A community devastated by the death of a teenager in a swollen river was on flood alert again today as storms brought more chaos across Britain.

The chief executive of Britain's biggest home lender, HBOS, warned today that the credit crunch was likely to last until early 2010.

A suicide car bomber struck a security checkpoint in Pakistan's volatile northwest today, killing at least 12 people, police said.

A pickup truck packed with explosives blew up a security checkpoint in Pakistan's volatile north-west today, killing at least 17 people and injuring 80 in an attack possibly intended for a more important target, officials said.

MPs began casting votes today in Pakistan's presidential election in which the favourite by far is the scandal-tainted pro-US widower of murdered ex-PM Benazir Bhutto.

The widower of former leader Benazir Bhutto will succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan after winning a landslide victory in today's election.

An official in ex-deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi's office says six people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack on the former Pentagon favourite's convoy in western Baghdad.

Almost 500 people died when up to five metres of muddy water swept through the Haitian town of Gonaives this week, triggered by torrential rains from tropical storm Hanna, police said.