TEHRAN (AFP) - An interior ministry official said on Saturday Iran will not allow the opposition to hold a rally in support of Arab uprisings which regime backers believe to be a ploy for fresh anti-government protests.
Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi had sought ministry permission to stage a rally on Monday which they said was to show solidarity with the uprisin [...]
BAQUBA, Iraq (AFP) - Iraqi authorities uncovered a mass grave north of Baghdad on Saturday with 153 bodies of Al-Qaeda victims, many of them women, children and members of the security forces, police told AFP.
"Following a confession by a terrorist arrested two weeks ago in Baquba we discovered a mass grave containing 153 bodies of people killed by al-Qaeda in 2006 and 2007 " said General [...]
CAIRO (AFP) - At least 13 Egyptians died and nearly two dozen were injured on Saturday when a building collapsed in the southern Egyptian tourist town of Luxor, security officials said.
They said the toll could rise further as rescue workers were still digging through the rubble of the six-storey building, which appeared to have collapsed as a result of construction work around its grou [...]
RIYADH (AFP) - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said in Saudi Arabia on Saturday that president Hosni Mubarak's ouster has opened "a new page" in Egypt that no pundits could have predicted.
Fillon told reporters he discussed the dramatic events in Egypt, where Saudi Arabia's ally Mubarak was toppled on Friday, with the crown prince and defence minister, Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and with Pri [...]
SANAA (AFP) - Several thousand young Yemenis gathered in central Sanaa on Saturday, calling for President Ali Abdallah Saleh to step down and follow the example of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, an AFP correspondent said.
"After Mubarak, it's Ali's turn," chanted some of the estimated 4,000 protesters, mostly young students.
The protesters then headed off towards Sanaa University, with s [...]
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank on Saturday announced plans to hold elections by September, running into immediate opposition from its Hamas rivals in Gaza.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee's call for presidential and legislative polls comes amid stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian talks and the political up [...]
SAMARRA, Iraq (AFP) - A suicide bomber blew himself up inside a bus filled with Shiite pilgrims returning from mourning rituals in the Iraqi city of Samarra on Saturday, killing at least 30 people, hospital sources said.
"The suicide bomber quickly ran into the bus when it stopped at a checkpoint several kilometres (miles) outside Samarra, and detonated his vest inside the vehicle," a pol [...]
CAIRO (AFP) - Cairo's new military leadership on Saturday vowed to pave the way for democracy and abide by its peace treaty with Israel as Egyptians basked in their victory a day after Hosni Mubarak's overthrow.
The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the current government would remain in place for a peaceful transition to "an elected civil authority to build a free democratic state [...]
BERLIN (AFP) - Governments across the Arab world must now get used to demands for basic human rights to be respected in the wake of the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In her weekly podcast, released Saturday but recorded before Friday's ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Merkel said the protests in Arab capitals reminded her of those w [...]
CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptians on Saturday celebrated their first day of victory after an uprising drove veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak from power, expressing hope that their new military rulers will chart a path to democracy.
The streets and squares of downtown Cairo were in the hands of the mostly young demonstrators whose determined 18-day revolt overturned 30 years of autocratic rule and tr [...]
Passengers jump out of plane in India after bad landing
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