Syrian government supporters attacked the US Embassy in Damascus today in protest over the ambassador’s recent visit to an opposition stronghold.

Top Palestinian leaders of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party today gave Abbas the go ahead to begin forming a unity government with the militant Hamas in an effort to end internal feuding and international isolation, a party member said.

Authorities in Bahrain recovered the body of an Indian man today as the search continued for an additional person believed to have been on board the pleasure cruiser that capsized last week.

The captain of a cruise boat that capsized off the Bahrain coast has been detained and is being questioned over the accident in which 57 people drowned, most of them Indians and Britons, Bahrain’s public prosecutor said today.

Search efforts continued today in Bahrain for two passengers missing since the capsizing of a small cruise boat, in which 57 people drowned, most of them Indians and Britons.

At least 57 people, including 1 Irish man, 13 Britons and 17 Indian nationals, drowned when a dinner-cruise ship with 137 people on board capsized just off the Bahraini coast last night in calm waters, the Interior Ministry said.

An Irishman has been confirmed as being among the 57 people who drowned when a cruise ship capsized off the Bahraini coast last night.

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

A nephew of Saddam Hussein was sentence to life in prison today for funding Iraq’s violent insurgency and bomb-making, the Iraqi government announced, marking the first verdict against a family member of the former Iraqi leader.

Insurgents unleashed a series of deadly attacks today, including 10 car bombings in and around the capital, the day after the country’s first democratically elected government was approved.

Insurgents launched a series of attacks in Baghdad today, including car bombs and a mortar round, killing at least three Iraqis and wounding 12, officials said.

Security forces captured two of Saddam Hussein’s relatives, the government said today, alleging the pair had been helping launch terrorist attacks in Iraq.

At least 106 people were killed today when a suicide car bomber drove into a crowd applying for work at a government office south of Baghdad, then blew himself up.

IRAQI officials said yesterday Syrian authorities had captured Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and 29 other officials of the deposed dictator’s Ba’ath Party in Syria and handed them over to Iraq in an apparent goodwill gesture.

Confined to a tiny section of his largely demolished command centre, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has refused to hand over members of his entourage wanted by Israel.

SAUDI ARABIA coach Nasser Al-Johar has again rounded on his critics for dwelling on the past rather than looking towards the future.