BAE Systems today said it is close to wrapping up key talks with the Saudi government over a multi-billion pound jets deal as cuts in US military spending dented its profits during the first half of 2013.

Shaker Aamer, who is on hunger strike after being detained by US for 11 years, tells of brutal daily cell searches

Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner was hit last year but Yemen branch has just announced death

Meshael Alayban was arrested in California and charged with allegedly holding a Kenyan maid against her will. She could face up to 12 years in prison

Saudi Arabia announces plans to open first female-only colleges - run by British universities

The Syrian National Council will meet today to reassure anti-government backers they can be trusted with weapons

Something revealing turned up at the end of the preview version of last night's The Greatest Shows on Earth. It was a trailer for the programme that actually opened the series, the one about Brazil that headlined on semi-naked women. That rather suggests that there'd been a late change to the transmission order of the programmes.

Saudi Ministry of Health will send 20 doctors for specialist training in the NHS from August this year

Freedom of Information request forces authorities to name terror suspects held for the last 12 years

Ban follows a warning from government regulator in March due to unspecified 'infringement'

The Iranian government claims it has captured a “spy ring” working for Israel and Britain which had planned to carry out “sabotage and assassinations” to undermine the impending national elections in the country.

A deadly virus alarms scientists, as a new flu strain appears in China

A new Sars-like virus discovered in humans could pose “a threat to the entire world”, the World Health Organisation warned this week.

In Saudi Arabia, the right to drive has become a symbol of a wider fight for women’s freedom, a leading campaigner tells Catrina Stewart