Democratic uprisings across the Arab world and the Palestinians’ bid for UN membership sparked hope and excitement at last year’s meeting of world leaders.

Angry demonstrations against an anti-Islam film spread to their widest extent yet today, targeting British and German embassies and clashing with security forces around the Middle East and other Muslim countries.

Protests have started breaking out in parts of the Muslim world against an anti-Islam film which prompted violent protests at US embassies in the Middle East earlier this week.

A gunman opened fire on worshippers marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in southern Yemen, killing nine.

At least 38 soldiers were killed and dozens of others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a military parade drill in the Yemeni capital Sanaa today.

Forty-two people have been killed in heavy clashes between the army and al-Qaida-linked militants in the country’s south.

Al Qaida militants have staged a surprise attack on a Yemeni army base in the south, killing 20 soldiers and capturing 25 just hours after a US drone strike killed a senior figure in the terror network wanted in connection with the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

Al-Qaida-linked militants staged a dawn attack on an army post in south Yemen today, setting off clashes which left 23 dead on both sides, Yemeni army officials said.

Yemeni government troops have killed more than 100 al Qaida fighters in the past two days in an offensive against militant hideouts in the country’s south, the interior ministry said.

Yemeni government forces regained control of a strategic gateway in the south today after intense three-day shelling of al Qaida hideouts in the area that left 43 militants dead, military and medical officials said.

The death toll among Yemeni government troops attacked by al-Qaida militants at the weekend has risen to 185, military officials said today.

Al Qaida militants overran an army base in southern Yemen today, capturing heavy weapons and turning them on soldiers in intense clashes that left 61 dead, a military official said.

A car bomb outside the gate of a presidential compound in a southern Yemeni city killed at least 25 people, a health official said, hours after the country’s new president was formally inaugurated and vowed to fight al-Qaida.

Yemen’s powerful Republican Guard forces opened fire with guns, tear gas and water cannons today at a march by more than 100,000 protesters demanding that the outgoing president be put on trial.

Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s agreement to step down failed to end the violence today as security forces killed five protesters.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed an agreement to transfer power to his vice president.

Tribesmen shot down a Yemeni government warplane which was bombing their positions north of the capital Sanaa today, military officials said.

At least 40 al-Qaida prisoners escaped from jail in Yemen today.

Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh was burned on more than 40% of his body and suffered bleeding in the brain from last weekend’s attack on his palace, US officials said, indicating his wounds were worse than initially reported.

Violence threatened a return to chaos in Yemen today with at least six people killed after a day of jubilation over the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Protesters danced, sang and slaughtered cows in the central square of Yemen’s capital today to celebrate the departure of the country’s authoritarian leader for medical treatment after he was wounded in a rocket attack on his compound.