Embattled President Hosni Mubarak defied protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing he would serve out the last months of his term and “die on Egyptian soil”.

Thousands of inmates have escaped from prisons across Egypt, including one that housed Muslim militants north-west of Cairo, security officials said today.

AL-QAIDA leader Osama bin Laden warned France yesterday that its planned ban on the veil in public places and its involvement in the war in Afghanistan justified violence against its nationals.

OSAMA bin Laden threatened in a new message released yesterday to kill any Americans al-Qaida captures if the US executes the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks or other al-Qaida suspects.

HUNDREDS of Palestinians clashed with Israeli security forces across east Jerusalem yesterday in the worst rioting in years as a senior Hamas leader called for a new “intifada,” or uprising.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden called for the world to boycott American goods in a new audio tape, blaming industrialised countries for global warming.

THE main challenger to President Hamid Karzai yesterday urged action to prevent a repeat of massive fraud that compromised Afghanistan’s elections as officials warned the run-off faced major challenges.

Iran’s Interior Ministry has released partial results showing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the lead, having secured nearly 70% of the votes counted so far.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that George Bush sent a “message of confrontation” during his recent trip to the Middle East.

Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden called on Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, according to excerpts of a new audiotape broadcast on Al-Jazeera television.

Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden called for a holy war against a proposed peacekeeping force in Sudan’s war torn region of Darfur in a message that appeared on jihadi websites today.

Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden marked the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks by urging the American people to “embrace Islam”.

Osama bin Laden’s first video appearance in three years was a reminder of “the dangerous world in which we live”, US president George Bush said today.

Relatives of Islamic fighters holed up in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon began leaving the besieged area today, a Muslim clergyman mediating between the militants and the army said.

Dozens of Lebanese army tanks and armoured carriers today pushed forward under the cover of artillery barrages against Islamic militants barricaded in a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Artillery and machine gun fire echoed around a crowded Palestinian refugee camp today as the Lebanese government ordered the army to finish off the Fatah Islam militants hiding there.

Artillery and machine gun fire echoed around a crowded Palestinian refugee camp today as fighting resumed between besieging Lebanese troops and Islamic militants holed up inside, ending a nighttime lull.

The death toll from yesterday’s al-Qaida-claimed suicide bombings in Algeria today rose to 33, the government said.

A pair of bombs minutes apart tore through two buses near a mountain town north-east of Beirut today.

Iraq’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into Saddam Hussein’s execution to try to uncover who taunted the former dictator in the last minutes of his life, and who leaked footage taken by camera phone of the hanging.

The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today announced a three-day official mourning period and cancelled all celebrations of Eid.

Somalia's Islamic movement abandoned the nation's capital today and clan militiamen poured into the streets to take control of Mogadishu, as government forces approached to within 18 miles.

Somalia’s Islamic movement abandoned the nation’s capital today and clan militiamen poured into the streets to take control as government forces came within 18 miles.

Bombs ripped through crowds of Iraqi shoppers stocking up on sweets and other delicacies ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, killing at least five people, police said today.

US President George Bush reviewed Iraq strategy with his top commanders and national security advisers, but indicated little inclination for major changes to an increasingly divisive policy.

Previously unshown footage of the preparations for the September 11 attacks in which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is seen meeting some of the planners and hijackers in a mountain camp in Afghanistan was screened tonight by al-Jazeera television.

A Hezbollah Cabinet minister today said the group would not release two captured Israeli soldiers unconditionally, and that they would only be freed in a prisoner exchange.

Al Qaida’s number-two leader today warned that the terrorist group would not stand idly by while “these (Israeli) shells burn our brothers” in Lebanon and Gaza.

Al-Qaida’s number-two leader today warned that the terrorist group would not stand idly by while “these (Israeli) shells burn our brothers” in Lebanon and Gaza.

Westerners fled by land, sea and air as Israel launched waves of bombings that hit south Beirut, the border and the eastern city of Baalbek in the early hours today.

Hezbollah tonight dismissed international ceasefire proposals as “Israeli conditions”, accusing foreign envoys of allowing Israel time to continue its military offensive to force Lebanon into submission.

Arab officials today reacted with concern to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, criticising Israel for causing suffering to Gaza residents and citing Israeli warplanes’ buzzing of the Syrian president’s home as especially troubling.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida-linked militant who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq, has been killed in a US air raid north of Baghdad.

Thousands of riot police broke up pro-reform protests today, chasing and roughing up demonstrators who had gathered to support two judges facing disciplinary action after they blew the whistle on fraud in Egyptian elections.

An Afghan warlord wanted by the United States declared support for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in a videotape broadcast today by Al-Jazeera television.

Three explosions tonight rocked the Egyptian resort city of Dahab at the height of the tourist season, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 150 at just one hotel, according to the doctor who runs Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula rescue squad.

Al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden today issued an ominous new statement on Al-Jazeera television, appearing to justify attacks on civilians in the West.

THE Palestinians’ new Hamas leaders called yesterday’s suicide bomb in Tel Aviv a legitimate response to Israeli “aggression”.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a fast food restaurant in a bustling commercial area of Tel Aviv during the Jewish holiday of Passover today, killing himself and eight people and wounding 49 in the deadliest Palestinian attack in more than a year.

A militant group in Iraq that claimed it shot down a US Apache helicopter last weekend provided video footage showing that it said were parts of the wreckage, Al-Jazeera television reported today.

A Bahrain Interior Ministry official has increased the death toll from last night's ferry disaster to 57.

ACTING Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima Party is seeking swift coalition negotiations to carry out its plan to pull out of much of the West Bank and draw Israel's borders by 2010.

Saddam Hussein’s chief deputy, who has eluded capture since the US-led invasion of Iraq three years ago, purportedly called for Arab leaders to back Iraq’s Sunni-backed insurgency, in an audiotape broadcast today.