A series of car bombs exploded within minutes of each other in and around Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 28 people and wounding dozens in overwhelmingly Shia populated areas.    

Clashes on the Syrian border with Lebanon have killed three Lebanese Shiites and five Syrian opposition fighters, in the latest violence to take place in the territory, according to a Hezbollah official.

The head of Iraq’s intelligence academy and two bodyguards have been killed in a suicide blast in the northern town of Tal Afar, police say.Gen Ali Aouni is believed to be the most senior Iraqi military officer to be killed this year.

According to a high-level Syrian National Coalition member, the Syrian opposition umbrella group is prepared to negotiate a departure for President Bashar al-Assad with any member of his government who has not participated in the violent crackdown against the revolution.

Syrian rebels captured a military airbase in the north on Friday and geared up for a major battle against loyalists as the opposition said it refuses to accept President Bashar al-Assad in talks on the 23-month conflict.

Syrian rebels captured a military airbase in the north on Friday and geared up for a major battle against loyalists as the opposition said it refuses to accept President Bashar al-Assad in talks on the 23-month conflict.

Thousands have rallied in Cairo to show support for Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi, who has been locked in a deep dispute with the largely secular opposition.

Thousands of workers have been dispatched to Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, where a meteor streaking across the sky caused a shockwave that injured almost a thousand people, officials say.

Opposition fighters in Syria have seized a military air base and captured warplanes in the north of the country, as part of an assault on strategic northern targets.

Muslim scholars have chosen a professor of Islamic jurisprudence to become Egypt’s new Mufti, the first time the top religious leader be elected since the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.