A spokesman for Libya's National Transitional Council has told Sky News that deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has been killed, and that his body is currently being transported from Sirte.

Revolutionary fighters today attacked a convention centre in the centre of Sirte that forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi turned into their main base, in what commanders said was a final offensive to crush resistance in the city after weeks of siege.

RUSSIA launched a €470 billion rearmament plan yesterday to counter the West’s military dominance by adding eight nuclear submarines and hundreds of warplanes to its creaking armed forces.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said today that North Korea should face international consequences over the sinking of a South Korean warship.

Burma's military junta defended its prosecution of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi today, saying she was not above the law, and warned other countries not to meddle in its internal affairs.

Russia took the first steps towards a troop pullback from Georgia, but at the same time paraded blindfolded and bound prisoners on armoured vehicles and seized four US Humvees.

ISRAELI defence officials and political pundits rounded on deputy prime minister Shaul Mofaz yesterday after he threatened attacks against Iran, accusing him of exploiting war jitters to advance personal ambitions.

MORE people will perish in Burma’s cyclone disaster zone unless the regime lifts restrictions on foreign aid, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned yesterday, accusing it of “criminal neglect”.

The fragile and brief peace between Israel and militant Palestinians was shattered today in a blast of rocket and air attacks.

Fifty-four people, including two dozen civilians, were killed as clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants escalated today.

Israel began cutting deliveries in vital fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip today, following through on a promise to step up pressure on Gaza’s Hamas rulers in response to months of Palestinian rocket attacks.

Israel is planning to cut off Gaza electricity in a bid to deter Palestinians from firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, defence officials said yesterday.

Hamas militants defied Israeli air strikes and threats to kill their top leaders, firing more rockets into Israel, as the Palestinian president arrived in Gaza in an effort to defuse the escalating conflict.

Israel's deputy defence minister today threatened to target Hamas' political leaders, calling them "terrorists in suits" after a Hamas rocket attack killed an Israeli woman.

Poland and the United States today opened formal talks on Washington’s contentious request to place part of a new missile defence system in the eastern European nation.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was to meet military commanders today to hear options on how to respond to the first rocket barrage by Hamas militants since the two sides reached a truce in Gaza five months ago.

The Somali capital’s streets were the scene of heavy fighting on Friday between Ethiopian troops backing the government and insurgents, witnesses said, a day after similar battles left at least 12 people dead and a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army base.

Hundreds of residents fled their homes today during a second day of fighting between Islamic insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops in which at least four people were killed and six wounded.

The first peacekeepers to arrive in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu in more than 10 years were met with a surge of violence today, as mortars hit the airport during a welcoming ceremony and a deadly gunbattle broke out on the city’s crumbling streets.

Ugandan peacekeepers arrived in Somalia’s capital early today to provide protection for the still-struggling transitional government and to allow for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops who intervened in the country.

Israel and the Palestinians can wrap up a final peace deal within two years, Israel’s deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh said today, becoming the first senior Israeli official to propose a timeline for long-stalled peace talks

The government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi today announced a three-day official mourning period and cancelled all celebrations of Eid.

Fighting broke out today between Somalia’s government troops and rival Islamic militia near where an EU envoy was meeting with senior leaders to press for peace talks.

In an effort to shore up a shaky truce in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military officials today said they were reducing their operations in the West Bank and had made it more difficult for field commanders to order arrest raids there.

Israel today stood by its new policy of firing artillery shells at Palestinian rocket squads operating from populated areas in Gaza, even after a round killed an eight-year-old Palestinian girl.

A PALESTINIAN suicide bomber trying to enter Israel blew himself up yesterday at a military checkpoint set up to foil attackers, killing an Israeli soldier and two other Palestinians.

ISRAELI troops will impose an “aerial siege” on parts of Gaza, shooting from helicopters or gunboats at anyone entering a “no-go zone” near the border, as part of a new campaign against Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli towns, a senior defence official said yesterday.

Israeli troops will impose an “aerial siege” on parts of Gaza, shooting from helicopters or gunboats at anyone entering a “no-go zone” near the border, as part of a new campaign against Palestinian militants firing rockets at Israeli towns, a senior defence official said today.

ISRAEL fears that half of the Jewish settlers slated for evacuation from occupied Gaza next month will stay put rather than agree to relocation, forcing troops to remove them, a cabinet minister said yesterday.

Israel will target any Palestinians who fire mortars at Israeli communities, Israeli security chiefs decided today, signalling a further erosion of a shaky Mideast truce.

The flare-up in violence in the Gaza Strip could delay Israel’s planned withdrawal from the crowded coastal area if Israel is forced to launch a new military campaign against Palestinian militants, a senior Israeli official warned today.

ISRAEL’S Cabinet yesterday adopted a report on the state’s complicity in setting up 105 illegal West Bank settlement outposts and decided to dismantle 24 of them.

A DAY after firing his top security commanders, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas went to the Gaza Strip yesterday to demand militant leaders stop attacking Israelis.

Thousands of armed Palestinian police took up positions in the northern Gaza Strip to prevent attacks on Israel, and Islamic militants said they were suspending rocket fire – major steps toward a possible truce after more than four years of bloody Mideast conflict.

Islamic militant group Hamas joined in the mood of optimism in Gaza today and signalled it would suspend rocket attacks on Israel.

Jewish settlers’ leaders warned Israel’s army chief that hundreds, and possibly thousands, of soldiers could refuse to carry out orders to evacuate them from the Gaza Strip if the government went ahead with its plan to withdraw from the coastal area later this year.

Senior Israeli and Palestinian officials are scheduled to meet in Britain next week for private talks, the first such contact between the two sides since the death of Yasser Arafat.

Israel began scaling back its 17 day offensive in the Gaza Strip today after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon heeded the army’s warning that an extended stay is too risky and the US called for a quick withdrawal.

Daily air strikes by Israelis in the Gaza strip are adding fuel to the fire for more hardline Palestinians, a senior Sinn Féin figure warned today.

An Israeli army platoon commander was suspended today on suspicion he emptied an ammunition clip into a 13-year-old Palestinian girl after she was shot from an outpost and collapsed to the ground.

The death toll from the Sinai resort blasts continued to rise today after an attack on a luxury hotel blamed on al-Qaida.

A senior Israeli defence official today accused Syrian President Bashar Assad of direct involvement in terrorism, but refused to confirm Israel was responsible for killing a Hamas leader in Damascus on Sunday.

The Greek government have reiterated their confidence in the security measures put in place for the Olympic Games, declaring Greece “the most secure country in the world”.