A Russian MiG-31 fighter jet has been scrambled to escort a US B-1B strategic bomber over the Sea of Japan, TASS news agency reported on Sunday citing the Russian military, just days after an incident with a US naval destroyer in the same region.

An Iranian warship on Saturday repulsed an attack by pirates against two oil tankers that it was escorting in the Gulf of Aden, the country's naval chief said.

Hundreds of Sudanese protesters took to the streets Saturday demanding the dissolution of the transitional government, saying it had failed them economically and politically.

Lebanon prepared to bury the victims of its deadliest sectarian unrest in years Friday after gunfire gripped central Beirut for hours and revived the ghosts of the civil war.

Tensions over a probe into last year’s massive blast in Beirut burst into the worst street violence in more than a decade yesterday, with six people shot dead and gun battles reviving memories of the country’s 1975-90 civil war.

The United Nations yesterday denounced violence against migrants in Libya after security forces shot dead at least half a dozen asylum seekers in recent days.

The lead judge investigating last year's catastrophic Beirut port blast issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil after he failed to show up for questioning.

Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s party was the biggest winner in an Iraqi election yesterday, increasing the number of seats he holds in parliament, according to initial results, officials and a spokesperson for the Sadrist Movement.

Iraqis were voting on Sunday in a general election many said they would boycott, having lost faith in the democratic system brought in by the US invasion of 2003.

Lebanon was plunged into a total blackout yesterday after two main power stations went offline because they ran out of fuel, the state electricity corporation said.

Lebanon has no centrally-generated electricity after the country's biggest two power stations shut down due to a fuel shortage, a government official told Reuters on Saturday.

Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, who became Iran's first president after the 1979 Islamic revolution before fleeing into exile in France, died on Saturday aged 88.