THE dramatic advance of Libyan rebels over the forces of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi offers vindication, at least for now, for President Barack Obama’s decision to refrain from using US troops on Libyan soil and to let Nato take the lead in degrading Gaddafi’s military power.

Bus drivers and other public transport workers went on strike in Egypt today as mass protests continued in an attempt to remove President Hosni Mubarak.

US president Barack Obama has given up smoking, his wife has said.

European leaders have urged Egyptian authorities to protect reporters covering the country’s crisis.

Egyptian protesters trying to topple the regime of President Hosni Mubarak called on their supporters to fill every square in the capital Cairo today.

Egyptian army tanks and soldiers moved to end violence between anti-government protesters and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo’s central square today as the prime minister apologised for the attack by regime supporters on anti-government protesters.

Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo’s central square on horses and camels as others rained firebombs from rooftops in an apparent orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple Egypt’s autocratic leader of 30 years.

SUPPORTERS of President Hosni Mubarak charged into Cairo’s central square on horseback and camels brandishing whips.

Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak battled in Cairo’s main square today, raining stones, bottles and firebombs on each other in scenes of uncontrolled violence as soldiers stood by without intervening.

The Egyptian government must begin political reforms immediately, European leaders demanded today amid violent clashes on the streets of Cairo.

A million people were urged to take to the streets today to demand that Egypt’s authoritarian leader step down as more signs emerged that army support for President Hosni Mubarak may be unravelling.

The White House said tonight that the “legitimate grievances” of the Egyptian people must be addressed immediately by the Egyptian government and violence is not the right response.

South Korea said today that it has accepted a North Korean proposal to hold high-level defence talks.

FOREIGN leaders showered President Barack Obama and his family with hundreds of thousands of dollars in art, jewellery, rare books and other presents during their first year in the White House.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s top spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said yesterday he will step down and work outside the White House as a voice for his boss, as an administration reshuffle gathered pace.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and one of the most visible and forceful advocates for President Barack Obama, is quitting his job.

North Korea has branded South Korea's military exercise today as "provocative" and "offensive".

South Korea mobilised troops, tanks, helicopters and fighter jets today for its largest winter military drills in a show of force a month after North Korea’s deadly shelling of a front-line island.

The United States and South Korea were finishing war manoeuvres today aimed at North Korea after a deadly attack and discussing whether to hold more, as China tried to restart the aid-for-nuclear-disarmament talks coveted by the North.

ARAB rulers secretly lobbied America to launch air strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme according to leaked US diplomatic cables, it was reported last night.

Arab rulers secretly lobbied America to launch air strikes to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme according to leaked US diplomatic cables, it was reported tonight.

A US veteran who kept loaded guns at his bedside has been arrested for threatening to kill President Barack Obama in a murder-suicide.

US President Barack Obama has received 12 stitches in his lip after being injured during a basketball game today.

GLOBAL leaders have condemned North Korea for provoking an exchange of artillery fire with the South yesterday.

The US today condemned North Korea’s artillery attack against the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong and warned it to cease fire.

Nato nations formally agreed today to start reducing troop levels in Afghanistan next year and hand over control of security to the Afghans in 2014.

John Whitesides reports from Washington ahead of House of Representatives and Senate elections

TALIBAN officials have engaged in periodic, discreet contacts with Afghan and US officials for months but are unwilling to move to formal peace negotiations until the US agrees to a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and members of a newly formed Afghan peace council.

A 17-YEAR-OLD Australian schoolboy said he caused a massive hacker attack on Twitter which sent users to Japanese porn sites earlier this week.

The US government turned up the pressure on the head of a small church who plans to burn copies of the Koran on September 11, warning him that doing so could endanger US troops and Americans everywhere.

An oil platform exploded and burned off the Louisiana coast in the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months.

AN oil platform exploded and caught fire yesterday off the Louisiana coast, spreading a mile-long oil sheen into the Gulf of Mexico. All 13 crew members were rescued from the water in their protective “Gumby suits”.

A mile-long oil sheen spread from an offshore oil platform burning in the Gulf of Mexico today.

PRIME Minister Nuri al- Maliki said yesterday Iraq’s own soldiers and police were capable of defending a “sovereign and independent” country as American forces ended seven years of combat operations.

US President Barack Obama was today joining his family for a short trip to Florida as he bids to boost the area's sagging tourism industry in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

President Barack Obama is satisfied the US can safely end its combat role in Iraq on schedule at the end of the month, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today after the president was briefed by his national-security team and the top US commander in Iraq.

The US government today pleaded with website Wikileaks not to post any more classified documents about the Afghanistan war, saying national security was at risk.

THE US Coastguard says BP has been forced to remove a cap that was containing some of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

A US judge has blocked the Obama administration’s six- month ban on deepwater drilling, complicating efforts to improve the safety of offshore oil operations after the worst spill in US history.

CHASTENED by heavy criticism, a grim-faced BP chief executive Tony Hayward insisted yesterday he was “devastated with this accident” in the Gulf of Mexico and denied shunning tough questions from Congress on the nation’s worst oil spill.

BP has been cleared to start burning oil and gas piped up from its broken well as part of a pledge to more than triple how much crude it stops from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

The US government is ready to take over the handling of oil spill damage claims from BP if the British company doesn’t set up an “independent entity” to do it, a presidential spokesman said today.

Barack Obama consoled relatives of the 11 workers killed in the Gulf oil spill disaster, acknowledging their "unimaginable grief" and assuring them that he would stand with them.

Helen Thomas, the veteran White House correspondent who grilled and often exasperated 10 presidents, has quit abruptly in a storm over “reprehensible” remarks about Israel.