Desert discs: how mobile phones are at the root of Saharan music

Sim city: Kirkley collected MP3 memory cards in Kidal, Mali. Photograph: Alfred Wolf/Getty
However eclectic your music collection, it would still need to go some way to match the sheer range of tracks shared by villagers swapping songs via Bluetooth and Sim card in the Sahara. Bollywood classics, Algerian Rai, Kuduro, French ballads – this is just a sample grab of the

China unveils ambitious plan to protect wildlife at UN talks

Golden monkeys at the Shennongjia nature reserve. Photograph: Rex Features
China has unveiled its most ambitious conservation plan in a generation, ahead of the opening today of a crucial UN biodiversity conference.

Retrial of Nancy Kissel in 'milkshake murder' case to begin in Hong Kong

Nancy Kissel is being retried in Hong Kong after her murder conviction was quashed earlier this year. Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters
The retrial of Nancy Kissel, the Amercian woman whose conviction for murdering her banker husband by spiking his milkshake and clubbing him to death was quashed earlier this year, begins in Hong Kong tomorrow.

Tibetan student protests spread to Beijing

Tibetan students protest in Rebkong, in north-west China's Qinghai province, angry at being forced to study in the Chinese language. Photograph: Free Tibet/AFP/Getty Images
Protests by Tibetan students in western China over plans to restrict the use of their language have spread, according to state media and a campaign group.

China census could be first to record true population

China's 2010 census will be the first to record people where they live and work rather than where they are registered. Photograph: Jason Lee/Reuters
In Denmark or Jordan, it would be the population covered by the national census. In China, six million is the number of people needed just to carry it out.

Terror bombs were primed to down cargo planes in mid-air

Security officials inspect UPS containers in the cargo area of East Midlands airport after an explosive package was found on a plane from Yemen. Photograph: David Jones/PA
Sophisticated bombs contained in packages sent from Yemen were designed to explode in the air and bring down the cargo planes carrying them, the government confirmed.

Booby-trap bomb sent to Nicolas Sarkozy

Police search for evidence outside an Athens courier company where a package exploded today. A similar parcel had been sent to Nicolas Sarkozy. Photograph: Yiorgos Karahalis/Reuters
Greek police intercepted a booby-trapped parcel addressed to French president Nicolas Sarkozy today, after another package exploded at a courier company in Athens.

Vladimir Putin goes hunting for 'action man' image

Shots of a horse-riding, rifle-toting Vladimir Putin in Siberia have been seen as an attempt by the Russian premier to preserve his image as a man of action. Photograph: Ria Novosti/Reuters

Woman stabbed Labour MP over his Iraq war vote, court hears

Stephen Timms, Labour MP for East Ham, was stabbed at his constituency surgery in May this year. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian
A former Labour minister was stabbed twice in his stomach by a woman who wanted to kill him as "revenge" for his voting for the Iraq war, a court today heard.

Barack Obama's final midterm rally highlights declining popularity

Barack Obama speaks to supporters in Cleveland during his last rally before the midterm elections. Photograph: J.D. Pooley/Getty Images
Barack Obama sought to rekindle the spirit of the 2008 election today at the final campaign rally of the midterm elections but thousands of empty seats testified that the love affair with the electorate is long over.