A large explosion has rocked a stronghold of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group in the Lebanese capital Beirut, sending black smoke billowing into the sky and causing an unknown number of casualties, security officials said.

Syrian rebels have attacked a village in the country’s east, killing dozens of Shiites, mostly pro-government fighters, activists said.

Iraqis braved the fear of violence today to vote in the first election since the US military withdrawal, though delayed voting in some parts of the country and an apparently lacklustre turnout elsewhere has cast doubt about the credibility of the vote.

At least five people were killed when militants wearing suicide vests and disguised as policemen attacked the office of a senior political official in north-western Pakistan today, police and hospital officials said.

Funerals for some of the scores of victims of a series of bombings in Pakistan will take place today as the death toll rose to 120.

A wave of bombings has left at least 43 people dead in Iraq.

The head of Bahrain’s main opposition group has said backers will resume street protests in a direct challenge to a government ban on political gatherings.

Back-to-back bomb blasts in a crowded Baghdad market near a Shiite shrine have killed at least 11 people, officials say.

An Iraqi court has found the nation’s Sunni vice president guilty of running death squads against security forces and Shiites, and has sentenced him to death in absentia.

The building of the largest Catholic church in the Gulf was supposed to be a chance for the tiny island kingdom of Bahrain to showcase its traditions of religious tolerance in a conservative Muslim region where churches largely operate under heavy limitations.

Gunmen singled out seven Shiite Muslims and shot them in Iraq’s north while they were out swimming in a targeted sectarian attack, officials said today.

Five students were killed and more than 50 other people injured when a bomb ripped through a bus heading to a university in south-western Pakistan today, police said.

A Bahrain appeals court has sentenced nine medics accused of aiding Bahrain’s anti-government uprising to jail terms while setting free another nine.

Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on a shoe store in south-west Pakistan today, killing four Shiite Muslims, police said.

Two explosions have been heard in central Baghdad as an Arab summit opened in the Iraqi capital.

Afghanistan’s president has appealed for Pakistan’s help in negotiating a peace deal with Taliban militants before a summit today that will also include Iran’s leader.

Bahraini security forces fanned out across the island in unprecedented numbers as Shiites marked the one-year anniversary of their uprising against the country’s Sunni rulers.

Saudi security forces have killed one person in clashes in an eastern province that has witnessed tense demonstrations by Shiites demanding reforms, reports say.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has cancelled tomorrow’s visit to the UK, Downing Street confirmed tonight.

Twenty-one people were killed and nearly 100 others injured today when five bombs struck Shiite pilgrims during an important religious ritual for the Muslim sect.

Bahrain used torture and excessive force against people arrested in crackdowns on anti-government protests, an official inquiry has found.

Suspected Sunni extremists opened fire on Shiite Muslims travelling through south-western Pakistan today, killing 13 people and injuring seven others in the latest apparent sectarian attack to hit the country, police said.

Gunmen opened fire on minority Shiite Muslim pilgrims travelling through south-west Pakistan today, killing 26 people in an apparent sectarian attack, officials and survivors said.

Bahrain will dismiss charges against some people detained during crackdowns against Shiite-led protests and allow compensation to prisoners abused by security forces, the Gulf nation’s king said in a nationally broadcast speech.

IRAQI authorities uncovered a mass grave with 900 corpses near the central city of Diwaniyah yesterday, believed to be Kurds killed during the rule of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, an official said.

A UN-backed court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has issued four arrest warrants.

Bahrain has jailed eight Shiite activists accused of plotting to overthrow the state for life.

Bahraini police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at protesters marching toward the landmark Pearl Square in the country’s capital, two days after authorities lifted emergency rule.

Iraqi Shiite militia fighters led a massive rally of followers of a hardline anti-American cleric today, marching in Baghdad in a show of defiance as Iraqi leaders weigh whether to keep US troops in the country beyond the end of the year.

At least six leading opposition activists have been detained in the continuing crackdown on protesters in the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain, reports say.

Soldiers and riot police in Bahrain overran a protesters’ camp, imposed a 12-hour curfew and choked off movement in this tiny island kingdom that has been rocked by a month of protests.

A Saudi-led military force crossed into Bahrain to prop up the monarchy in the tiny island nation against widening demonstrations, launching the first cross-border military operation to quell unrest since the Arab world’s rebellions began in December.

A parliament group has asked Bahrain’s king to impose martial law after a month of unrest which has left the tiny Gulf nation sharply divided between minority Sunni Muslims backing the ruling system and Shiites demanding sweeping changes.

Several hundred people have protested in Shiite eastern Saudi Arabia but hundreds of police prevented protests in the capital calling for democratic reforms.

Hundreds of police have deployed in the Saudi capital ahead of planned protests calling for democratic reforms.

Demonstrations won’t be tolerated in Saudi Arabia and its security forces will act against anyone taking part in them, the Interior Ministry said today, a day after about 100 members of the Shiite minority staged a protest in an eastern region of the kingdom.

Nine police officers were killed when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb at a police station in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra, police and hospital officials said today.

The streets of Bahrain were calmer today as violent protests were exchanged for political haggling over demands the monarchy give up its near-absolute control.

Bahrain’s leaders banned public gatherings and sent tanks into the streets, intensifying a brutal crackdown that killed five anti-government protesters, injured more than 200 and turned a hospital into a cauldron of anguish and rage against the monarchy.

At least four people were killed in Bahrain after riot police with tear gas and clubs drove protesters from a main square where they had demanded sweeping political change in this tiny kingdom.

Bahrain riot police firing tear gas and wielding clubs stormed a landmark square occupied by anti-government protesters early today, driving out demonstrators and destroying the makeshift encampment that became the hub for demands to bring sweeping political changes to the kingdom.

Protesters demanding sweeping political reforms from Bahrain’s rulers held their ground in an Egypt-style occupation of the capital’s landmark square today, calling for a third day of demonstrations.

Thousands of protesters poured into a main square in Bahrain’s capital today as the Arab push for change gripped the Gulf for the first time.

The revolution on the Nile raises serious questions about the stability of other Arab regimes, reports Brian Murphy from Dubai