The Islamic State has urged followers to attack citizens of the US, France, and other countries which have joined a coalition to destroy the ultra-radical group.

Angry Pakistani Christians have denounced the deadliest attack ever in the country against members of their faith as the death toll from a church bombing climbed overnight to 81.

Syrian state media has accused rebels of using chemical arms today against government troops trying to storm a contested area of Damascus.

Those who regarded conspiracy theorists as crazies must surely have to rethink their position in light of recent events.

Bombings and shootings around Iraq killed 22 people and wounded more than 50 today, authorities said.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah prepared to bury his heir, Prince Nayef bin Abdel-Aziz, yesterday before naming a new successor at a challenging time for the world’s top oil exporter and self-styled steward of Islam.

One person was killed and 10 injured in overnight clashes in Beirut between Sunni Muslim groups that support and oppose the Syrian regime, Lebanese security officials said today.

The leader of a tiny US church said today he was determined to burn copies of the Koran on September 11, despite pleas from the White House, the military, the Vatican and Angelina Jolie.

Iran’s state radio said authorities have hanged in public 14 members of a Sunni Muslim rebel group blamed for bombings and killings in southeastern Iran.

Iranian scientists have become the first in the Middle East to clone a cow as part of the country’s stem cell research, the leader of the project said today.

Barack Obama says he wants US troops to reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, but admitted it was a tough prospect.

An al-Qaida front group today lashed out at a key nationalist Sunni Muslim insurgent faction in a rare criticism of a fellow rebel group, accusing it of betraying religion by joining the US forces in their fight against al-Qaida.

Three Islamic militants from an al-Qaida-influenced group nursing a “profound hatred of US citizens” were arrested on suspicion of plotting imminent, massive bomb attacks targeting Americans in Germany, prosecutors said today.

Al-Qaida will likely use its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on US soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the American homeland.

The death toll from yesterday’s suicide truck bombing at a major Shiite mosque in central Baghdad has risen to 87, the Interior Ministry reported today.

A Sunni Muslim militant group kidnapped 18 Iraqi government employees over the alleged rape last month of a Sunni woman by Shiite policemen, according to a statement and photos posted on the internet today.

A senior figure in an outlawed Sunni Muslim militant group that has been linked to al-Qaida was among six men arrested last week in eastern Pakistan, a police official said today.

Iraqi cabinet ministers and legislators loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr were instructed to end their six-week boycott of the political process, a parliamentarian in the political block said today.

Rage over the hanging of Saddam Hussein spilled into the streets in many parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland today, especially in Samarra where a mob of angry protesters broke the locks off the badly damaged Shiite Golden Dome mosque and marched through carrying a mock coffin and photo of the executed former leader.

A car bomb exploded in northern Iraq today, killing at least 22 people and wounding 26, police said.

Funeral processions began today for the people who were killed by car bombs and mortars in Baghdad’s largest Shiite district, the deadliest attack since the war began.

Funeral processions began today for the more than 160 people who were killed by car bombs and mortars in Baghdad’s largest Shiite district.

The coffin of Pierre Gemayel was passed overhead through the crowd into the church, handed from mourner to mourner, while in the square nearby hundreds of thousands of supporters unleashed their anger, burning pictures of Syria’s president and his allies in Lebanon.

A suicide attacker today detonated a bomb at a mass prayer service in southern Pakistan, police said, killing at least 41 other people including the top leadership of an influential Sunni Muslim religious group.

AMERICAN and Iraqi troops swept the oil-rich region of Kirkuk for suspected insurgents and captured dozens, while drive-by shootings, roadside bombings and sectarian violence killed at least 29 people in Iraq yesterday.

The feared resumption of mass sectarian violence erupted in a Baghdad Shiite slum when bombers blew apart two markets, killing at least 44 people and wounding about 200.

The body of an official with Iraq’s largest Sunni Muslim political group was found with signs of torture, his party said today.

Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into the home of a Sunni parliamentary candidate today and killed him, his three sons and his son-in-law on the outskirts of Baghdad.

A SUICIDE bomber lured a crowd of Shi’ite Muslim day labourers to his minivan and blew it up in Baghdad yesterday, killing 114 people in the bloodiest of a wave of attacks which killed more than 150 across the capital.

More than 120 Islamic religious leaders from across Canada issued a declaration yesterday denouncing acts of terrorism as a perversion of their faith.

Pakistani police detained dozens of suspected militants overnight as part of a crackdown on radical groups in the wake of the London suicide bombings, officials said today.

Pakistani intelligence agents believe one of the London suicide bombers visited a religious school run by an al Qaida-linked terror group, two senior officials said today.

Authorities in Pakistan are looking into a connection between one of the London suicide bombers and two al-Qaida-linked militant groups there, including a man arrested for a 2002 attack on a church near the US Embassy, two senior intelligence officials said today.

Three suicide car bombings killed 23 people in northern Iraq today, including a top municipal council leader plus a bodyguard of Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister, officials said.

Police in Pakistan have found a letter from the purported chief of a Sunni Muslim militant group claiming responsibility for this week’s bombing at a Shiite mosque and a shootout in Karachi that left five people dead.

Three suicide car bombings killed 16 people in northern Iraq today, including a top municipal council leader plus a bodyguard of Iraq’s Kurdish deputy prime minister, police said.

US troops detained the head of Iraq's largest Sunni Muslim political party during a house raid in western Baghdad today, a top party official and police said.

Insurgents set off at least 17 bombs in Iraq, killing at least 50 people, including three US soldiers, in a series of attacks aimed at shaking Iraq’s newly formed government.

An audio tape purportedly by America’s most-wanted insurgent in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, posted today on the internet threatens more attacks against US forces and urges followers to be wary of any American attempts at dialogue.

A car bomb exploded outside a Shiite mosque in Baghdad today, killing at least 13 people and wounding 40, police and hospital officials said.

A suicide car bomber attacked a Shiite Muslim community centre near Baghdad today, killing three people and wounding eight, police said.

Iraq’s defence minister raised the possibility today that elections due at the end of the month will be postponed.

Rebels launched multiple attacks on Iraqi police posts around the city of Tikrit killing 23 people – including 18 policemen – a day after the major Sunni Muslim political party pulled out of the campaign for the January 30 elections citing the deteriorating security situation.

The US army swept through the Iraqi city of Mosul today after after an insurgent strike on a military base killed 22 people and injured 72 in one of the deadliest attacks on American troops since the war began.