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'Black Death pit' unearthed by Crossrail project
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The first bodies were found two weeks ago but more are being discovered each day
Excavations for London's Crossrail project have unearthed bodies believed to date from the time of the Black Death.
A burial ground was known to be in an area outside the City of London, but its exact location remained a mystery.
Thirteen bodies have been found so far in the 5.5m-wide shaft at the edge of Charterhouse Square, alongside pottery dated to the mid-14th Century.
Analysis will shed light on the plague and the Londoners of the day.
DNA taken from the skeletons may also help chart the development and spread of the bacterium that caused the plague that became known as the Black Death.
The skeletons' arrangement in two neat rows suggests they date from the earliest era of the Black Death, before it fully developed into the pandemic that in later years saw bodies dumped haphazardly into mass graves.
Archaeologists working for Crossrail and the Museum of London will continue to dig in a bid to discover further remains, or any finds from earlier eras.
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By 1658, the area around Charterhouse Square (centre) had escaped its status as "no-man's land"
The £14.8bn Crossrail project aims to establish a 118km-long (73-mile) high-speed rail link with 37 stations across London, and is due to open in 2018.
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New Zealand North Island hit by worst drought in 30 years
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The drought is beginning to take its toll on New Zealand's economy
A drought has been declared on the entire North Island of New Zealand - in what the government describes as the worst dry spell in 30 years.
Farmers are especially hard hit, with losses in agriculture expected to shave about 1% off economic growth.
The capital Wellington is said to have just 18 days of water left, and parts of the South Island could soon be hit.
But there is likely to be some relief over the weekend when the first decent rainfall in two months is forecast.
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Assault weapons ban narrowly approved by Senate panel
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California Senator Dianne Feinstein describes the AR-15, the weapon used in a school shooting that killed 26 in Connecticut in December
A sharply split US Senate panel has passed a bill to ban assault weapons, but the measure is viewed as unlikely to go much further in Congress.
The Senate judiciary committee approved the ban, similar to one that expired in 2004, on a 10-8 party-line vote.
The narrow margin underlines the uphill battle faced by the White House drive for new gun regulations, after a school massacre that killed 26 in December.
Polls show a majority of Americans back a ban on assault weapons.
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Thai navy denies shooting Rohingya refugees
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Thousands of Rohingyas have been trying to flee ethnic violence in Burma by boat
The Thai navy has denied reports that its personnel opened fire on a group of Rohingya refugees, killing at least two.
Thai Navy commander Admiral Surasak Rounroengrom said that "no [Thai] navy officer could be that ruthless".
He was responding to reports that Thai sailors shot at a boat of around 20 Rohingya refugees off Thailand's south-western coast in February
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Russia's President Vladimir Putin looks at the leader of Nochniye Volki (the Night Wolves) biker group, Alexander Zaldostanov, also known as Khirurg (the Surgeon), after awarding him at a meeting with members of the Military History Society in the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, on March 14.
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Russia's President Vladimir Putin awarded a medal to Alexander 'the Surgeon' Zaldostanov, the leader of the Nochniye Volki (Night Wolves) biker group. He presented 'the Surgeon' with the medal after meeting with the Military History Society on Thursday in Moscow. As prime minister, Putin visited the Nochniye Volki's club in 2009 before they participated in a bike show. Putin has since made public appearances with 'the Surgeon' each year, going out for rides together on their bikes
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Kuwait City, Kuwait: Jyoti Amge, the world's shortest woman, sits next to Brahim Takioullah, who has the largest feet in the world according to Guinness World Records
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Abu Dhabi: riders take part in the Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed al-Nahyan international equestrian festival
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Wellington, New Zealand: cricketer Peter Fulton prepares to take a catch to dismiss England's Kevin Pietersen during the second day of the second test at the Basin Reserve
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Karachi, Pakistan: bomb disposal squad officers check the site of a blast at the offices of a television station which killed three people and wounded four others
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Members of pacifist group Platform Against The BBVA cover themselves in red paint, to protest against the bank's alleged financing of arms dealing, outside the company's AGM in Bilbao.
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Flying man: Nick Baumgartner of the USA in action during the men's snowboard cross World Cup qualification race in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, today
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A member of the IPA Institute operates a care-O-bot during a demonstration in Stuttgart. The robot has been developed as part of the European research project called SRS (Shadow Robotic System for Independent Living).
