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When Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago Pompeii's ancient residents were frozen in place by ash. So too it turns out were the city's flora and fauna - including a pregnant tortoise with her egg.

In 1863, in an effort to reduce street traffic, London opened the world’s first underground line, the Metropolitan Railway.

Pictures being shared on social media showed injured people on stretchers, rubble and destruction of homes in Paktika province. The quake struck about 44km (27 miles) from the south-eastern city of Khost.

Shot dead by a firing squad in 1961 with the tacit backing of former colonial power Belgium, his body was then buried in a shallow grave, dug up, transported 200km (125 miles), interred again, exhumed and then hacked to pieces and finally dissolved in acid.

In the age of mobile phones and social media, everyone is a bit of a photographer, drawing hordes of fans on their Instagram accounts. But a gallery in India recently held an exhibition looking back on the time-honoured tradition of street photography.

Image source, Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace AfricaA giant slab of carbon-rich peat, discovered in central Africa, is under threat from uncontrolled development - posing a significant risk for future climate change, writes BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding.

At Mississippi's last abortion clinic, doctors arrive at work greeted by abuse and prayers for their souls. The Pink House, as it's known, sits on the corner of one of Jackson's main roads.

Cryptocurrencies have continued to tumble this week with billions wiped from the value of tokens like Bitcoin. The crash is affecting investors worldwide, including the government of El Salvador.

The first rule of writing about Bitcoin is: don't write about Bitcoin. The story of the world's best known cryptocurrency is astonishingly fast-moving and its fans will soon line up to tell you you've got it all wrong.

Denmark and Canada have struck a deal to settle almost 50 years of good-natured squabbling over the ownership of a small, uninhabited Arctic island. Since 1971, the countries have been "fighting" the "Whiskey Wars" to settle competing claims over Hans Island.

Murder, she wrote - and for murder, she is going to jail. An Oregon judge has sentenced Nancy Crampton Brophy, a romance author who apparently foretold of her crime in an essay titled "How to murder your husband", to life in prison for the shooting death of her late spouse.

Europe's Gaia telescope dropped its latest batch of data on Monday as it seeks to assemble the largest catalogue of light sources in the sky. It is becoming a discovery machine like no other.

A crewless ship designed to recreate the Mayflower's historic journey across the Atlantic 400 years ago has crossed the ocean, project bosses have said. The Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) completed a 2,700-mile (4,400km) trip from Plymouth in the UK to Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Sunday.

Image source, Getty ImagesA Google engineer says one of the firm's artificial intelligence (AI) systems might have its own feelings and says its "wants" should be respected.

Runner Ricky Lightfoot received £3,500 after beating the first horse by more than two minutes on a 22.5 mile (36km) course in Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys. He came out on top of 1,000 runners and 50 horses with a time of 2:22:23.

Most of us have been told by a friend that we have a doppelganger - some stranger they passed on the street who bore an uncanny resemblance to you. But imagine if you could create your very own twin, an exact copy of yourself, but one that lived a purely digital life?

Vladimir Putin's admiration for Peter the Great is well known but he now seems to have ideas of "Great"-ness himself.

Of the 8,300 million tonnes of virgin plastic produced up to the end of 2015, 6,300 million tonnes has been discarded. Most of that plastic waste is still with us, entombed in landfills or polluting the environment.

After more than a decade spent trying to avoid extradition from the UK, Julian Assange is running out of time and options. But with the election of a new government in his native Australia last month, his supporters hope he has a new, powerful ally.

The discovery of a shipwrecked warship that sank while carrying a future king has been hailed the most important maritime find since the Mary Rose. The Gloucester ran aground off the coast of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1682, nearly killing the Duke of York, who became King James II of England.