Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has escaped unharmed after a bomb attack in the capital Islamabad, police said.

Bad weather has delayed ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi’s helicopter flight from a prison in the country’s north to Cairo for the resumption of his trial on charges of inciting murder.

Egyptian security forces backed by armoured fighting vehicles and helicopters have stormed a town known to be an Islamist stronghold outside Cairo near the Great Pyramids, coming under barrages of fire from gunmen on rooftops.

A newspaper in Uganda has reopened after being shut down by authorities for 10 days.

Two Afghan gunmen have killed a police commander and six of his men at a checkpoint in a remote district in the country’s south.

The US air force has begun grounding about a third of its active-duty combat aircraft because of automatic federal spending cuts, including squadrons of fighters, bombers and airborne warning and control craft.

A series of car bombs exploded within minutes of each other as Iraqis were out shopping in and around Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 35 people in mainly Shiite areas.

A navy helicopter crashed in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta, killing a state governor and five other people, in the latest air disaster to hit Africa’s most populous nation.

Former CIA director David Petraeus was sneaked into the Capitol today, away from the media, to face lawmakers’ questions about the attack on the US Consulate in Libya – just one week after he resigned over an extramarital affair.

CIA director David Petraeus was shocked to learn last summer that his mistress was suspected of sending threatening emails warning another woman to stay away from him, former staff members and friends have told the Associated Press.

Calm has returned to the streets of Lebanon’s capital after troops launched a major security operation to quell fighting touched off by the assassination of a top anti-Syrian intelligence chief.

Schools in Pakistan's Swat Valley have closed in protest as anger erupted across the country over the Taliban attack on a 14-year-old activist famed for promoting girls' education.

A grandson of the inventor of the Red Bull drink has been arrested accused of killing a Bangkok police officer in a hit-and-run.

Iran is playing a growing role supporting the Syrian regime and is helping to build and train a militia to fight opposition forces, US defence chiefs say.

Dozens of government tanks have converged on Syria’s largest city as president Bashar Assad marshalled his forces to stamp out a five-day rebel fight to wrest Aleppo from the regime’s grasp.

Syrian president Bashar Assad made his first appearance today since the bomb blast which killed some of his top lieutenants.

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has acquitted former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of one of the two genocide charges he faces but upheld 10 other counts at the halfway stage of his long-running trial.

Hosni Mubarak’s ex-prime minister Ahmed Shafiq is claiming victory in Egypt’s presidential election, countering the Muslim Brotherhood’s claims that its candidate was the winner and setting the stage for a divisive fight for the leadership.

Another set of photographs apparently showing US troops posing with the bodies of dead insurgents in Afghanistan has been published.

The commander of Nato and US forces says that all Nato personnel are being recalled from Afghan ministries following an attack at the Interior Ministry in Kabul.

The leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group expected to dominate the country’s next parliament, said it does not seek to get into a power struggle with the ruling military council over the formation of the next government.

A police commander who agreed to give evidence backing claims that Egypt’s former government ordered protesters to be shot went back on his word today.

The last Balkan war-crimes suspect has been extradited to the UN tribunal for prosecution today after being allowed last-minute visits with relatives, including his sick mother.

The US Afghanistan commander general David Petraeus is to be made new head of the CIA, security sources have said.

A veteran Afghan officer shot dead eight Nato troops and a civilian before being killed himself after an argument at Kabul airport today.

Burkina Faso’s army chief took command of the country’s armed forces today and promised to meet soldiers to resolve issues behind the mutiny that has threatened the president’s 24-year rule.

The army chief for Ivory Coast’s entrenched president has rejoined the military days after deserting and seeking refuge at a foreign diplomat’s residence.

Rebels fighting to install Ivory Coast’s democratically elected president began besieging the main city of Abidjan today after seizing a key seaport.

Nato's commander for Libya deflected suggestions today that airstrikes against Muammar Gaddafi's forces were essentially providing cover for advancing rebels.

Three Yemeni army commanders have defected to the opposition, calling for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule, as army tanks and armoured vehicles deployed in support of thousands protesting in the capital.

Iran has admitted launching a series of cyber attacks against what it described only as its “enemies”.

Renewed fighting between Cambodian and Thai troops along the countries’ disputed border killed a Thai soldier today and sent thousands of people fleeing before military commanders agreed on the second ceasefire in two days.

A Russian investigation into the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski blamed the Poles, saying the crew was forced to land in bad weather by an air force commander who had been drinking.

The British former commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Bosnia today told Radovan Karadzic’s war crimes trial how the Serb brought terror and suffering to Muslim enclaves.

Despite Taliban rocket strikes and bombings, Afghans voted for a new parliament, the first election since a fraud-marred presidential ballot last year cast doubt on the legitimacy of the embattled government.

Burma's junta carried out a major military reshuffle today that retired more than a dozen senior leaders, officials said, in an apparent move to prepare for November national elections.

Two Spanish police trainers were shot dead by their Afghan driver during a training session in western Afghanistan today.

Afghan and international forces have killed about 40 Taliban fighters east of the Afghan capital Kabul as part of operations to provide security ahead of parliamentary elections next month, Nato said today.

A young couple have been stoned to death by the Taliban in Afghanistan for eloping.

A minibus packed with civilians struck a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan early today, killing six on board and wounding nine, officials said.

More than a million people gathered today in northeastern Barcelona to demand greater regional autonomy for Catalonia and protest a recent court ruling forbidding the region from calling itself a nation.

US General David Petraeus today formally assumed command of the 130,000-strong international force in Afghanistan at a time of rising casualties and growing scepticism about the direction of the nearly nine-year-old war.

The Nato-led command stressed that military operations to secure vast areas of Afghanistan would not be delayed by the ouster of its top commander and mounting casualties.

The top US commander in Afghanistan was summoned to Washington today after criticising politicians and civilian officials over their attitude to the war.