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Lovely jubbly: A view of the 'Only Fools and Horses' themed room at the Ideal Home Show at Earls Court
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A woman pushes a car as heavy snow falls in Lviv, Ukraine. Photograph: Yuriy Dyachyshyn
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Police close the M1-M7 motorway outside Budapest this morning, as heavy snow hit Hungary
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A car worker assembles doors at the new Toyota plant in Karawang, Indonesia. It's Toyota's second manufacturing plant in the western Java town, with a production capacity of 70,000 units a year
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A dealer arranges gambling chips on a baccarat table a few days before the Solaire casino resort opening in Pasay city, Manila, the Philippines. The $1.2bn resort is the first of four projects to open before 2017, as the Philippines tries to lure gamblers and tourists to overtake Singapore and become the region's biggest casino destination
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Sebastian Vettel of Germany during the second practice session for Sunday's Formula One Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park on a beautiful day in Melbourne
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With F1 fans watching and photographing everything
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Louisa Davis (bottom L) and Sally Bawcombe kneel in front of the National Rifle Association headquarters during a rally by the activist group "MomsRising" urging for sensible gun regulation in Fairfax, Virginia, March 14, 2013.
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A passer-by walks as a high wave hits the waterfront in Marseille March 14, 2013. French public weather agency Meteo France issued an orange alert warning of winds threatening southern French departments
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Arizona Women's Shooting Associates and NRA certified instructor Carol Ruh gestures while holding a blue dummy handgun to her head as she teaches a gun safety training class at Ben Avery Shooting Facility in Phoenix, Arizona, March 13, 2013. Ruh educates her students on the proper way to hold, aim, shoot and load a firearm along with other safety tips
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Demonstrators wearing bags on their heads to protest "For a Europe of people versus a European Union of markets" attend a news conference by members of The Mortgage Victims' Platform (PAH) outside Spain's Parliament in Madrid March 14, 2013. Spain will make it slightly easier for homeowners to fight eviction after Europe's highest court ruled that the country's mortgage laws were too hard on borrowers struggling to pay, dealing a blow to the country's banks.
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Dart, Alom and Mahmood plead guilty to terror charges
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Richard Dart, Imram Mahmood and Jahangir Alom were arrested in the run-up to the Olympic Games
Three British men have pleaded guilty to preparing for terrorism acts overseas.
One of the men used to be a police community support officer and another was a recent convert to Islam.
Richard Dart, Jahangir Alom and Imran Mahmood all pleaded guilty at a hearing at the Old Bailey ahead of their expected trial.
They were arrested in London weeks before the Olympic Games in July 2012. They will be sentenced later.
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Dart, also known as Salahuddin al-Britani, appeared in a BBC documentary after he converted to Islam
The three men were charged last year with engaging in preparation for acts of terrorism by travelling to Pakistan for training between July 2010 and July 2012 and by "advising and counselling" acts of terrorism by providing information about how to go to the country for the same purpose.
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BUDAPEST - Hungary deployed tanks to reach thousands of motorists trapped in heavy snow on Friday as a sudden cold snap and high winds struck parts of the Balkans, Slovakia and Poland, leaving at least two people dead.
Snow stranded people in cars, buses and trains through the night and conspired with strong winds to cut off dozens of towns and villages in Hungary.
"The situation is most critical on the M1 motorway (linking Budapest and Vienna) where hundreds of cars are stranded in the snow, most of them for 18-20 hours now," said Marton Hajdu, spokesman for the National Directorate for Disaster Management.
Reuters photographer traveling with a rescue convoy said high winds had caused snowdrifts on the motorway up to three feet high.
People took to Facebook to appeal for help.
"At the Gyorszentivan exit on the motorway I have friends stranded since yesterday evening," wrote Ibolya Csukovics. "Can anyone help? They've run out of food and drink."
The government said it had sent in tanks and other military vehicles with caterpillar tracks.
The weekend's premier league and second tier football fixtures were canceled, with night-time temperatures expected to drop as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit).
After a relatively mild winter for much of the region, almost 200,000 people in Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia were left shivering without electricity on Friday. Heavy rain hit parts of Serbia and Bosnia.
In Bulgaria, one woman was killed when scaffolding collapsed in high winds in the central town of Gabrovo, and a school was evacuated in the southern town of Krichim when wind tore off the roof.
To the south, in Kosovo, a 10-year-old girl drowned when a river burst its banks in heavy rain in the northern town of Skenderaj. Dozens of homes were flooded in the west of the country, a Reuters reporter said.
"The situation is alarming," Klina municipality spokeswoman Samije Gjergjaj told Reuters. She said some 300 people were stranded by floodwater.
"There's just one small boat evacuating these people," said Gjergjaj. "We're waiting for the state emergency services to help out."
Heavy snow also paralyzed parts of southeastern Poland, where police banned heavy lorries from entering the city of Rzeszow for fear they would get stuck.
In eastern Slovakia, snow stranded some 40 lorries on a highway in the High Tatras region. The army deployed hundreds of soldiers to help out and authorities appealed to people to avoid venturing out by car.
