JERUSALEM: The Israeli navy intercepted an Egyptian-bound ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the country’s Mediterranean coast on Tuesday, saying the arms had been sent by Syria to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
SANAA: An activist of the main Islamist opposition was shot dead in a gunfight with pro-regime loyalists in northern Yemen on Tuesday.
BEIRUT: About 40 people joined a rare Syrian protest on Tuesday, briefly chanting political slogans in central Damascus before dispersing, a witness said.
ROME: Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi said he felt betrayed by former European allies like Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi who have turned against him and said business links with Europe risked lasting damage.
WASHINGTON: The United States has dispatched a top diplomat to Bahrain to try to bring about talks between its government and opposition, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday.
TRIPOLI: Business has never been better for Abdul Basit Sawaan, who runs a shop selling military uniforms to supporters of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
TOBRUK, Libya: Muammar Qaddafi’s warplanes, artillery and mortar shells can control huge swaths of territory by day, including oil ports, rebel supply routes and even hostile towns. Rebels say anti-government forces can still return in darkness to take advantage of Qaddafi’s own thin supply lines and overstretched ground troops.
MANAMA: Tuesday’s night was “eerie”on the reopened King Fahd Causeway, writes Arab News correspondent Molouk Ba-Issa who had flown in from Dubai and then headed across the causeway to Dammam.
SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq: Two top Kurdish politicians resigned Tuesday from local government in northern Iraq in what appears to be a political maneuver to challenge Arabs for control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, one of the nation’s most volatile fault lines.
GENEVA: Iran has intensified its crackdown on opponents as well as executions of drug traffickers, political prisoners and juvenile criminals, the United Nations said on Monday. In a report, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also voiced concern at floggings, amputations and the continued sentencing of men and women to death by stoning for alleged adultery.
RAMALLAH: Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in major West Bank cities and in Gaza Strip on Tuesday, calling for unity between the Fatah-controlled West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
JUBA, Sudan: More than 40 militiamen and two soldiers died when rebel militias raided the capital of south Sudan’s oil-producing Upper Nile state and took more than 100 children hostage in an orphanage, the southern army said.
JERUSALEM: The US Embassy said Monday it was “deeply concerned” by Israel’s plans to build hundreds of new homes in the West Bank following a deadly attack on a settler family, calling Israeli settlements “illegitimate” and an obstacle to peacemaking.
JERUSALEM: A prominent Palestinian activist has been released from jail after serving time for his role in often violent demonstrations against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank.
RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday rejected Israeli accusations that the Palestinian Authority (PA) allows incitement against Israel in its mosques and schools.
SANAA: Yemen security forces ordered on Monday four foreign journalists to promptly leave the country, without giving them any reason for deportation.
GENEVA: The United Nations human rights office urged the international community on Monday to move quickly to protect Libyan civilians from violence at the hands of Muammar Qaddafi’s advancing forces.
MANAMA: The King Fahd Causeway that connects the Saudi city of Alkhobar with Bahrain over the Arabian Sea was closed on Monday evening as a Saudi military convoy passed into Bahrain. At 5:30 p.m., Saudi police closed the entrance to the 25-km causeway.
AJDABIYAH, Libya: Muammar Qaddafi’s troops seized the strategic Libyan oil town of Brega on Sunday forcing rebels to retreat under a heavy bombardment while world powers considered imposing a no-fly zone.
RAMALLAH/GAZA: The Israeli Army on Saturday announced the West Bank city of Nablus and the surrounding villages a closed military zone following the killing of five Jewish occupiers in a nearby Jewish settlement, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said. Unknown Palestinian attackers broke into a house in the Itamar settlement and stabbed to death five occupiers.
ANKARA: More than 10,000 doctors and medicine students are protesting the Turkish government decision to introducte a new health care system, which they claim compromises the quality of health care.
MUSCAT: Oman’s ruler granted lawmaking powers Sunday to officials outside the royal family in the boldest reforms yet aimed at quelling protests for jobs and a greater public role in politics.
BEIRUT: Tens of thousands of supporters of Lebanon’s pro-Western opposition thronged downtown Beirut on Sunday, demanding that the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah give up its weapons.
AMSTERDAM: The UN-backed Lebanon tribunal’s prosecutor on Friday expanded the scope of his indictment over the 2005 killing of statesman Rafik Al-Hariri, delaying the review process by months.
NICOSIA, Cyprus: Turkish Cypriot police have released two European parliamentarians after detaining them for several hours for allegedly trespassing on a restricted military area in the breakaway north of ethnically divided Cyprus, a Greek Cypriot member of the European Parliament said on Saturday.
CAIRO: Egypt’s ruling military council says it will scrap a law that has severely restricted the formation of political parties.
