At least 12 Lebanese soldiers have been killed in less than 24 hours of clashes with supporters of a radical Sunni cleric in the southern city of Sidon, a military spokesman told AFP.

Syrian troops backed by tanks and warplanes on Wednesday fought to repel an attack on the central prison in Aleppo after rebels blew up its walls in suicide car bombings, a watchdog said.

Thirty companies from India under the auspices of ASSOCHAM took part in the international trade exhibition ‘Project Qatar 2013,’ making it the largest-ever participation of Indian firms in the event.

In an appointment that was backed by the BCCI, former India leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan today replaced Tim May as a players’ representative on the ICC Cricket Committee.

Indian workers who have travelled to Saudi Arabia legally will be allowed to regularise their visa status, get new jobs or to return home if they register voluntarily with the Saudi authorities during the three months grace period announced by the Kingdom, according to officials.

Three NATO troops killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan were British, officials said today. The three soldiers from the Royal Highland Fusiliers died yesterday when their vehicle was hit on a routine patrol in the district of Nahr-e Saraj, part of the southern province Helmand.

Iraqi officials say a car bomb in a Shiite suburb of Baghdad has killed four people and wounded 12 others. Two police officers say the parked car bomb went off early morning today in Hussainya and killed four civilians.

Botswana President Ian Khama has received two stitches in his face after being clawed by a cheetah, a government spokesman said.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi escaped an assassination bid today, surviving a blast that targeted his convoy in Damascus, Syrian state television reported.

Less than 48 hours after they were arrested, a Philippine city prosecutor has dropped the charges against three Indians held by the police after a car they brought for servicing to an auto shop in Laguna was found to have been rigged with deadly C4 explosives.