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Jockey Barry Geraghty raises his whip in triumph as Bobs Worth wins the Cheltenham Gold Cup
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A mud splattered Geraghty walks back to the weighing room earlier in the day after he failed to have any success with Punjabi in the second race.
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Alexa Scimeca and Chris Knierim of the U.S. react to their score with coach Dalilah Sappenfield after performing their free skating program at the ISU World Figure Skating Championships in London, Canada
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Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen visits the Ideal Home Show 2013 at Earls Court in London
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An ethnic Hungarian man rides a horse during a parade to mark the anniversary of the 1848 revolution against the Habsburg empire in Targu Secuiesc, Romania
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Bulgarians across the country protest against poverty and corruption
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Afghan freeloaders hitch a ride through Kabul
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Civilian passengers of the Airbus A330 Zero-G, who are not astronauts nor scientists, enjoy weightlessness, on March 15, during the first zero gravity flight for paying passengers in Europe
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Yves Pleindoux, one of the civilian passengers of the Airbus A330 Zero-G, poses with his boarding pass. All boarding cards, costing 6,000 euros, were sold for the years 2013 and 2014.
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Mid Devon county council is planning a vote to abolish the apostrophe from all its street signs. Here are some examples that show others may feel the same way
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Staff at Clapham Junction are clearly more concerned with punctuality than punctuation
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One end of King's Road in London seems to be possessive …
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... while the other appears to be plural
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The tourist board in Kilmackillogue, County Kerry, Ireland, have hedged their bets
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The small white mark between the N and the T was added by a helpful passerby
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Proof that true perfection is always unattainable
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A sign in Lanarkshire, Scotland that confuses on almost every level
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Step this way for a wall made of Hadrians
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A fabulous new restaurant, with a fabulous new system of punctuation
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Wantage town council might want to consider banning apostrophes too
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Guards run next to the hearse holding the body of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez during his funeral parade in Caracas March 15, 2013.
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A member of the pacifist group Platform Against The BBVA covers himself in red paint to symbolise investments in armaments as he is led away by a policeman before the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Spain's second biggest bank BBVA, at the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao March 15, 2013.
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Syrians living in Jordan step on a picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and his father Syria's late president Hafez al-Assad during a protest marking two years since the start of the uprising, in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman March 15, 2013.
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Forensic technicians inspect the burnt body of a man (C) who was lynched in Zone 5 in Guatemala City March 14, 2013
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Puerto Rico's dugout clears as players stream onto the field, joining teammates soon after defeating the U.S. in a 2013 World Baseball Classic game at Marlins Stadium in Miami, Florida March 15, 2013
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Sergei Filin, artistic director of Russia's Bolshoi Ballet, wipes his face during a news conference in a hospital in the western German city of Aachen March 15, 2013. Filin is in Aachen to recover from the January 17 acid attack
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Lebanese policemen inspect the wreckage of a bus that overturned in an accident in Kahale, east Beirut March 15, 2013
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Shanghai's Dog Show
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Rachel, a three-month-old Afghan Hound, is seen at a dog training camp in suburban Shanghai, before attending the Shanghai International Dog Show, March 15, 2013.
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Seconds out!
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Yao Kai holds Rachel, a three-month-old Afghan Hound as they pose for a picture after winning second place for the category of Baby Best of Opposite Sex during the Shanghai International Dog Show, in Shanghai March 15, 2013
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Comic Relief: Red Nose night raises record £75m
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Singer Jessie J had her head shaved: "It is the weirdest feeling"
Celebrities and the public have helped this year's Comic Relief charity telethon raise a record £75m so far.
Comedian Lenny Henry, a founder of the Red Nose Day fundraiser which is now in its 25th year, kicked off the live show on BBC One.
Music mogul Simon Cowell, singer Jessie J, comedian Peter Kay and boy band One Direction all made appearances.
There were also reinterpretations of hit TV shows the Vicar of Dibley and Call the Midwife.
And Ricky Gervais resurrected his David Brent character in a mini-episode of The Office.
David Walliams featured in a sketch alongside the likes of supermodel Kate Moss, footballer Frank Lampard, Hollywood stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Hugh Grant and veteran comedian Ronnie Corbett.
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Victoria Cross for Afghan hero L/Cpl James Ashworth
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L/Cpl James Ashworth died while on a patrol in June last year
A British soldier who died in southern Afghanistan last year as he protected his colleagues from a grenade blast is to be awarded the Victoria Cross.
The UK's top gallantry medal will go to L/Cpl James Ashworth, 23, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, who was serving with 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards.
It is understood the announcement will not be made officially until next week.
The VC has been awarded 10 times to UK soldiers since World War II and only once before for bravery in Afghanistan.
L/Cpl James Ashworth was killed while on a reconnaissance patrol to disrupt insurgent activity in the Nahr-e-Saraj district in June 2012.
