Kuwaiti MPs are preparing to question the country’s finance minister over a controversial deal in which Tony Blair’s company was allegedly paid millions of pounds to advise its royal family.

Kuwait's parliament has voted in favour of a legal amendment that would make blasphemy a crime punishable by death following the arrest of a man accused of insulting the Prophet Mohamed on the social-networking website Twitter.

The American soldier suspected in a killing spree in Afghanistan is being flown to the US, reports say.

Opposition candidates were expected to make gains in a snap parliamentary election held yesterday in the Gulf Arab state.

Nations cite as their reason the daily killing of protesters by President Assad's regime

The increasingly tarnished reputation of Germany's President, Christian Wulff suffered a new setback yesterday with disclosures that the 52-year-old head of state threatened to sue a leading tabloid newspaper to prevent publication of a damaging article about a questionable six-figure private loan.

Not long after the "liberation" of 2003, the US-led coalition was preparing the Iraqi public for their ultimate departure. A television advert showed a bunch of boys in an excited football match, while their parents looked on with fond smiles – the portrait of a happy and contented land. In a swirl of dust, came Western troops in their armoured cars; they stopped beside the young players for a brief exchange of greetings, and then the convoy disappeared into the desert.

The last US soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border into neighboring Kuwait at daybreak today, whooping, fist bumping and hugging each other in a burst of joy and relief. Their convoy's exit marked the end of a bitterly divisive war that raged for nearly nine years and left Iraq shattered, with troubling questions lingering over whether the Arab nation will remain a steadfast US ally.

Brent crude tumbled by more than $2 a barrel after Opec agreed to maintain oil production at its present, relatively high, level next year. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed a new supply target of 30 million barrels a day.

Tensions between Iraq and Kuwait appear to have escalated to violence after several rockets struck the border area between the two countries, where a controversial new mega-port project is under construction.

On 2 August 1990, Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces, battle-hardened by eight years of war with Iran, crossed the border with Kuwait and swiftly overran its meagre armed forces.

Airport authorities say they have detained two men who attempted to smuggle 40 pythons on board a flight to Dubai.

David Cameron was forced to recalibrate his approach towards authoritarian regimes across the Middle East yesterday as he put democratic reform ahead of winning trade orders for the first time.