A wave of bombings killed at least 60 people in Iraq on the tenth anniversary of the America-led invasion. Responsibility was claimed by a group linked to Al-Qaeda.

Fighting continued in between President Assad’s forces and rebels in Syria’s second city of Aleppo, as at least 40 people were killed in explosions.

Iraqi officials reported that September has been the country’s deadliest month for two years. At least 365 people were killed in attacks, carried out mainly by Sunni extremists against Shias, who dominate the government.

The defence minister in Yemen survived an assassination attempt that left 12 people dead, when a bomb exploded near his office in the capital Sana’a.

Tareq Al-Hashemi, Iraq’s vice-president, was sentenced to death in absentia for alleged murder. He blames the prime minister Nuri Al-Maliki, denouncing the trial as being politically motivated.

Libya postponed its elections because it needs another six weeks to organise them. It also arrested lawyers from the International Criminal Court who allegedly shared forbidden information with Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif al Islam.

Calls for western intervention strengthened following another massacre of villagers in Syria - at least 78 were said to have been slaughtered near Hama. The Free Syrian Army was reported to have killed at least 100 soldiers after declaring it would no longer abide by the ceasefire called by the UN and the Arab League.

An Iraqi suicide bomber, presumably a Sunni extremist, killed at least 18 people outside the headquarters of a Shia religious foundation in Baghdad.

Three bombs struck security targets in Damascus and Aleppo (Syria), killing 30 people.

Hana Shalabi, a Palestinian activist detained without charge by Israel, was said by a medical rights group to be facing “immediate risk of death” after more than 30 days of hunger strike.

A wave of bombings in Iraq killed scores of people. Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad and other cities were the primary targets.

Voters in Yemen were asked to rubber-stamp the promotion of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the vice-president, to the presidency. He was the only candidate in the presidential vote.

The Arab League suspended an observer mission to Syria that was meant to aid a peaceful end to an increasingly-violent conflict between the government and protesters.

Iraq’s main Sunni party returned to parliament and will resume talks with Shia leaders, following a protest over an arrest warrant for the country’s Sunni vice-president.

Bedouin tribesmen in Egypt’s Sinai region released 25 Chinese workers they had kidnapped.

Bombings in Baghdad and Basra killed at least 45 people. As the last Americans troops prepare to leave Iraq, such attacks may cast doubt on the Iraqi forces’ ability to maintain security.

Kuwait’s prime minister and his cabinet resigned in Kuwait over allegations of corruption.

Five bloggers in Abu Dhabi received prison sentences of between two and three years for insulting the country’s rulers and sowing dissent, but were promptly granted a presidential pardon.

A string of bombs likely to be planted by Al-Qaeda went off all over Iraq. A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people in Baghdad, including a prominent parliamentarian.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a military academy in Algeria that killed 18 people.