A radical Muslim who has said he is prepared to be a suicide bomber is to speak at an Islamic convention in Manchester, England this weekend.

With Yasser Arafat in “the final phase of his life”, the Palestinian leader’s political heirs completed his burial arrangements today and made plans for a funeral as soon as Friday.

A top Islamic cleric was due at Yasser Arafat’s hospital bedside in Paris today after the Palestinian leader’s coma deepened and his caretaker government chose a burial site.

Yasser Arafat hovered on the brink of death in a Paris hospital tonight - being kept alive artificially while a cleric flew from the West Bank to be by his side.

A Palestinian woman was sentenced to 320 years in prison by an Israeli military court today for her role in a suicide bombing at a Jerusalem pizzeria that killed 15 people.

The British forces that control Iraq’s second city Basra have not had a smooth ride trying to set up the first country’s first post-war civilian administration.