BEFORE he “resigned” last August, Fawzi Abd al-Aali, the former Libyan interior minister, said: “They are armed, I am not going to fight a losing battle and kill my men over a demolished shrine.”

The US ambassador to Libya and three guards have been killed by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.

At least 2,000 displaced Yemenis have returned home to a restive area in the country’s south that has been under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants for more than seven months.