EGYPT

Egypt's first free parliament in six decades got to work Monday, with Islamists holding by far the most seats and opponents comparing their grip on the chamber to that enjoyed by the now defunct party of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

Israeli conglomerate Delek Group said on Sunday that the collateral to back an HSBC loan for its gas exploration units had been rejected by Israel's Petroleum Commissioner.

Hamas has reportedly urged Meshaal to reconsider.

The Muslim Brotherhood won by far the biggest share of seats allocated to party lists in Egypt's first freely elected parliament in decades, final results released on Saturday confirmed, and it named one of its top officials to lead the assembly.

Megaupload, one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, was shut down Thursday by the U.S. government. Its founder, Kim Schmitz, and several company executives were arrested in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials for mass copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit money laundering, reports Wired.com.

Wael Ghonim doesn't like being called an activist. The 31-year-old Google employee says he's no different than other Egyptians who took part in the 2011 protests spurred by a Facebook page he created that forced then-president Hosni Mubarak to step down.

The world's oldest astrologer's board was found by archaeologists in a cave overlooking the Adriatic Sea in Croatia. The ivory fragments of the board are engraved with zodiac signs in the Greco-Roman form and were sealed in a hidden chamber of Nakovana cave for over 2,000 years.

Scientists have confirmed that a piece of rock which fell into Tissint, Morocco on July 18, 2011 was a pure Martian meteorite. The fireball was spotted in the North Africa sky last summer but discovered six month later.

The defense began its case Tuesday in the trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who, according to the prosecution, is complicit in the killing of hundreds of protestors during last year's uprising against his regime.

Archeologists working in Egypt discovered the 3,000 year old tomb of Nehmes Bastet - a female singer who lived sometime between 945-712 BC.

Most people commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day turn to his iconic I Have a Dream speech. But King gave another famous speech the night before he died, known as the Promised Land or Mountaintop speech. In it, he alluded to his imminent assassination and the legacy he would leave behind. Listen to the audio file, watch the video, and read the full text of Dr. King's final speech here.

Egyptian and Swiss archaeologists have uncovered a rare tomb of a female singer, dating back 3,000 years in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings in Karnak, near Luxor in Upper Egypt. The discovery is important because this is the first tomb unearthed from the historic Egyptian valley that has no lineage to the Egyptian Royal family.

The U.N. chief told Bashar al-Assad Sunday to stop killing your people and the Syrian leader offered an amnesty for crimes committed during a 10-month-old revolt against him.

The United Nations chief told Bashar al-Assad on Sunday to stop killing your people, and the Syrian leader offered an amnesty for so-called crimes committed during a 10-month-old revolt against him.

Tunisians Saturday marked the first anniversary of the revolution that started the Arab Spring with celebrations that were true to the spirit of the revolt: raucous, unscripted and driven by the energy of ordinary people.

Mohamed ElBaradei pulled out of the race for the Egyptian presidency on Saturday, with the Nobel Peace Prize winner saying the previous regime was still running the country, which has been governed by army generals since Hosni Mubarak was deposed last year.

Russell Simmons took to his Web site, GlobalGrind.com, to address the Illuminati and satanic rumors related to the name of Beyonce and Jay-Z's baby, Blue Ivy Carter.

A federal appeals court's ruling against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban Oklahoma courts from using Islamic Sharia law represents more than a setback to the measure's proponents. Experts say that the decision also reveals how such laws fall somewhere between impractical and unconstitutional.

Since Deepwater Horizon, a longer permitting processes and the drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico is projected to cost the U.S. more than $24 billion in lost investment, says a report from the American Petroleum Institute.

Numbering in the tens of thousands, Sidis are generally very poor and generally remain isolated from “mainstream” Indians.

The Doomsday Clock, a clock face used as a symbol of imminent apocalypse, has been moved one minute closer to midnight because of inadequate progress on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and continuing inaction on climate change.