Every few decades, almost unfathomable savagery breaks out in some part of the world and reminds us all of the darkness that lurks, and will probably lurk forever, at the heart of humanity.

A Yemeni military plane has crashed into a neighbourhood in the country’s capital, Sanaa, killing at least nine people and injuring 18, medical and security officials said.

The UK's Home Office said today that radical Islamist cleric Abu Hamza and four other terror suspects would be extradited to the US “as quickly as possible” after High Court judges threw out their last-ditch pleas against removal from the UK.

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.”

Relatives have travelled to France to meet two British girls, who survived a shooting while on holiday in the French Alps.

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America claimed its most significant victory in its controversial targeted bombing campaign after a drone strike in Pakistan killed al Qaida’s second-in-command.

An undercover agent who foiled an al Qaida plot to blow up a airliner with an underwear bomb is a British national, it was reported tonight.

Rebels hunting the top officials in Muammar’s Gaddafi’s ousted regime have captured his foreign minister and are closing in on Gaddafi himself, rebel officials said today.

A temporary ceasefire was agreed in Yemen today to allow for negotiations after five days of fierce clashes that killed at least 124 people.

Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who led several Shiite uprisings against American forces in Iraq before travelling to neighbouring Iran three years ago, has returned to Iraq.

The Stockholm suicide bomber recorded a shocking audio message in which he warned “our actions will speak for themselves”.

The British government feared that Libya would take "harsh and immediate action" against its interests if the Lockerbie bomber died in prison, according to leaked US diplomatic cables.

A review of US government records found no information about BP seeking to secure the release of the Lockerbie bomber, a State Department official said today.

DAVID CAMERON insisted yesterday that BP should not be blamed for the “completely wrong” decision to release the Lockerbie bomber.

A group of US senators have requested a meeting with David Cameron during his visit to Washington to discuss their concerns about the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, it emerged tonight.

Al-Qaida’s third in command is believed to be have been killed by a US Predator drone strike, a US official said today.

Saudi businessman Ali Al-Faraj has completed his takeover of Portsmouth, the club confirmed tonight.

Portsmouth owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim expects to receive an offer for a majority stake in the club from a consortium led by Saudi property tycoon Ali Al-Faraj today.

BRITAIN yesterday condemned celebrations in Tripoli to mark the return of the Lockerbie bomber and scrambled to deflect international fallout from the decision to free him on humanitarian grounds.

A rocket struck near a UN compound in the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad today, killing two foreigners and wounding 15 other people, according to UN and military officials.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has today charged Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with genocide.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to lift a six-month ceasefire, credited with helping to reduce violence in Iraq, by the end of the week, a spokesman and another official said today.

A missile from a US Predator drone struck a suspected terrorist safehouse in Pakistan and killed a top al-Qaida commander believed responsible for a bomb attack during a visit last year by Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan, a US official said yesterday.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt among worshippers at evening prayers last night in Fallujah, killing nine people.

The highest-ranking Iraqi in the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq has been arrested, the US command said today.

US forces raided an al-Qaida hide-out north-east of Baghdad today and freed 42 Iraqis imprisoned inside, including some who had been tortured and suffered broken bones, a senior U.S. military official said.

US and Iraqi officials are still trying to confirm reports that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was killed by rivals north of Baghdad.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr today issued a statement calling on his supporters to resist US forces in Iraq, and a local militia commander blamed an attack against the mayor of Sadr City on a faction unhappy about cooperation with Americans.

The US military today said it has no indication that the al Qaida in Iraq leader was killed or wounded in a raid north of Baghdad, while an Iraqi army officer said his deputy has been jailed south of Baghdad for a week.

US President George Bush’s new strategy to send thousands of extra troops to Iraq was met with harsh scepticism across the Middle East today where many predicted that even with more soldiers, America would fail at breaking the cycle of violence.

A string of car bombs and other blasts killed at least 54 Iraqis on yesterday, including 17 outside Baghdad’s most venerated Sunni mosque.

Iraq’s largest Sunni-Arab political party today condemned a car bomb attack inside Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone that apparently attempted to kill Iraq’s controversial speaker of parliament.

Australia’s most prominent Islamic cleric, widely condemned for suggesting that women who don’t wear head scarves invite rape, implied today he would not resign as long as the White House continues to influence the world.

The top US general in Iraq today said Iraqi forces should be able to take over security with little coalition support as early as next year, even as a bombing at a Baghdad market killed at least 24 people and dozens of others were slain around the country.

Pakistan has told the US military that an Arab al-Qaida operative who masterminded the London jetliner terror plot is hiding in mountainous terrain in north-eastern Afghanistan, an intelligence official said today.

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.

US and Iraqi forces killed 104 insurgents in hundreds of raids since last week’s killing of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and the American death toll in the war in Iraq hit 2,500, the US military said today.

Iraq’s president today said he would call the country’s new parliament into session for the first time on Sunday, starting the clock on a 60-day period during which the legislature must elect a new head of state and sign off on a prime minister and Cabinet.

AN Iraqi woman appeared on Jordanian television yesterday confessing to a failed bid to set off an explosives belt inside one of the three Amman hotels targeted by al-Qaida.

US and Iraqi forces clashed with gunmen loyal to radical Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, killing at least eight Iraqis in an east Baghdad slum yesterday.

THE speaker of Iraq’s Parliament last night announced a one-day extension in talks on Iraq’s new constitution.

Al-Qaida’s number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, released a new video today denouncing the US concept of reform and saying armed jihad is the only way to bring change in the Arab world.

The prime suspect in an al-Qaida-linked plot to strike Jordan with chemical weapons threw his shoes at military judges during a stormy hearing in Amman and told them terror mastermind Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi will “chop off” their heads.