Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was last night declared “clinically dead” by his doctors after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, the state news agency MENA said.

Within five months of each other, two of the men who helped make 60 Minutes the most distinctive news show on US television have died.

Tens of thousands of Egyptian Coptic Christians joined a funeral mass for their patriarch, Pope Shenouda III, led by senior clerics at the main cathedral in Cairo today.

Thousands of grieving Egyptian Copts streamed into St Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo to catch a last glimpse of their spiritual leader Pope Shenuda III, taking pictures and weeping.

During nearly 42 years in power in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi was one of the world’s most eccentric dictators.

An Egyptian court has ordered the name of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and his wife Suzanne removed from all public facilities and institutions – the latest step in dismantling the legacy of the former leader’s 29 years in power.

Gunmen briefly abducted the 12-year-old grand-niece of the late Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat, security officials said today.

EGYPT’S military said yesterday it hoped to hand over power to an elected government in six months, but the Muslim Brotherhood said ending emergency law and freeing political prisoners would build a “bridge of confidence”.

Mubarak lasted three decades as president but as the crowds in Tahrir Square chanted ‘Leave! Leave!’, he ended his tenure as a symbol of all that is wrong with Egypt, says Lee Keath

He survived assassination attempts and wave after wave of Mideast crises, a solid ally of the West whose stable image reassured many Egyptians.

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

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton criticised the extension by Egypt of a three-decade-old state of emergency declaration.

Walter Cronkite, the premier TV anchorman of the US networks’ golden age who reported a tumultuous time with reassuring authority and came to be called “the most trusted man in America”, has died at the age of 92.

THE family of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat has threatened to sue the Iranian producers of a documentary film portraying his 1981 assassination as the killing of a traitor by a martyr.

The diaries of former US president Ronald Reagan – described as the most detailed presidential record in American history – have been unveiled.

Long-time Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak today pays an official visit to Ireland.

A leader of an Egyptian militant group denied yesterday that it had joined al-Qaida, saying the majority of its members are sticking by a truce they declared almost a decade ago.

President Hosni Mubarak pledged today to promote further democratic reforms in Egypt in his first comments since winning the first presidential elections held in the Arab world’s largest country.

THE framers of Iraq’s constitution appear likely to enshrine Islam as the main basis of law in the country - a stronger role than the US had hoped for and one some Iraqis fear will mean a more fundamentalist regime.

A website known for militant Muslim comment today published a claim of responsibility for the crashes of two Russian airliners, connecting the action to Russia’s fight against separatists in Chechnya.

PAKISTAN has detained several people in the attempted assassination of the man selected to be the country's prime minister, a government minister said yesterday.

A militant group has posted an internet statement in the name of al-Qaida claiming responsibility for yesterday’s attempt to assassinate Pakistan’s prime minister-designate.

AS mentor to Osama bin Laden and the brains behind al-Qaida, Ayman al Zawahri is considered to be one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists.

A very public fit of presidential coughing and sneezing has energised debate among the Egyptian elite over democratisation and how power is wielded in the most populous Arab country, reform advocates said today.

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak interrupted a nationally televised speech to parliament yesterday for more than 30 minutes because of what was described as a "health crisis" before resuming the address amid cheers from lawmakers.

President Hosni Mubarak was taken ill during a nationally televised speech to parliament in Egypt today but returned later to finish his address.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was taken ill during a nationally televised speech opening a new parliament session today.

Egypt has released a leader of the militant group responsible for the assassination of former president Anwar Sadat after nearly 22 years in jail.

Egyptian police have detained 15 alleged militants for attempting to revive a banned insurgent Islamic group and planning terrorist attacks, officials said today.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter today urged people everywhere to work for peace in a world that has become “a more dangerous place”.

FORMER US President Jimmy Carter has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his peace mediation efforts and promotion of human rights.

THE irony of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to former US Democrat president Jimmy Carter will not be lost on the party’s current representatives in Congress, who have shifted their position on Iraq to now row in behind President Bush.

In an autobiography that some describe as his last testament, Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant wrote he may not get another chance to speak out because of ‘‘troubled circumstances’’.