EGYPT

The government is also permitting about 500 foreign observers, including 120 from the European Union, to monitor the elections.

Political scepticism may mar the Algerian parliamentary election Thursday even as the ruling government aims at easing the pressure for democratic change created by the Arab Spring revolts last year.

Featured in the latest Google Doodle is Howard Carter, an English archaeologist and Egyptologist known for having a primary role in the discovery of the tomb of 14th-century BC pharaoh Tutankhamun (a.k.a. King Tut). Carter, who discovered King Tut's tomb on Nov. 4, 1922, is illustrated in the Google Doodle on the 138th anniversary of his birthday.

Fighting between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad's forces erupted in an oil producing province in eastern Syria, residents and activists said on Sunday, the eve of a parliamentary election the authorities say shows reforms are under way.

Ernst & Young projects that by 2015, money flowing to Africa will reach $150 billion, which will create 350,000 new jobs annually.

A new strain of foot and mouth disease (FMD) has reached the Gaza Strip and threatens to spread further after first being detected in Egypt and Libya in February, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Wednesday.

Early Wednesday morning, an estimated 11 anti-military protesters were killed and 160 injured in front of Cairo's Defense Ministry, when a group of unidentified attackers stormed the demonstration.

A diplomat from the Kingdom said Egyptian forces had detained three Iranian men after uncovering the plot to kill ambassador Ahmed Kattan, but that the Saudis had opted to keep quiet about the plot for fear of stoking anti Saudi-demonstrators in the country.

After a year of revolutionary turmoil that saw tourists flee the Mediterranean hotspot in droves, Tunisia hopes 2012 will mark the start of the recovery in a sector that used to account for almost 7 percent of gross domestic product and employs 500,000 people.

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it had recalled its ambassador in Cairo for security reasons after protests in Egypt against the kingdom's arrest of an Egyptian lawyer, marking a diplomatic rupture between the long-time allies.

In an alleged bid to curtail freedom of speech, Kuwait is formulating a set of new laws to monitor the usage of social media, Bikya Masar has reported.

For the second straight Friday, Egyptian Islamists rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protect the revolution that brought an end to Hosni Mubarak.

Police have detained three young men in Copenhagen, Denmark, on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.

Egyptian daily Al Ahram Thursday published an opinion piece that contained news about a new law known as the Farewell Intercourse Law which Egypt's parliament is considering to enact.

The conflict through the lens of those on the ground.

A controversial new law, dubbed Farewell Intercourse, could possibly come into effect in Egypt which states that husbands will be legally allowed to have sex with their dead wives up to six hours after their death. The Farewell Intercourse law is just one of many new laws being introduced to Egyptians by the Islamist-dominated parliament. Other laws include the legal marriage age lowered to 14-years-old and women's rights to education and employment abolished.

The final list of Egyptian presidential candidates was announced on Thursday, and 13 men will face off in the first free presidential elections in the country in decades.

Artist Ben Campbell crafted a life-size mummy as a centerpiece for his art show on the link between ancient Egypt and modern society. More impressive than structuring a life-size mummy is building it using $200 worth of McDonald?s food.

The Libyan National Transitional Council bans religious political parties before elections in June, angering the Muslim Brotherhood

In a conversation suffused with themes and talking points sure to resurface during the election, the commander-in-chief touched on topics as diverse as climate change, the tenor of the rhetoric on Capitol Hill and his fondness for The Daily Show and Homeland.

Ahmed Shafiq has been disqualified from Egypt's upcoming president elections because of his former position in the Hosni Mubarak regime.