World News: Protesters reject president's vow not to seek re-election

President Hosni Mubarak has defied a quarter of a million protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing he would serve out the last months of his term and "die on Egyptian soil."

He promised not to seek re-election, but that did not calm public fury as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters.

The protesters, whose numbers multiplied more than tenfold in a single day yesterday for their biggest rally yet, have insisted they will not end their unprecedented week-old wave of unrest until their ruler for nearly three decades goes.

Mr Mubarak's halfway concession - an end to his rule seven months down the road - threatened to inflame frustration among protesters, who have been peaceful in recent days.

In Alexandria, clashes erupted between several hundred protesters and government supporters soon afterward, according to footage by Al-Jazeera television.

And the speech was derided by protesters in Cairo's central Tahrir Square. Watching on a giant TV, protesters booed and waved their shoes over their heads at his image in a sign of contempt. "Go, go, go!" they chanted.

Hagman returning as JR Ewing

Larry "JR" Hagman is returning to Southfork Ranch for the pilot of an updated Dallas, it was announced today.

Also signed for the series are two fellow Dallas veterans, Linda Gray and Patrick Duffy. Hagman, 79, will reprise his role as villainous oil baron JR Ewing.

Residents gear up for cyclone

Tens of thousands of Australians stocked up on food and hid in shelters today as a monster cyclone approached the north-east coast with furious winds, rains and surging seas on a scale unseen in generations.

Gusts of up to 186mph were expected when Cyclone Yasi strikes the coast later today after whipping across Australia's Great Barrier Reef. The storm front is more than 310 miles wide and Yasi could reach far inland before it loses power.

Fresh sumo wrestling scandal

Japan's scandal-tainted national sport of sumo wrestling is facing new allegations that senior wrestlers used mobile phones to plan how to fix matches.

It was reported today that police have found suspicious text messages on several wrestlers' mobile phones, suggesting they were planning to fix bouts.

18 die as train hits bridge

Eighteen young job seekers riding on the roof of an overcrowded train were killed when they slammed into a low overhead bridge in northern India, police said today.

They had been among 200,000 who had attempted to apply for 461 jobs being offered by an Indian paramilitary force.

Nine killed and 20 hurt in car bombing

Pakistan: A car bomb killed nine people close to the main north-western city of Peshawar today.

Twenty others were wounded in the blast on a main road leading to Pakistan's border area with Afghanistan.

United States: NASA's planet-hunting telescope is finding whole new worlds of possibilities in the search for alien life. A report indicates small planets and stable multi-planet systems are more plentiful than previously thought.