It is the latest political reform push following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last month in a popular uprising.
TUNIS: Tunisia’s state news agency says authorities have arrested three close allies of deposed former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
PARIS: A Brazilian reporter who was freed from detention in Libya has urged Muammar Qaddafi’s government to release a colleague from a British newspaper who is still held in the violence-wracked country.
BAGHDAD: Iraq's lawmakers tentatively agreed Saturday to cut their monthly pay in half and reduce the salaries of the nation's top leaders in hopes of appeasing protesters who accuse them of living in luxury at the expense of the poor.
ZAWIYA, Libya: Arab foreign ministers were meeting in Egypt on Saturday to discuss a no-fly zone over Libya as Muammar Qaddafi’s regime showed growing confidence after retaking a strategic town near Tripoli following days of relentless shelling against protesters-turned-rebels.
ADDIS ABABA: The leaders of South Africa, Uganda, Mauritania, Congo and Mali will form a panel that will travel to Libya shortly to help end the violence there, the African Union announced late on Friday.
ZAWIYA, Libya: Arab foreign ministers were meeting in Egypt on Saturday to discuss a no-fly zone over Libya as Muammar Qaddafi’s regime showed growing confidence after retaking a strategic town near Tripoli following days of relentless shelling against protesters-turned-rebels.
ADDIS ABABA: The leaders of South Africa, Uganda, Mauritania, Congo and Mali will form a panel that will travel to Libya shortly to help end the violence there, the African Union announced late on Friday.
A divided UN Security Council on Monday discussed the idea of authorizing a no-fly zone over Libya, but no consensus emerged among its 15 members. While the Arab League pushed for early approval of the no-fly zone proposal, Russia says it has many questions that remain unanswered.
Air and ground: Qaddafi, rebels each claim control
Qaddafi says shocked by former European friends
In Libyan capital, people resigned to Qaddafi win
TOBRUK, Libya: Outnumbered and outgunned, Libyan rebels lost control of their last town west of Tripoli on Tuesday and struggled to stall or outrun Muammar Qaddafi’s forces as they raced eastward. With a punishing blockade, airstrikes and long-range missiles, Qaddafi’s forces neared opposition strongholds, apparently hoping either for outright victory or to force residents to turn against the rebels.
MANAMA: Bahrain’s king imposed a three-month state of emergency Tuesday and gave the country’s military chief wide authority to battle a pro-democracy uprising that has threatened the ruling monarchy and drawn in forces from around the Gulf.
Kingdom takes lead to help Bahrain
SANAA: Scattered clashes broke out across Yemen on Monday, with three soldiers killed in the north, as military forces were deployed to check nationwide protests demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states started sending security forces on Monday to Bahrain in response to Manama's call for military help to quell anti-government protests that have shaken the country. Bahraini opposition groups including the largest party Al-Wefaq denounced the move to invite GCC forces. But the United States, while urging Bahrain to exercise restraint, said it does not consider the entry into Bahrain of GCC security forces an invasion.
Bahrain lawmakers push for martial law; GCC forces arrive
BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber blew up his booby-tapped car early Monday outside an Iraqi army battalion headquarters in the country’s east, killing 10 soldiers and wounding 29 people in a bombing that brought down the building.
MANAMA, Bahrain: A parliament group asked Bahrain’s king on Monday to impose martial law after a month of unrest that has left the tiny Gulf nation sharply divided between minority Sunni Muslims backing the ruling system and Shiites demanding sweeping changes.
SANAA: Police on rooftops fired live bullets and tear gas at protesters Sunday, injuring more than 100 people who were camping near Sanaa University, the latest in weeks of demonstrations calling for the Yemeni president to step down. Wielding clubs and knives, police and government supporters also attacked protesters on the ground, said Mohammed Al-Abahi, a doctor in charge of a makeshift hospital near the university.
RAMALLAH: The Israeli ministerial committee on settlements affairs approved the construction of 500 new housing units in several West Bank settlements, the Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
MANAMA: Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain’s financial center and drove back police trying to push them from the capital’s central square — shaking the island kingdom Sunday with the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago.
CAIRO: The Arab League asked the UN Security Council Saturday to impose a no-fly zone over Libya to protect civilians from air attack by forces of Muammar Qaddafi’s embattled government, giving crucial backing to a key demand of the rebel forces battling to oust the Libyan leader.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Thousands of Palestinians thronged major squares in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Tuesday to deliver an impassioned appeal to their leaders to end the long-running feud that has divided the Palestinian people between two rival governments.
SANAA: Anti-government tribesmen in northern Yemen stormed a security building and shot dead four soldiers in a revenge attack after government troops opened fire on opposition protesters calling for the president’s ouster, witnesses said.
