Egypt’s top security body warned that the clock was ticking for a peaceful end to the stand-off over sit-ins by supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi, suggesting authorities would break up the protests unless mediation produced results soon.

The Syrian military has bombarded the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country, according to activists.

The president of the United Nations Security Council said important developments were under way in efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the 21-month war in Syria and there could be another US-Russia meeting with international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi next week.

Syria’s civil war spilled over into neighbouring Lebanon once again yesterday, with gun battles in the northern city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of president Bashar al-Assad’s regime that left four dead.

Egypt’s Islamist leader vowed to carry out tough structural reforms to overhaul his country’s ailing economy and create a better environment for business and investment, participants in a meeting between corporate executives and the president said.

The Pakistani militant leader with a $10m (€7.6m) bounty on his head has mocked America and dared it to arrest him.

NORMALLY anyone using the National Archives is looking for specific information, but when the State Papers are released to journalists each year, it is a different matter. Most do not know what they are looking for; they just plough through the files looking for anything of likely interest.

North Korea warned today that US-South Korean co-operation could bring nuclear war to the region.

THE visit of Pope John Paul II was undoubtedly the most popular event that ever took place in this country. It was witnessed in person by more people than the visit of President John F Kennedy in 1963 or President Bill Clinton in 1995. Yet strangely, the Vatican and the Catholic hierarchy treated Taoiseach Jack Lynch and his government with a degree of disdain.

The US State Department's former number two said the practice of waterboarding terror suspects was torture and he hoped he would have had the courage to resign had he known the CIA was using the interrogation technique.

A delegation from the European Union questioned the Obama administration about Guantanamo Bay as member states consider whether to accept a US request to take some of the detainees when the controversial jail is shut.

A US-IRISH structure to enable school leavers to work and travel in the US for up to 12 months is up and running, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin.

THE United States inaugurated its largest embassy ever in the heart of the Green Zone yesterday, officially opening the fortress-like compound that was built as a testament to America’s commitment to Iraq.

Israel did not seek US approval before launching a ground invasion against Hamas, in an escalation of the bloodiest Israeli-Palestinian clash in years.

Some 20,000 Irish school leavers will able to live and work in the US for a year under a new visa deal expected to be signed today.

Police have today detained supporters of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and sealed off the airport ahead of his return from exile.

A reconstituted Pakistani Supreme Court, loaded with judges chosen by President Pervez Musharraf, began deliberations today on the legality of the general’s emergency rule and his eligibility to serve a third term as head of state.

A top US envoy delivered a blunt message to Pakistan’s military leader, telling him that emergency rule must be lifted and his opponents freed before elections.

Washington’s second most senior diplomat will have a crucial meeting with Pakistan’s military leader President Pervez Musharraf today, hoping that face-to-face diplomacy will convince the general to move back on the path to democracy.

Pressure mounted on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf tonight as a senior US envoy arrived to personally urge him to end the country's political crisis.

Pakistan’s military leader President Pervez Musharraf pressed ahead with plans for parliamentary elections today by swearing in a caretaker government, despite the threat of an opposition boycott.

Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto deepened Pakistan’s political crisis by demanding the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf as Washington prepared to send a top diplomat to urge the general to lift emergency rule.

OPPOSITION leaderBenazir Bhutto yesterday called on President General Pervez Musharraf to resign and ruled out serving under him in a future government after she was placed under house arrest for the second time in five days.

Former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage says he was foolish to have revealed the identity of a CIA employee.

Pakistan vowed to step up its fight against terrorism today after a suicide attacker detonated an explosive-laden vehicle inside a high-security military base, killing 16 soldiers from an elite counter-terrorism task force.

Time is running out for President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to finalise a pact with ex-premier Benazir Bhutto that would keep the US-allied leader in office, Bhutto’s party warned today.

The United States is not ruling out military force to free South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior State Department official said.

A handful of Sunni mosques were attacked or burned today, but curfews and increased troop levels kept Iraq in relative calm a day after suspected al Qaida bombers toppled the towering minarets of a revered Shiite shrine.

US PRESIDENT George Bush has chosen Robert Zoellick, a one-time US trade representative and former senior official at the state department, to lead the World Bank.

The janjaweed militia that is accused of widespread atrocities in Darfur is actively supported by the Sudanese government, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said today.

The US State Department's number two diplomat arrived in South Korea today amid intense diplomacy aimed at ensuring North Korea keeps its pledge for nuclear disarmament.

US PRESIDENT George W Bush said yesterday he was “taken aback” by a purported US threat to bomb Pakistan back to the Stone Age if it did not cooperate in the fight against terrorism after the September 11 attacks.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas tonight said he would open a dialogue with Hamas leaders within a week in a bid to end violence that has rocked the Gaza Strip.

Two of the three rebel groups in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region are refusing to sign a peace plan today, jeopardising efforts to end the bloodbath that has cost at least 180,000 lives.

Sudan appeared ready today to agree to disarm Arab militias in Darfur and to accept more rebels into its security forces, key concessions that could clear the way for real progress at the Darfur peace talks.

Tens of thousands of Sudanese people marched through Khartoum protesting against plans to deploy UN peacekeepers in conflict-torn Darfur.

Senior US and Chinese officials today discussed how best to deal with Iran’s nuclear programme even as China indicated a preference for diplomacy not UN sanctions against Tehran.

China and the US moved into a third day of high-level meetings today in talks that could help defuse brewing trade and military tensions.

A US-LED plan to develop clean-energy technologies was met with caution by critics in Asia yesterday, who claimed it was a ploy to undo the Kyoto pact, the binding accord on controlling global warming that Washington refuses to sign.

A suicide car bomber drove up to a US vehicle crowded with Iraqi children and detonated his vehicle today, killing one American soldier and at least seven Iraqi children, the US military said.

Iraqi troops are ready to take control of some cities as a first step toward sending home American and other foreign soldiers, Iraq’s prime minister said. But he rejected any timetable for a pull-out.

DONORS promised $4.5 billion (€3.5bn) yesterday to help Sudan recover after Africa's longest civil war, but Washington told Khartoum to end atrocities in Darfur or risk a slide "back into the depths".

The purported leader of Taliban-linked militants holding three United Nations hostages, including Armagh woman Annetta Flanigan, said his group was split over whether they should “get rid” of the captives.

Taliban-linked kidnappers of three UN election workers, including an Irish woman, claimed today that a deal could be close for their release.