One of the biggest challenges Tony Blair will face as a Middle East envoy of the international community is Arab anger over the wars in Iraq and Lebanon, and the suspicion that he is a lackey of US President George W. Bush.

Scotland’s high court must hear a new appeal by Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset Al Megrahi against his conviction for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, an independent review body said on Thursday.

Police were on patrol in Tehran on Thursday on alert for any more violent protests over the introduction of petrol rationing in Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer.