Saudi women leading a campaign against the kingdom's ban on female driving are calling on the courts to take up their lawsuits demanding the right to drive.

Their kidnappers gave them tea and dried fruit, and talked about religion and tribal rights. The California women were allowed to bring their Egyptian tour guide with them. One even put out his cigarette in the car when a hostage said the smoke was bothering her.

Ignoring a stern U.S. threat, Egypt on Sunday referred 43 NGO workers, including 19 Americans, to trial before a criminal court for allegedly using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

It was the first State of the Union address after the 9/11 attacks, and America was leading an invasion of Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden. Fittingly, this is where President George W. Bush began on Jan. 29, 2002: "As we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers."

A Sudanese newspaper says a military spokesman has denied that the country's air force has bombed civilians in a southern province.

A Syrian state-run newspaper has welcomed the Russian and Chinese veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at stopping Damascus' crackdown on the country's uprising.

Iran began ground military exercises Saturday and defiantly warned that it could cut off oil exports to "hostile" European nations as tensions rise over suggestions that military strikes are an increasing possibility if sanctions fail to rein in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has warned of a war between Khartoum and South Sudan because their failure to settle a dispute over an oil export deal.

Abu Hamza was in a crowd of thousands in the Syrian border town of Qusair, shouting for President Bashar Assad to leave power, when a sniper's bullet tore through his leg and shattered the bone into 18 pieces.

Egyptian security forces on Saturday fired tear gas from armored trucks at protesters demanding an end to military rule, as anger over a deadly soccer riot fueled a third day of clashes that have killed at least 12 people.

A judicial official says Jordan's military prosecutor has charged a maverick ex-parliamentarian with public incitement against the country's king.

Iraq's most prominent Shiite cleric has urged politicians to make concessions to solve the country's ongoing political crisis, an aide to the leader said on Friday.

Bedouin tribesmen abducted two female American tourists and their Egyptian guide at gunpoint Friday but released them several hours later after negotiations with tribal leaders in the Sinai Peninsula, the region's security chief said.

Syrian forces unleashed a barrage of mortars and artillery on the battered city of Homs on Saturday, killing more than 200 people in what appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard began military exercises Saturday in the country's south, the latest show of force after threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for tougher Western sanctions.

Human Rights Watch says that a Moammar Gadhafi-era diplomat appears to have died under torture after his arrest by a Libyan militia, the latest in a series of reported abuses by former rebels who overthrew the dictator last year.

Iran successfully launched a new small satellite into orbit early Friday, state media reported, the latest in the country's ambitious space program that has raised concerns in the West because of its possible military applications.

Thirty years ago Thursday, Syria's regime launched a withering assault on the rebellious city of Hama, leveling entire neighborhoods and killing thousands in one of the most notorious massacres in the modern Middle East.

Police in Cairo fired salvos of tear gas and birdshot Friday at rock-throwing protesters as popular anger over a deadly soccer riot spilled over into a second day of street violence that left three people dead and more than 1,500 injured, doctors and health officials said.

Since Iran's Islamic Revolution 33 years ago, the walls and buildings of major cities have been an open-air gallery to vilify the state's enemies and venerate the defenders of the theocracy.

New financial incentives designed to lure Israelis to poorer, outlying areas have been revised to exclude West Bank settlements, officials said Thursday.

Senior members of Bahrain's ruling family have met with the head of an independent inquiry that called for reforms in the violence-wracked Gulf nation.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned Thursday that time is running out for a Mideast peace deal and urged Israel to make goodwill gestures, including easing its blockade of Gaza, to help lure the Palestinians back to negotiations.

Opposition groups that include hard-line Islamists have taken control of Kuwait's parliament, according to election results Friday, in a rise that could limit the hands of pro-Western rulers in dealings such as U.S. plans to boost its military presence in the oil-rich Gulf nation.

Tunisian security forces on Thursday killed two members of an armed group and arrested a third after a clash the day before left a policeman and three soldiers wounded, one of them critically, the state news agency reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest complaints about Palestinian "hate speech," after relatives of the killer of a Jewish settler family praised him in a phone call to the official Palestine TV, spotlight the intense animosity and mutual distrust that have blocked peace talks for years.

Russia said Thursday it will keep selling arms to longtime ally Syria, despite mounting international condemnation over the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown on a 10-month-old uprising.

Capping a day of strident warnings by Israeli officials about the dangers posed by Iran, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that the world is increasingly ready to consider a military strike against Iran if economic sanctions don't halt Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

Two Palestinian journalists said Wednesday they were detained and questioned by Palestinian security forces, one after mocking the Palestinian leadership and the other after reporting about alleged corruption at a Palestinian diplomatic mission.

The special court investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said Wednesday it will try four Hezbollah members indicted in the case in absentia.

It's usually well after midnight before Bahrain takes a breather.

An al-Qaida front group in Iraq claimed responsibility for a bloody attack on a government compound in the Islamist militants' former stronghold west of Baghdad last month and vowed more attacks on the Shiite-led government as it tries to make up with its Sunni-backed members.

Yemen's electricity minister said Wednesday he has secured the release of six United Nations workers who were kidnapped by armed tribesmen.

Germany has upgraded the Palestinian diplomatic representation in Berlin from a delegation to a mission headed by an ambassador, visiting German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced Wednesday.

A gunbattle between rival militias erupted in the Libyan capital Wednesday, illustrating how Libya's new rulers have so far failed to put their stamp on their country and bring it under control.

Egyptians ranging from soccer fans to lawmakers blamed the country's military rulers for a bloody post-match riot Thursday as anger mounted over the failure of police to stop the violence when a narrow stadium exit turned into a death trap in a seaside city north of the capital.

Gunmen kidnapped 11 Iranian pilgrims heading to the Syrian capital by road from Turkey on Wednesday, a diplomat in Damascus said.

Palestinians tried to block the U.N. chief from entering the Gaza Strip and flung slippers at his armored convoy on Thursday, the second day of Ban Ki-moon's mission to the region to keep informal peace talks alive.

Voting in under way in Kuwait in parliamentary elections that include an array of opposition groups seeking to further boost their political voice in the oil-rich Gulf nation.

Israeli authorities have indicted an Arab-Israeli couple on charges they imprisoned the man's daughter for years in their West Bank home and encouraged her to kill herself.