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The US has plans in place to attack Iran if other measures fail to stop it developing nuclear weapons, Washington's envoy to Israel says.
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Officials say prisoners have taken control of a jail in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula where at least one person died in a fight between inmates on Wednesday.
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Google is facing legal action for not labelling the body of water separating Iran and neighbouring Arab Gulf states on its map service.
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Mobile phone data of suspects in police custody is to be extracted and retained, regardless of whether charges are brought, the BBC has learned.
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Queen in Cheshire and Merseyside
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Readers' photos on the theme sailing
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24 hours of news photos: 17 May 2012
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Half a million gold buttons decorate Royal Barge
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Mexicans pay their last respects to Carlos Fuentes
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Thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be prevented if the cholesterol-lowering drugs, statins, were more widely prescribed, research suggests.
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24 hours of news photos: 16 May 2012
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Olympic flame tours Greece
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