Israel today claimed Iran has enough enriched uranium to build one nuclear bomb and will soon will be able to produce a second.

Iraq’s dwindling Christian community was in mourning today after terrorists seized a Baghdad church during evening Mass leading to a gun battle which left at least 52 people dead.

Flood survivors loaded down with possessions fled for their lives in Pakistan today while the government came under renewed criticism for its response to the growing catastrophe.

Four people died when Lebanese and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the border today in a battle which started over the trimming of a tree.

Amid tight security thousands of Red Shirt opposition supporters paid final respects today to the Thai renegade general assassinated at the height of last month’s anti-government protests.

TWO suicide car bombers struck a crowded area outside a state-run bank yesterday in Baghdad, killing nearly 30 people in the latest attack targeting a high-profile part of the capital.

Troops opened fire on Thai protesters in deadly clashes today as spiralling street violence threatened to plunge the country into chaos.

Troops fired on anti-government protesters rioting near foreign embassies in Bangkok today as an army push to clear the streets sparked bloody clashes.

A renegade army general backing Thailand’s Red Shirt protesters was shot in the head by a sniper today as the government moved to crack down on an opposition encampment.

Israel lifted months of censorship on a military espionage case today confirming the arrest of a former woman soldier charged with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper.

A co-ordinated al Qaida bombing attack on apartment buildings across Baghdad killed at least 39 people today in the latest sign Iraq’s fragile security could dissolve in the chaos of its unresolved election.

Massive explosions at apartments across Baghdad killed at least 34 people and wounded more than 100 today.

Iraqi authorities say they have captured a senior leader of a militant group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.

A senior Jamaican military officer said troops should be given more powers to help fight spiralling crime in the Caribbean country.

More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a ground offensive against al Qaida and the Taliban’s main stronghold along the Afghan border today in the country’s toughest test yet against a strengthening insurgency.

At least 19 people died as Pakistani commandos freed dozens of hostages seized by militants at the army's own headquarters today.

Gunmen wearing military uniforms and wielding assault rifles and grenades attacked Pakistan’s army headquarters today, sparking a ferocious gun battle outside the capital that killed four of the assailants and at least six soldiers, authorities said.

A team of gunmen wielding assault rifles and grenades tried to break into Pakistan’s army headquarters today, sparking a ferocious 45-minute gun battle outside the capital that ended when all the assailants were killed, authorities said.

Iran is now able to produce atomic weapons, Israel’s top military intelligence officer told his country’s Cabinet today, sounding the highest-level warning that Israel’s arch-enemy has achieved independent nuclear capability.

Israeli aircraft struck Hamas security compounds across Gaza today in an unprecedented series of simultaneous strikes, killing 155 people and wounding many more, reports said citing medical officials.

Two suicide bombers struck a wedding convoy today in a crowded market district northeast of Baghdad as bystanders cheered it on, killing at least 35 people and wounding 65, officials said.

Pakistan’s president today vowed that crucial parliamentary elections would go ahead tomorrow as planned despite a massive suicide car bombing at a campaign rally that killed up to 46 people – many of them supporters of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Iraqi army reinforcements moved into positions near the northern city of Mosul today, ready to strike al-Qaida in Iraq targets in their last urban stronghold.

Benazir Bhutto supporters ransacked banks and burned train stations in furious rampages across Pakistan today.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora sought to calm the Lebanese today - the country's first day without a president - assuring them that the military, which has vowed to stay out of politics, is on the streets to prevent violence while deadlocked factions work to resolve the crisis.

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.

Up to 25 insurgents were killed today in a battle between Pakistani troops and militants near the Afghan border, the army said.

US soldiers training the Afghan army watched in silence today as an American flag was lowered to half-staff at an American base in Afghanistan, as troops around the country paused to remember the attacks of September 11 six years ago.

At least 24 people were killed and 66 injured when two bombs ripped through a Pakistani army bus and a commercial district in a city near the capital Islamabad today.

Sporadic gunfire echoed through the centre of Karbala in Iraq early today after clashes between rival Shiite militias claimed up to 51 lives.

Two former Saddam Hussein aides were ejected from a Baghdad courtroom for unruly behaviour today on the second day of a trial over the brutal crushing of a 1991 rebellion in Iraq by Shiite Muslims.

Suspected Islamic militants decapitated one Afghan man and shot dead another after accusing them of spying for the US in a tribal region in north-western Pakistan, an intelligence official said today.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held secret talks with opposition leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto about a possible power-sharing deal, it was reported today.

As pressure builds for a change in Iraq policy, a top US commander there warned today that withdrawing troops too soon would leave the country “a mess”.

Iraqi civilian deaths dropped to their lowest level since the start of the Baghdad security operation, government figures showed, suggesting signs of progress in tamping down violence in the capital.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki fired the Basra police chief today over his force’s failure to stop weekend attacks on Sunni mosques.

Unidentified gunmen attacked the house of an Iraqi police chief in Baqouba, north-east of Baghdad, killing his wife, two brothers and 11 guards, Diyala provincial police reported.

Police opened fire on a black-clad woman as she walked towards police recruits in Baghdad, detonating her suicide bomb, the Iraqi Interior Ministry reported.

An al-Qaida front group claims to have captured American soldiers in a deadly Iraq attack, as thousands of US troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.

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 Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent umbrella group which includes al-Qaida in Iraq, today claimed one of its “knights” carried out the parliament suicide bombing in Baghdad’s Green Zone.

A suspected suicide bomber blew himself up in the Iraqi parliament cafeteria in an assault in the heart of the heavily fortified, US-protected Green Zone today, killing at least eight people including three politicians, the American military said.

Three suicide bombers driving chlorine-laden trucks struck in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Anbar province, killing two policemen and forcing about 350 Iraqi civilians and six US troops to seek treatment for exposure to the gas, the military said today.

More than 700 additional US troops arrived in Iraq’s increasingly volatile Diyala province today, to try to quell burgeoning violence just north-east of Baghdad.