doctor from a leading city-based hospital received a call from his friend, asking if he required financial assistance ‘since he was stuck in Spain’

When a doctor from a leading city-based hospital received a call from his friend, asking if he required financial assistance ‘since he was stuck in Spain’, the doctor seated in a suburban hospital thought it was a simple case of miscommunication. However, when several friends called up offering to help him based on an e-mail he had sent them, he suspected something was amiss.When he tried signing into his e-mail account, he realised that his password had been changed. Following this, he approached the cyber police. During investigations, the police...

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Thailand's outgoing defence minister has said the army will not intervene after supporters of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra swept to another resounding general election victory.

Thaksin's younger sister Yingluck, who fronts the Puea Thai party, announced she had agreed a coalition deal with four minor parties that would give the new government 299 seats.Puea Thai won an absolute majority with 264 seats in the 500-seat parliament, according to preliminary election commission results that could still shift somewhat. But by moving fast to cement its triumph with outside support has made it harder for opponents to intervene.It paves the way for Yingluck to become the country's first female prime minister.Thaksin was toppled...

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Two British men have died while climbing in the French Alps, the Foreign Office has confirmed.

The unnamed pair, aged 22 and 24, were near the town of Chamonix on Friday when they fell more than 2,500ft, according to reports.Their families have been told and are receiving consular assistance, a Foreign Office spokesman said.It comes less than four weeks after Scottish medical student Robbie Cammack, 19, died in the same region.Mr Cammack, from Moray, died on the Massif du Mont Blanc on 10 Ju...

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Frying high as Thomson Airways uses cooking oil to power planes

As the travel industry tries to reduce its carbon footprint, one airline is chipping in with an unusual new fuel. Thomson Airways is set to become Britain's first airline to use biofuel when it launches a service to Spain next month - powered by that kitchen cupboard staple, cooking oil.The used oil will be given a new lease of life, fueling flights between Birmingham and Palma, Mallorca, from July 28, just as soon as final safety clearance is received.Thomson Airways will become Britain's first airline to fly customers on biofuel -- cooking oil...

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Two journalists held hostage by the Taliban for 18 months in Afghanistan have arrived home in France to an emotional welcome.

Television reporter Hervé Ghesquierè, 47, with tears in his eyes, described being confined indoors "23 and three-quarters hours a day" and repeatedly having his hopes raised of an imminent release – and then dashed.Cameraman Stéphane Taponier, 46, said: "We're doing really, really, really well."Both looked quite pale but otherwise healthy, and were visibly moved by the huge crowd of journalists gathered at a military airbase outside Paris for the long-awaited homecoming.Their plight was one of France's longest-ever hostage ordeals, and had become...

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