Syrian rebels claim to have shot down a government jet and captured its pilot.

Bahrain is to host the headquarters for Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s new international Arabic news network, despite months of unrest.

Rebels hunting the top officials in Muammar’s Gaddafi’s ousted regime have captured his foreign minister and are closing in on Gaddafi himself, rebel officials said today.

Osama Bin Laden's daughter has claimed that her father was captured alive and then shot dead by US special forces in the first few minutes of their 40-minute operation at his compound, it was reported today.

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has denied that he abused his authority to amass wealth and property in his first speech since his ousting.

Doctors in white coats and lawyers in black robes have streamed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square as strikes across the country give powerful momentum to Egypt’s wave of anti-government protests.

Egypt’s foreign minister has warned of a military coup if protesters continue mass demonstrations.

Egyptian protesters trying to topple the regime of President Hosni Mubarak called on their supporters to fill every square in the capital Cairo today.

EGYPTIAN police fought protesters in two cities in eastern Egypt yesterday and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei headed back to the country to join demonstrators trying to oust President Hosni Mubarak.

A suicide bomber driving a minibus blew himself up in front of the Baghdad office of a popular Arabic news station today, killing six people, and burying a politician alive under the rubble of his collapsed home.

A suicide bomber driving a minibus blew himself up in front of the Baghdad office of a popular Arabic-language satellite news channel early today, killing four people, police and hospital officials said.

Sudan’s president threatened to expel foreign observers over their recommendations to delay the country’s first multiparty elections in decades due in April.

A blast targeted a busload of Iranian pilgrims in a suburb of Damascus today and casualties are reported, Arab satellite television stations said.

Dubai’s ruler finally broke his silence over the emirate’s financial troubles today as regional stock markets tumbled again.

An international tribunal to prosecute suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri opened at a ceremony in a village outside The Hague today.

THE Iranian president called for “profound changes” in US foreign policy yesterday, saying the Islamic Republic would welcome a real and fundamental shift from the new American administration.

Barack Obama may say change is on the way, but many Iraqis aren’t counting on an immediate shift in US policy toward their country when the Democrat takes office as US president.

Iraq sent police reinforcements today to the Syrian border after last weekend’s US raid against an alleged al-Qaida hideout in Syria raised tension between the two countries, officials said.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief warned in comments aired today that any military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast to a “ball of fire” and lead Iran to a more-aggressive stance on its controversial nuclear programme.

An Arab satellite channel has aired video of Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan saying he was kidnapped by Taliban militants two months ago.

Under the cover of artillery barrages, dozens of Lebanese army tanks and armoured carriers today moved against Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Hezbollah today denounced a UN decision to form an international tribunal in former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination as a “violation” of the nation’s sovereignty.

Iraqi officials have received reports that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq has been killed north of Baghdad but the information has not been confirmed, the chief government spokesman said today.

Police in Saudi Arabia have arrested 172 militants who were plotting to attack oil fields, the Saudi state TV channel Al-Ekhbariah reported today.

At least 18 people were killed and 50 injured when two car bombs exploded five minutes apart in a busy Baghdad market today, police said.

Two French aid workers and three Afghans kidnapped by the Taliban militia in Afghanistan appeared in a video broadcast by the pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya today.

Iraqi forces backed by American soldiers swept into a troubled, predominantly Shiite city south of Baghdad before dawn today, and the US military said as many as six militia fighters had been killed.

Thousands of opposition protesters blocked roads with burning tyres, debris and blazing cars around the Lebanese capital of Beirut and outlying regions of Lebanon today in a bid to enforce a general strike aimed at toppling Prime Minister Fuad Saniora’s government.

US and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr’s top aides yesterday in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increased on the radical Shiite cleric’s militia ahead of a planned security crackdown in the capital.

An Iraqi government official today said that preparations were being made to hang two of Saddam Hussein’s co-defendants tomorrow.

A delegation that included the governor of Salahuddin Province and the head of Saddam Hussein’s clan has retrieved his body from Baghdad and taken it for burial near the executed dictator’s hometown, Al-Arabiya satellite television reported tonight.

An al-Qaida member who escaped from a US prison in Afghanistan urged his followers in a new video aired today to acquire nuclear technology.

THE chief judge in Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial has been replaced, it was reported yesterday.

Bombers and gunmen killed eight people in Iraq today as security forces prepared to further tighten security ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, when violence traditionally spikes across the country.

ISRAEL yesterday suffered its heaviest losses in Lebanon in its offensive against Hezbollah, with militants killing eight soldiers in a battle for a key town.

Red banners with urgent tags appeared on many Arab TV stations today, as the region’s major stations broke into regular programming to announce some of the biggest news in months – the death of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

There was a failed attempt to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the past 10 days before a successful airstrike, Iraq’s prime minister said today.

Clashes broke out during the funeral procession of a slain Coptic Christian today in the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Alexandria, police sources said.

US President George Bush has rebuffed recommendations from a growing number of retired generals that he replace Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “He has my full support,” said Bush.

A ferry carrying up to 150 people capsized and sank last night off the coast of Bahrain and at least 48 bodies have so far been recovered, officials said.

A car bomb exploded in a Shiite holy city and 13 members of one Shiite family were gunned down north-east of the capital today in a surge of attacks that killed at least 30 people despite heightened security aimed at curbing sectarian violence following the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine.

Suicide bombers who targeted the world’s largest oil processing centre were thwarted by guards who fired on their cars, exploding both vehicles and killing the attackers.

Gunmen fired today on the funeral procession of a well known Al-Arabiya newswoman, who was killed while covering the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine, sending mourners dashing for cover, police and army said.

SUICIDE bombers in explosives-laden cars attacked the world’s largest oil processing facility yesterday, but were prevented from breaking through the gates when guards opened fire on them, causing the vehicles to explode, officials said.