- 40 nations contributing to UN Lebanon peacekeeping force condemn 'attacks'
- Eight dead as heavy rain thrashes Brazil after long drought
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- Morocco crush Central African Republic, Guirassy scores hat-trick
- Dupont scores quickfire hat-trick on Toulouse Top 14 return
- Ronaldo scores in Portugal's Nations League win as Spain sink Denmark
- Interim boss Carsley has not applied for England job
- Mets hurler Senga ready to take on Dodgers in game one of NL Championship Series
- Ronaldo on target again as Portugal defeat Poland in Nations League
- Guardians rip Tigers 7-3 to advance in MLB playoffs
- AFP, BBC win top French war reporting awards
- Carsley goes back to basics as humbled England face Finland
- Alex Salmond: the man who took Scotland to the brink of independence
- Scotland's former leader Alex Salmond dies aged 69: party
- UN warns of catastrophe as Israel fights a two-front war
- Croatia extend Scotland's losing streak
- South Africa, New Zealand boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes
- 'Very challenging': Israel faces Hezbollah in tricky terrain
- Farrell begins to feel at home as Racing 92 beat Toulon
- South Africa boost T20 World Cup semi-final hopes with Bangladesh win
- Samson ton powers India to T20 series sweep after record total
- Djokovic to face Sinner in Shanghai final with 100th title in sight
- UN peacekeepers to remain in Lebanon: spokesman
- Pro-Conquest film fuels debate in Mexico over colonial legacy
- Samson ton powers India to record 297-6 in Bangladesh T20
- New Zealand enjoy perfect start to America's Cup defence over Britain
- Pogacar emulates icon Coppi with fourth straight Il Lombardia triumph
- UN warns against 'catastrophic' regional conflict
- New Zealand crush Ineos Britannia in America's Cup opener
- Djokovic to face Sinner in blockbuster Shanghai Masters final
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- Sri Lanka seeks to match success in W.Indies T20s
- Sinner reaches Shanghai final, will end year number one
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Sabalenka downs Gauff in three sets to reach Wuhan final
- Israel warns south Lebanon residents to 'not return'
- Sinner tames Machac to reach Shanghai Masters final
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- Hezbollah fires at Israel as wars rage on Yom Kippur
- Analysts warn more detail needed on new China economic measures
- China tees up fresh spending to boost ailing economy
- China says will issue special bonds to boost ailing economy
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Dodgers drop Padres 2-0 to advance in MLB playoffs
- Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
- Last-minute legal ruling allows betting on US election
- Despite hurricanes, Floridians refuse to leave 'paradise'
- Israel observes Yom Kippur amid firestorm over Lebanon strikes
Cities wiped out, or nearly, by disasters
The coastal city of Derna in Libya, devastated by a huge flash flood, joins a grim list of metropolises nearly annihilated by natural disasters since the turn of the century.
But from the debris, many of those razed landscapes have also managed to rebuild and reinvent themselves following years of reconstruction.
- Bhuj, 2001 -
A massive earthquake struck the western Indian state Gujarat on January 26 killing more than 20,000 people, with most victims from the city of Bhuj.
The city was flattened but a massive reconstruction effort has turned it into an economic hub with two new ring-roads, improved sewerage systems and an airport.
The local government bulldozed temples and mosques to widen roads, and the construction of apartments of more than one storey is now forbidden.
- Bam, 2003 -
A quake on December 26 levelled much of the ancient southeastern Iranian city of Bam with 80 percent of its infrastructure damaged or destroyed.
An estimated 26,000-32,000 people died in the disaster of such proportions that Iran allowed its arch-enemy the United States to send planes laden with aid.
The jewel of Bam, a 2,000-year-old citadel, which was the largest mud-brick structure in the world, was nearly completely destroyed.
Today more than 90 percent of the city has been rebuilt.
- Banda Aceh, 2004 -
On December 26 a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummelled the coastline of 14 countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.
Most of Indonesia's 170,000 victims were in the province of Aceh and its main city Banda Aceh was razed.
More than $6.7 billion was poured into rebuilding Aceh, funding among other things 140,000 new homes, 1,759 schools, 363 bridges and 13 airports.
The disaster also ended a decades-long separatist conflict in Aceh, with a peace deal between rebels and Jakarta struck less than a year later.
- L'Aquila, 2009 -
In the early hours of April 6, a devastating earthquake hit the historic Italian city of L'Aquila, killing 309 people.
Around 20,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Over a decade later, the city's elegant buildings and squares spanning medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods are still being renovated.
Over 8,000 people are still living in temporary housing, most of them in quake-proof apartments.
- Port-au-Prince, 2010 -
A massive quake on January 12 wrecked the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region.
It killed more than 200,000 people, destroyed the homes of 1.5 million Haitians and shattered much of the country's frail infrastructure.
The disaster tipped Haiti into chaos and destitution.
A cholera epidemic the same year introduced by peacekeepers who arrived after the quake killed more than 10,000 people.
More than a decade later, downtown Port-au-Prince, including multiple government agency headquarters and the presidential palace, have still not been rebuilt and camps built for the displaced have become shantytowns.
- Minamisanriku, 2011 -
The coastal town was one of many in eastern Japan devastated when a 9.1-magnitude undersea earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11, 2011, triggering a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Some 620 people died in Minamisanriku, a fishing port of 17,600 inhabitants, and around 60 percent of all buildings were destroyed.
Six years later the town was back on its feet: residents had been relocated and the town hall, schools and hospitals had been rebuilt.
O.Karlsson--AMWN