With the systematic slaughter of dozens of non-combatants, the evidence on the ground in the Syrian town of Houla is of a war crime. But Syria's government is saying it had no hand in the massacre.

Britain and several other countries are expelling Syrian diplomats following the killing of 108 people, half of them children, in Houla.

British defence giant BAE Systems secures a £1.6bn deal with Saudi Arabia that will safeguard more than 240 jobs that were under threat at its Yorkshire factory.

More than 90 people were killed and 222 injured when a suicide bomber attacked soldiers practising for a military parade in Sanaa, the Yemen capital.

Violent sectarian clashes erupt in Lebanon after the bloody uprising to oust Syria's President Bashar al-Assad spilled over the border, killing five and wounding more than 70.

More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike in Israeli jails have agreed to end their protest following negotiations.

Afghan police shoot dead two British servicemen and gunmen kill a peace negotiator in separate attacks that undermine the country's attempt to negotiate a peace deal with Taliban insurgents.

The intrigue swirling around Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's former oil minister has followed him to Austria, where his body was found in the River Danube on Sunday. Police say he drowned.

Up to 70 people are feared to have been killed in a deadly shell attack on houses in the central Syrian city of Hama amid a visit by UN observers.

Demonstrators in Bahrain protest today's Grand Prix denouncing it as a gaudy spectacle, and continue to call for a change in government.