The prosecutor at a military tribunal has called for the death penalty for the former dictator over his role in the deaths of protesters during the uprising that overthrew him a year ago.

Defence giant BAE Systems has won a £1.6 billion contract to supply Hawk aircraft to Saudi Arabia, preventing more than 200 potential job losses at one of its factories.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain discussed a political union at a meeting in Riyadh yesterday in a development that could see the tiny Gulf kingdom largely absorbed by its neighbour.

Even Churchill told the Empire that Britain would 'not stand by idly and see Poland trampled'

Consternation grew on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday at leaks in the US media over the foiled al-Qa'ida bomb plot – the latest of them that the key infiltrator into the terrorist organisation's Yemen network was a British citizen apparently of Saudi origin who was recruited, according to some accounts, by MI5.

The undercover agent who foiled an an Al-Qa'ida plot to destroy an airliner by posing as a potential suicide bomber is British, it was reported in the US last night.

An undercover agent who foiled an al-Qa'ida plot to blow up a airliner with an underwear bomb is a British national, it was reported tonight.

Delhi faces sanctions if the US determines it has not made a sharp reduction in imports

Saudi Arabia has no evidence that Osama bin Laden's three wives and and reportedly 11 children deported from Pakistan have been involved in terrorism, officials said yesterday in an apparent indication that they will allow the group to remain in the kingdom.

Syria's Olympic chief could face being refused entry to Britain for the London 2012 Games.

A lawyer for Osama bin Laden's three widows and their nine children said the family is expected to be deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia later today.

Defence giant BAE Systems should receive a boost of around £500m this year, as it enters final negotiations with Saudi Arabia over changes to a huge aircraft contract.

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.

A sharp rise in executions in the Middle East meant more judicial killings last year even as fewer countries resorted to capital punishment, according to new figures published yesterday.