The hotel maid who says she was sexually assaulted by IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is enduring an "extraordinary" trauma, her lawyer says.

South Africans go to the polls to vote in local elections after one of the most bitterly fought campaigns in years.

Wildfires fuelled by high winds have blazed through more than a third of a town in Canada's Alberta province, forcing thousands to flee.

The International Monetary Fund should appoint an interim leader following the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn over an alleged sexual assault, the US treasury secretary says.

The US and EU say they will be "taking additional steps" against Syria over its violent response to anti-government protests.

The boss of Sony insists the firm acted quickly enough to inform users about a security breach at its PlayStation network.

Coffee has been linked to a reduced risk of dying from prostate cancer in a US study of nearly 50,000 men.

Al-Jazeera journalist Dorothy Parvaz, detained in Syria last month, is now free and safe in Doha, the network says.