Businesses and services in the north-eastern US are starting to reopen on Wednesday after two days of closure forced by storm Sandy.

Police in Kosovo have fired tear gas in a clash with protesters angered by recent talks aimed at improving ties between Serbia and its former province.

The Justice Ministry in China says lawyers are now required to swear allegiance to the ruling Communist Party for the first time.

All lawyers obtaining or renewing their professional licence will have to pledge their loyalty to the country and the leadership of the party.

Rebel troops have appeared on Malian state TV to announce they have seized control of the country, hours after attacking the presidential palace.

The rebels said that a nationwide curfew was in force and that the constitution had been suspended.

The government has defended Budget plans to end age-related tax allowances for pensioners, amid claims they amount to a "raid" on their incomes.

It will lead to 4.4m pensioners being an average £83 a year worse off than they would have been, the HMRC says.

A court in Guatemala has sentenced a former soldier to 6,060 years in prison for his role in the massacre of 201 people during the civil war.

Pedro Pimentel Rios, 55, was extradited from the US last year.

At least 16 people have been injured after two Amtrak trains collided in California, US media reports say.

Most of the injuries were minor, but several people had been taken to hospital, one official said. The trains had come from Bakersfield and Los Angeles. They collided near Oakland Station at around 2200 local on Wednesday (0500 GMT Thursday).

The Egyptian army has deployed tanks and armoured troop carriers outside the presidential palace in Cairo after clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi.