EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak said he would step down in a few months once a successor is elected, a move that responds to massive street protests but which may not satisfy many who want him out now.

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.

Iran’s hardline president shrugged off post-election violence as “passions after a soccer match” and drew his own huge rally of support as protesters battled police and shouted their opposition from the rooftops.

Protesters set fires and smashed shop windows in a second day of violence as groups challenging President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election tried to keep pressure on authorities.

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.

The bodies of three Iraqi journalists, including a well-known correspondent for Al Arabiya television, were found today near Samarra, police and the Arabic network said.

A large explosion today destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq’s most famous Shiite religious shrines, sending protesters pouring into the streets. It was the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days.

A large explosion heavily damaged the golden dome of one of Iraq’s most famous Shiite religious shrines today, sending protesters pouring into the streets. It was the third major attack against Shiite targets in as many days.

Two enormous bombs, one of them a cement-mixing truck packed with explosives, blew up outside Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel – home to many foreign journalists in Iraq – wounding at least six people and causing considerable damage this afternoon.

AMERICAN and Israeli forces killed more than 60 men, women and children in separate attacks yesterday, provoking international outrage.

United States Secretary of State Colin Powell today urged Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia to “seize the opportunity” of a proposed Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a first step toward statehood next year.

More than 2,000 Iraqis demonstrated in front of Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison today, chanting “democracy doesn’t mean killing innocent people” and demanding that the United States apologise for humiliating Iraqi prisoners.

US president George Bush is to give interviews to two Arab networks today to tell the region that abuses of Iraqi prisoners are “shameless and unacceptable”.

MANY major newspapers ran graphic photos yesterday of charred bodies of Americans killed in Iraq, while the images were largely shunned by American television as being too graphic.

Yasser Arafat has appealed to Palestinian militants to halt attacks on Israelis – and his newly-appointed security adviser urged Washington to restrain Israel – in a bid to give the US-backed peace plan another chance.

A hitherto unknown Iraqi group today threatened to continue armed attacks on US and British troops until they are forced to leave Iraq.