HILLARY CLINTON

We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition, said the 2008 presidential candidate. The bloodletting has got to stop, Republican Senator John McCain said in a statement on AFP.

Russia won a promise from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday to bring an end to bloodshed in Syria, but Western and Arab states acted to isolate Assad further after activists and rebels said his forces killed over 100 in the city of Homs.

Bombardment of Homs on eve of visit by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as world powers scramble for diplomatic strategy.

A Syrian regime military assault on Homs killed dozens of people on the eve of a visit to Damascus by Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov aimed at pressing President Bashar al-Assad to end an 11-month uprising by implementing swift reform.

An Egyptian military delegation abruptly cancelled its meetings with U.S. lawmakers to return to Cairo Monday after warnings from both Congress and the White House that Egypt's crackdown on non-governmental groups could threaten its $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid.

Syrian regime forces continued bombarding the rebellious city of Homs Monday, killing 50 more people in a sustained assault on several districts, the Syrian National Council opposition group said.

The United States closed its embassy in Damascus on Monday and President Barack Obama vowed to ratchet up pressure on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Egypt, seemingly determined to expel all foreign agencies from the country, is going to prosecute 43 international NGO employees on criminal charges.

Syrian forces bombarded Homs on Monday, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts of the city which has become a centre of armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian National Council opposition group said.

Western and Arab states voiced outrage Sunday after Russia and China vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to give up power, and Washington vowed harsher sanctions against Damascus.

The high-level diplomatic setback came after world leaders and Syrian opposition activists accused Assad's forces of a massacre in a sustained shelling of Homs, the bloodiest episode in 11 months of upheaval in the pivotal Arab country.

Russia and China vetoed on Saturday an Arab- and Western-backed resolution at the U.N. Security Council calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down over his bloody crackdown on a popular uprising.

Russia sought to delay a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria, warning on Saturday of a so-called scandal should the current draft be put to council members, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of passing classified documents to WikiLeaks, will face a full court-martial, the U.S. Army Military District of Washington announced on Friday. Manning faces 22 charges of participating in the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have taken the upper hand in escalating battles on the outskirts of the capital Damascus while top Western and Arab diplomats are seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for him to go.

The possible release of detained Taliban leaders is likely to join Iran's nuclear ambitions at the top of a busy agenda when the top seven American intelligence chiefs testify before the Congress this week.

More than a year after a wave of popular uprisings swept across the Arab world, the White House spent Monday responding to the chaos the Arab Spring has unleashed in Syria and Egypt.

Margaret Thatcher: The One and Only

Hillary Clinton again dismisses a swap with Vice President Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket.

Clinton told employees at the State Department that she was done with the high wire of American politics for the time being (watch here), a statement confirmed by officials and that has shocked those certain that she would replace Joe Biden as President Obama's running mate for the 2012 election. It would probably be a good idea to just find out how tired I am, she told the audience.

The European Union is deliberating on a €150 million ($197 million) aid package for Myanmar, according to the latest report.