Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history – after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest.

The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims a new study.

On March 27, 1999, during the height of NATO’s air war on Serbia, a very smart and very lucky Serbian air-defense commander achieved the seemingly impossible. Firing three 1960s-vintage SA-3 missiles, Col. Zoltan Dani managed to shoot down an attacking U.S. Air Force F-117 stealth fighter-bomber piloted by Lt. Col. Dale Zelko. NATO commanders had been sending the alliance’s planes, including the stealth attackers, into Serbia along predictable routes, allowing Dani to carefully plan his missile ambush.

Building a “traffic internet” of vacuum tubes that zip drivers to anywhere on earth in under an hour and circumnavigate the globe in two hours might sound like science fiction, but work on vehicles capable of tube-travel is already underway.

It should have been a national story with heavy coverage. The hook, on its face, seems tailor-made for breathless coverage: last week in Spokane, Washington state, a suspected rightwing terrorist attempts to murder multiple parade-goers who are out to celebrate the life of an American hero killed by a rightwing terrorist 43 years ago. The talking heads would have an endless series of important-sounding questions to ask – with "political vitriol" and "hate", no doubt, figuring highly. Experts in counterterrorism, hate groups and racial politics could be brought on as guests, alongside shocked near-victims of this thwarted bombing, which FBI officials have described as sophisticated and potentially able to kill numerous people.

British police believe Steven Greenoe, 37, a former US Marine who lives in Shrewsbury, bought the weapons including Glock 9mm pistols, legally in gun shops in North Carolina and then put them in his hold luggage.

The alleged smuggling operation was discovered after weapons seized from criminals in the North West of England were traced back to America. One of them was found to have been used in a drive-by shooting in Manchester.

A former B-2 stealth bomber engineer has been jailed for 32 years by a US court for selling military secrets to China.

The loathing the Conservative party and its newspapers harbour towards the BBC is an odd phenomenon. How they detest it, not just for particular faults, but because its very existence is an affront to everything they believe about markets. There it stands – a great monolithic arm of the state – yet one of the most successful, envied and admired organisations in the world, the wellspring of success for our creative industries. It breathes the Britishness conservatives are supposed to conserve, yet they itch to pull it apart.

It's bonus season, the time of year when bankers show us what they really believe. As soon as they get their money, they spend much of it on land and houses. They know that these are safer investments than the assets in which they trade. If they trash the economy again, they at least will survive.

This year the frenzy will be almost as bad as ever. But it could have been worse. Here is the story, revealed by a leaked document, of how our government covertly tried – and failed – to kill tougher European rules on bankers' bonuses, and how the chancellor of the exchequer appears to have misled parliament

Thousands of protesters are expected to take to the streets on a march against the ‘triple whammy’ of spending cuts affecting young people.

Between five and ten thousand protesters are expected at a march from Manchester city centre to Fallowfield where a rally will be held.

The existing food system is failing half of the people on Earth, the report finds, with 1 billion going hungry, 1 billion lacking crucial vitamins and minerals from their diet and another billion "substantially overconsuming", leading to obesity epidemics. Stresses on the food system are reflected in price spikes but the cost of food will rise sharply in coming decades, the report adds, which will increase the risk of conflict and migration.

Duke Nukem will return to consoles after nine years in a new title, Duke Nukem Forever, due for release in May.

The foul mouthed hero will try to save the world from aliens once again, with the new title available on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

A building site manager who led a double life as a drug dealer was kidnapped and murdered by a masked armed gang, a jury heard.