Huge crowds across Yemen demanded on Friday that President Ali Abdullah Saleh leave after months of unrest which has put the Arab world’s poorest country on the brink of an economic meltdown. But in a defiant speech to thousands of flag-waving supporters in the Yemeni capital, Saleh declared: “We will confront a challenge with a challenge.” Three people were killed and 15 wounded... 

The Bushehr nuclear power plant, located in southern Iran. According to Russia, the first reactor at Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant has gone into operation, as reported by AP. A spokesperson for the Atomstroyexport company, the Russian contractor of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, says the activities at the plant is progressing well and on schedule. Olga Tysleva told IRNA on Friday... 

Bab al-Aziziya, situated in the southern suburbs of Tripoli, is a military barracks and Gaddafi's main compound. At least six people have been killed and 10 others wounded after NATO airstrikes struck headquarters of embattled Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli. Explosions roared across the Libyan capital early on Thursday as missiles landed in Bab al-Aziziya compound. It was not immediately... 

The Libyan capital Tripoli has been hit by another heavy bombardment. Reports suggest numerous airstrikes were carried out by NATO fighter jets early on Tuesday. The UN humanitarian chief has called for a pause in hostilities, from all sides. According to witnesses, eight airstrikes were carried out by NATO forces within a period of about three hours, which is unusually intense, Al Jazeera informed.... 

Ablaze: Firemen fight a fire at a church surrounded by angry Muslims in the Imbaba neighborhood in Cairo last night. Mobs set fire to two churches in sectarian clashes that kill 12 in Cairo – after rumours that a Christian woman married a Muslim. Muslim mobs set two churches on fire in Cairo during sectarian clashes that left 12 dead and more than 200 injured last night. The deepening religious... 

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak Israeli officials have criticized ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan for calling a possible attack on Iran “a stupid idea,” saying he should not share his personal views with others. In his first public appearance since leaving office in early January, Dagan publicly argued against an airstrike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Addressing the Hebrew University... 

Iran's Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi. Iran’s intelligence minister says the country has reliable information that former head of the al-Qaeda terrorist group Osama bin Laden died of disease some time ago. “We have accurate information that bin Laden died of illness some time ago,” Heidar Moslehi told reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting on Sunday. He questioned Washington’s... 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who is described as 'the actual president of Iran' by allies of the country's supreme leader. Iranian power struggle between president and supreme leader sees arrests and claims of undue influence of chief of staff. Close allies of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have been accused of using supernatural powers... 

Moscow has greeted the reconciliation between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas groups with enthusiasm, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson, Aleksandr Lukashevich. ­“On May 4, 15 Palestinian movements, including the two largest, Fatah and Hamas, signed an inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement. Based on this, a transition government of independent “technocrats”... 

As many as 8,000 Syrians are missing in the country after security forces intensified home raids and detentions on anti-regime protesters since Friday, according to a human-rights group, and others have been released following what it describes severe torture. But the regime’s continued use of force to squash the protest movement has instigated a new set of voices—among them students in Syria’s... 

Sarkozy tells L'Express: "France will face up to its responsibilities on ... recognition of a Palestinian state". France may recognise a Palestinian state later this year Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said in an interview with a leading weekly magazine. “If the peace process is still dead in September, France will face up to its responsibilities on the central question... 

The NATO statement mourning the death of the younger son and three grandchildren of Muammar Gaddafi is a cynicism seldom seen. It is not credible that Gadhafi left his son and grandchildren in a military installation, even after a month of heavy bombing in the capital, Tripoli. Rather it was an attack on a house in a residential neighborhood, with the deliberate aim of taking out the Libyan leader. Like... 

Screen grab of Muammar al-Gaddafi. Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi’s youngest son and three grandchildren were killed in an air strike Saturday, a spokesman said, after rebels and NATO dismissed an offer for talks to end Libya’s crisis. “The house of Mr Seif al-Arab Muammar Gaddafi… who is the youngest of the leader’s children, was attacked tonight with full power. The... 

Set upon: Lara Logan was torn away from her film crew just moments after this picture was taken in Cairo's Tahrir Square. She was subjected to a prolonged sexual assault by a terrifying mob of at least 200 men. Lara Logan has spoken out for the first time since her terrifying sexual assault in Egypt, describing how attackers ‘raped her with their hands’. The 39-year-old CBS foreign... 

Palestinian Fatah delegation chief Azzam al-Ahmed (R), Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq (L). The Palestinian movements of Hamas and Fatah will sign a deal to form a unity government next week in the Egyptian capital Cairo, a senior Fatah official says. Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal will meet Fatah leader and acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo to sign the deal, AFP...