The Obama administration is seeking to advance talks among Saudi Arabia and its neighbours on a missile defence system against Iran, while slowing any plans among Arab Gulf states to intervene militarily in Syria.

A senior leader of Yemen’s al-Qaida branch has been killed in fighting in the nearly lawless south of the country, the Defence Ministry said.

The United Nations is drafting a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya as the international community edges closer to military intervention in the North African country.

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.

Children in Darfur are enduring “unspeakable acts of violence and abuse” from killing and rape to abduction, torture and recruitment, as fighters in the escalating four-year conflict, a world group of relief and human rights organisations said today.

Kuwait’s emir told the US secretary of state that Washington should talk to Syria and Iran to improve the situation in Iraq, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said today.

Iran will continue its nuclear programme even if the United Nations imposes sanctions, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said today, referring to the gathering international momentum toward punishing Iran for its enrichment of uranium.

Consumer boycotts of Danish goods in Muslim countries in protest of the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are costing Denmark’s companies millions, and have raised fears of irreparable damage to trade ties.

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has signalled his intention that Ireland is to open a diplomatic mission in Hanoi, Vietnam.

SOME 50,000 people may have died in Friday's Iranian earthquake, officials said yesterday, as relief workers pleaded for more aid for survivors of one of the deadliest natural disasters of modern times.