NEO KHORIO KYTHREAS, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - A pneumatic drill pierces the calm of a Cypriot village as a forensic team searches the backyard of a home for the remains of a father and son missing since the Turkish invasion of 1974.

The two Greek Cypriots are among a total of nearly 2,000 residents of the island unaccounted for after the sectarian bloodshed of the 1960s and 1970s.

GENEVA, September 10, 2008 (AFP) - More than two dozen people died when smugglers shipping them across the Gulf of Aden forced them overboard off the coast of Yemen and around 20 bodies are missing, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.

LONDON, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - More than one million pounds has been spent in the search for missing British toddler Madeleine McCann, her parents said in a newspaper interview out Saturday.

LONDON, September 6, 2008 (AFP) - More than one million pounds has been spent in the search for missing British toddler Madeleine McCann, her parents said in a newspaper interview out Saturday.

SHILLONG, September 5, 2008 (AFP) - A two-member team from the US defence department has begun scouting for remains of American airforce personnel who went missing over the Himalayan 'Hump' during World War II, officials said Friday.

LAGOS, September 3, 2008 (AFP) - The wreckage of a plane which went missing six months ago has been found together with the bodies of its three crew members, authorities in the southern Nigerian state of Cross River said Wednesday.

'The Beechcraft 1900D aircraft belonging to Wings Airline which went missing on March 15 2008 has been found,' a government statement said.

ISLAMABAD, August 31, 2008 (AFP) - Two Chinese telecoms engineers have gone missing in northwest Pakistan along with their driver and a security guard, an embassy official and police said Sunday.

The group disappeared on Friday in restive North West Frontier Province near the border with Afghanistan, a senior diplomat at the Chinese embassy told AFP.

DAVAO, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - Rescuers and villagers on Tuesday found a body and debris believed to be from a C-130 military cargo plane that crashed in the waters off the southern Philippines, officials said.

DAVAO, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - Rescuers and villagers on Tuesday found a body and debris believed to be from a C-130 military cargo plane that went missing in the southern Philippines, officials said.

DAVAO, August 26, 2008 (AFP) - A C-130 military cargo plane with two pilots and seven crewmen aboard is believed to have crashed in the southern Philippines, officials said Tuesday.

Air force spokesman Major Gerardo Zamudio said rescuers and fishermen have found debris apparently from the plane in the sea off this southern city after it went missing late Monday.

Swiss police said Friday that a celebrated gourmet whose disappearance from a celebrated Catalan ...

Three men who disappeared from a yacht later found mysteriously empty and drifting off the ...

LISBON, July 24, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese publishers went ahead with the release Thursday of a new book written about the Madeleine McCann case, despite a threat of legal action from the missing girl's parents.

LISBON, July 22, 2008 (AFP) - The former head of Portuguese Police on Tuesday criticised the decision to close the inquiry into the disappearance of missing British girl Madeleine McCann saying it had been taken too quickly, a report said.

LONDON, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann voiced relief Monday after their status as suspects in her disappearance was lifted, and looked forward to gaining access to Portuguese police files.

LISBON, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese authorities on Monday closed the investigation on the young British girl Madeleine McCann, still missing after a year, and lifted the 'suspect' label from her parents due to lack of evidence.

LISBON, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese authorities on Monday closed the probe into the disappearance of young British girl Madeleine McCann and lifted the 'suspect' label from her parents due to lack of evidence.

LONDON, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann are relieved that their status as suspects has been lifted, a spokesman said Monday after Portuguese authorities closed their probe into the case.

LISBON, July 21, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese authorities closed the probe into the disappearance of young British girl Madeleine McCann on Monday and lifted the 'suspect' label from her parents due to lack of evidence.

They also ended the 'arguido', or official suspect, status of a third person, 34 year-old property consultant Robert Murat, the public prosecutor said.

OHNPINSU, July 19, 2008 (AFP) - Khin Nyo San dashes from her tent to the nearby shack serving as a school, splashing down a muddy path in the desperate hope that a visitor from Yangon might have news of her missing child.

LONDON, July 17, 2008 (AFP) - A suspect in the disappearance of a young British girl in Portugal on Thursday accepted six-figure libel damages from a number of newspapers over allegations that he was involved in her abduction.

LISBON, July 16, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese court officials will announce next week if they are taking any further action in the Madeleine McCann case will be announced next Monday, Lusa news agency reported Wednesday.

'The Maddie case will on Monday have a solution which will be communicated to you,' chief prosecutor Fernando Pinto Monteiro told reporters, without elaborating.

LONDON, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - A Briton living in Portugal who was made a formal suspect over the disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann is to be awarded six-figure libel damages from British media, it was reported Tuesday.

BRUSSELS, July 10, 2008 (AFP) - EU nations are failing to do enough to protect missing children, the European Commission said on Thursday, accusing member states of dragging their feet on setting up hotlines.

Of the European Union's 27 member states, only Hungary has taken all the necessary action to implement the hotlines.

CANNES, July 8, 2008 (AFP) - European nations agreed Tuesday to cooperate more closely in the hunt for lost children but could not endorse a Europe-wide alert system sought by the parents of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann.

CANNES, July 8, 2008 (AFP) - European nations agreed Tuesday to cooperate more closely in the hunt for lost children but could not endorse a Europe-wide alert system sought by the parents of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann.

LONDON, July 7, 2008 (AFP) - British police on Monday agreed to hand over evidence about the case of missing British girl Madeleine McCann to her parents to allow private investigators working for the family to examine it.

LISBON, July 4, 2008 (AFP) - The Portuguese former police chief who led the investigation into the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann is 'convinced' she is dead, according to an interview published Friday.

'I am convinced of it, yes,' said Goncalo Amaral when asked if he believed she was dead, in the interview published on the online edition of the weekly Expresso.

LISBON, July 4, 2008 (AFP) - The Portuguese former police chief who led the investigation into the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann is 'convinced' she is dead, according to an interview published Friday.

'I am convinced of it, yes,' said Goncalo Amaral when asked if he believed she was dead, in the interview published on the online edition of the weekly Expresso.

LISBON, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese police said Tuesday they have filed their final report into the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann, leaving the public prosecutor's office to decide whether to close the investigation down.

A statement from the prosecutor's office on Tuesday said police had handed in their 'final police report' on the case.

LISBON, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese police have closed their investigation into the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann who went missing last year aged three, the public prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

A statement from the office said police had handed in their 'final police report' on the case.

LONDON, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann will 'never give up searching' for her despite reports that Portuguese police are ending their investigation, the family's spokesman said Tuesday.

LISBON, July 1, 2008 (AFP) - Police in Portugal are closing their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old British girl who went missing more than a year ago, media reported Tuesday.

LISBON, June 30, 2008 (AFP) - A Portuguese police chief who led the probe into the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann has retired in order to regain his 'freedom of expression', he told the LUSA news agency on Monday.

LISBON, June 30, 2008 (AFP) - A Portuguese police chief who led the probe into the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann has retired in order to regain his 'freedom of expression', he told the LUSA news agency on Monday.

BERLIN, June 2, 2008 (AFP) - A German woman who went missing last month in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) while studying great apes has been found alive, the German foreign ministry said Monday.

A 27-year-old woman Wednesday became the 90th person to find out she was a victim of kidnapping during Argentina's notorious 'dirty war' (1976-1983), a rights group said.

LISBON, May 27, 2008 (AFP) - Portuguese authorities said Tuesday they had cancelled a planned reconstruction of last year's disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann, after several witnesses refused to attend.

BERLIN, May 27, 2008 (AFP) - A German woman has gone missing in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) while studying great apes, a research insti