Shay Given has been handed a 126th Republic of Ireland cap against Oman after coming out of international retirement.

Overnight clashes in Cairo between supporters and opponents of Egypt's Islamist leader have killed at least five people, according to state television.

Al-Qaida gunmen shot dead four soldiers in one of the militants’ former south Yemen strongholds as the local governor declared that the country’s ill-equipped police force is incapable of filling the security void left by months of clashes.

Al Qaida gunmen shot four soldiers dead in one of the militants’ former south Yemen strongholds today, officials said, as the local governor declared that the country’s ill-equipped police force is incapable of filling the security void left by months of clashes.

Yemeni leaders led a sombre ceremony today to mark the country’s national day, scaling back celebrations a day after a suicide bombing killed nearly 100 soldiers during a rehearsal for a military parade.

At least 38 soldiers were killed and dozens of others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a military parade drill in the Yemeni capital Sanaa today.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said a former top aide to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is living in France with government permission.

French presidential front-runner François Hollande headed into the last round of his battle with Nicolas Sarkozy with both of the candidates threatened by the shadow of scandal.

Al-Qaida-linked militants staged a dawn attack on an army post in south Yemen today, setting off clashes which left 23 dead on both sides, Yemeni army officials said.

Yemeni government troops have killed more than 100 al Qaida fighters in the past two days in an offensive against militant hideouts in the country’s south, the interior ministry said.

Yemeni government forces regained control of a strategic gateway in the south today after intense three-day shelling of al Qaida hideouts in the area that left 43 militants dead, military and medical officials said.

The death toll among Yemeni government troops attacked by al-Qaida militants at the weekend has risen to 185, military officials said today.

Al Qaida militants overran an army base in southern Yemen today, capturing heavy weapons and turning them on soldiers in intense clashes that left 61 dead, a military official said.

A car bomb outside the gate of a presidential compound in a southern Yemeni city killed at least 25 people, a health official said, hours after the country’s new president was formally inaugurated and vowed to fight al-Qaida.

Abed Rabo Mansour Hadi has been sworn in as Yemen’s new president, replacing Ali Abdullah Saleh who ruled the country for 33 years before leaving office in a power transfer deal aimed at ending more than a year of political turmoil.

Egyptian protesters demanding a swift presidential election and an early handover of power by the army hurled rocks at police guarding Egypt’s Interior Ministry yesterday and were forced back with volleys of tear gas.

Armed forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have been accused of massacring at least 30 people in renewed violence in Syria.

OUTGOING president Ali Abdullah Saleh apologised for “any shortcoming” in his 33-year rule before leaving Yemen for the US yesterday, paving the way for a transfer of power after a year of unrest.

Al-Qaida militants have seized full control of a town south of the Yemeni capital, over-running army positions, storming the local prison and freeing its inmates.

At least 2,000 displaced Yemenis have returned home to a restive area in the country’s south that has been under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants for more than seven months.

A French journalist has been found strangled with an electrical wire in his hotel room in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, security officials say.

Syrian opposition activists say the army has begun withdrawing tanks from the restive city of Homs after days of assaults and just as an Arab League observer mission arrives in the country.

Yemen’s powerful Republican Guard forces opened fire with guns, tear gas and water cannons today at a march by more than 100,000 protesters demanding that the outgoing president be put on trial.

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis are demonstrating to demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh face trial for his regime’s deadly crackdown on months of protests.

Dozens of bodies were dumped in the streets of a Syrian city at the heart of the country’s nine-month-old uprising, a grim sign that sectarian bloodshed is escalating.

Yemeni government troops have shelled residential areas in the restive southern city of Taiz for a fourth straight day, killing three people on Friday, residents said.

Heavy fighting has broken out in the Yemeni capital Sanaa between security forces and an army unit that joined the popular uprising against autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s agreement to step down failed to end the violence today as security forces killed five protesters.

YEMEN President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a Gulf initiative last night to hand over power to his deputy as part of a proposal to end months of protests that have pushed the Arab country to the brink of civil war.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed an agreement to transfer power to his vice president.

Yemen’s embattled president must speed up reforms and begin a transfer of power according to a plan backed by the international community, a UN envoy said.

Hundreds of Yemeni women set fire to traditional female veils in protest at the government’s brutal crackdown against the country’s popular uprising, as clashes in the capital and another city killed 25 people.

Hundreds of Yemeni women set fire to traditional female veils today in protest at the government’s brutal crackdown against the country’s popular uprising, as overnight clashes in the capital and another city killed 25 people, officials said.

Clashes between Yemeni government troops and a renegade army unit killed at least 20 people, including three civilians, in the capital Sanaa, officials said.

Security forces in Yemen have opened fire on anti-government protesters in the capital, killing at least two people, a medical official said.

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has said he is willing to leave power in his first major speech since returning to the country.

Three women have won the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the importance of women’s roles in the spread of global peace, writes Bjoern Amland.

The 2011 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen for their work on women’s rights.

Tribesmen shot down a Yemeni government warplane which was bombing their positions north of the capital Sanaa today, military officials said.

Yemen’s defiant president addressed his troubled nation for the first time since returning to the country after an assassination attempt, making no promise to immediately step down but saying he is committed to a deal to end months of spiralling violence.

A Yemeni medic says 16 people have died as government forces and snipers attacked an opposition protest camp in the capital Sanaa.

YEMEN’S President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for a ceasefire saying the only way out of the crisis is through negotiations.

Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called for a ceasefire after returning to the country, saying the only way out of the crisis is through negotiations.