AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces bombarded districts of the city of Homs in their drive to crush a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, ahead of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers due to discuss setting up a joint observer mission with the United Nations.

Manama (Reuters) - Bahrain expelled two American rights activists Saturday after police used teargas and stun grenades to break up a protest Saturday that tried to march toward the roundabout at the center of a failed pro-democracy uprising last year.

CAIRO (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer met Egypt's ruling generals in Cairo Saturday and discussed the case of U.S. pro-democracy activists charged in an investigation that has strained ties between Cairo and Washington.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - At least seven people died and three others were missing after an avalanche hit the village of Restelica in southern Kosovo on Saturday, local authorities said.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police threw Rupert Murdoch's scandal-hit News Corporation into fresh turmoil on Saturday by arresting five senior staff at the top-selling daily The Sun in a probe into journalists paying police for tip-offs.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's popular former president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was hospitalized on Saturday for exhaustion resulting from chemotherapy, complicating his swift recovery from throat cancer and casting doubts on when he might return to political life.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told lawmakers to back a deeply unpopular EU/IMF rescue in a vote on Sunday or condemn the country to a "vortex" of recession.

TUNIS (Reuters) - Five secular Tunisian parties merged on Saturday in an attempt to create a rival to Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that swept to power in the first free elections last year.

MALE (Reuters) - New Maldives President Mohamed Waheed Hussain Manik said on Saturday he was open to an inquiry into how he took office after his predecessor said he had been forced out in a coup.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Islamic Republic would soon announce "very important" achievements in the nuclear field, state TV reported.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Violence flared across Syria, including bomb attacks that killed at least 28 people in Aleppo, while at the United Nations diplomats said a new effort was afoot to gain backing for an Arab peace plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in the country.

KAWHMU, Myanmar (Reuters) - Crowds of thousands lined the streets cheering and tooting horns as Myanmar Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi hit the campaign trail for the first time on Saturday in a bid to become a lawmaker in the country's parliament.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican drug cartels paid $4.5 million in bribes to buy protection and political favors in a state run by the country's main opposition party, U.S. court documents said on Friday, as the party leads polls to win the presidency in July.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya urged Niger on Saturday to extradite Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi, saying his call for Libyans to prepare for a "coming uprising" threatened bilateral ties.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - London's U.N. ambassador warned Argentina on Friday that Britain would "robustly" defend the Falkland Islands if necessary, but added that his country remained open to bilateral talks with Buenos Aires on any issue except the islands' sovereignty.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Sudan and South Sudan on Friday signed a security agreement which aims to defuse tensions over oil payments which officials had warned could spark a war between the two countries.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Thousands of Egyptians marched to the Defense Ministry Friday to press demands for the generals to hand over power, a day before a strike called by activists to mark the first anniversary of President Hosni Mubarak's fall.

AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least 28 people were killed in two bomb attacks in Syria's second city Aleppo on Friday while in besieged Homs, opposition neighborhoods endured another day of bombardment by President Bashar al-Assad's troops.

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi warned on Friday of an "imminent uprising" in Libya, saying he was in regular contact with people in the country who were unhappy with the authorities put in place after the ousting and killing of his father.

MALE (Reuters) - The former president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, demanded on Friday fresh elections and said he would organise street protests in the Indian Ocean archipelago best known as a luxury beach getaway if polls were not called.