AMMAN - Syrian troops and tanks poured into Deraa on Monday, seeking to crush resistance in the city where a month-long uprising against the autocratic 11-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad first erupted.
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TRIPOLI - NATO forces flattened a building inside Muammar Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziyah compound early on Monday, in what a press official from his government said was an attempt on the Libyan leader's life.
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SANAA - Yemeni security forces shot dead three more protesters against President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday while opposition politicians debated whether to cooperate with a Gulf plan for the veteran autocrat to step aside.
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of prisoners escaped from a jail in Afghanistan's south on Monday through a tunnel dug by Taliban insurgents, officials said, a "disaster" for the Afghan government and a setback for foreign forces planning to start a gradual withdrawal within months.
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TEHRAN - Iran has been targeted by a second computer virus in a "cyber war" waged by its enemies, its commander of civil defence said on Monday.
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MANAMA - Bahrain is seeking the death penalty for a group of protesters accused of killing two policemen during anti-government demonstrations in the Gulf island kingdom, state media reported on Monday.
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PHANOM DONG RAK, Thailand - Thai and Cambodian troops clashed with guns and artillery on Monday after almost a full-day break in fighting that has killed at least 12 people in four days and sent nearly 50,000 into evacuation centres.
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NEW DELHI - Indian police arrested the former chief organiser of the Delhi Commonwealth Games on Monday as part of a crackdown in a slew of corruption scandals, piling embarrassment on the ruling Congress party-led government as it fights major state elections.
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to speed up a ruling on President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, his signature domestic achievement that has provoked a fierce political and legal battle.
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BEIJING - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Monday he hopes to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and his son and presumed heir during a visit this week that will concentrate on Pyongyang's nuclear programme and foodaid needs.
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TOKYO - Unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan faces fresh pressure to quit after his ruling party's losses in local elections on Sunday, weakening his clout as he struggles to contain a nuclear crisis and find ways to finance post-quake rebuilding.
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ISLAMABAD - The U.S. military classified Pakistan's top spy agency as a terrorist support entity in 2007 and used association with it as a justification to detain prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, according to leaked documents published on Sunday that are sure to further alienate Pakistan.
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JUBA, Sudan - At least 165 people have been killed in the past week in fighting between south Sudan's army and militia, the army said on Monday, part of a wave of violence in the territory ahead of its independence in July.
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