An Israeli military court on Sunday convicted a Palestinian protest leader of urging youths to throw rocks at Israeli soldiers, ruling in a case that sparked international criticism of Israeli practices in the West Bank.

A prison spokeswoman says Israel's jailed former president has been freed for a few hours to attend his son's wedding.

An Israeli human rights group has released a video that suggests Israeli soldiers stood by while Jewish settlers opened fire on Palestinians in the West Bank, wounding one.

Citizens of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates who defaulted on hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans could soon see their debts wiped away.

Just from hearing it, it's like any professional orchestra. But the assembly of white-veiled Egyptian women in matching black gowns has a startling difference. Every woman in the orchestra is blind.

He was the embodiment of one of modern Libya's darkest chapters - a man synonymous with horrifying scenes of wreckage, broken families and a plane that fell out of the sky a generation ago. His name, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was little known compared to the single word that his deeds represented: Lockerbie.

A court in Bahrain granted bail Sunday for a jailed rights activist, but he remained in detention to await another court hearing later this week, a defense lawyer said.

Qatar's ruler says Israel is more isolated by the Arab Spring and will face increasing pressures over issues such as its presumed nuclear arsenal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning that Israel could be swamped by illegal migrants from Africa.

Lawyers for Iraq's fugitive Sunni vice president charged with running death squads quit the case on Sunday in protest after judges rejected their request for evidence for his defense.

The Palestinian campaign to boycott goods produced in Jewish settlements in the West Bank has received a boost from abroad with an unprecedented South African proposal to have the name of Israel dropped from labels on merchandise made in the settlements.

Fresh clashes between al-Qaida fighters and government forces in Yemen left 17 dead on Sunday, military officials said, as the army pushed on with an offensive to regain a key town in the county's south that fell to the militants more than a year ago.

Residents of the eastern Libyan city that served as the cradle of the uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi voted for a local council Saturday in the city's first elections since the longtime dictator's capture and killing last year.

An Egypt presidential candidate has joined dozens of activists on hunger strike to protest the continued detention of more than 300 people who face possible military prosecution.

A roadside bomb exploded in a restive suburb of the Syrian capital as senior U.N. officials toured the area on Sunday, blowing off the front of a parked vehicle but causing no casualties.

The Gulf states of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have called on their citizens not to go to Lebanon and for those who are there to leave.

Yemeni officials say fresh clashes with al-Qaida fighters in the south have left at least 34 people dead, while a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed two militants.

Tens of thousands of protesters chanting "Bahrain is not for sale" jammed a major highway Friday to denounce proposals for closer unity between the unrest-torn Gulf kingdom and neighboring Saudi Arabia.

A suicide vehicle bomb tore through the parking lot of a military compound in an eastern Syrian city on Saturday, killing nine people in the latest in a series of blasts in recent months targeting security installations, the country's state media reported.

Israeli feminists on Friday welcomed a Supreme Court ruling they say will help enforce equal pay laws for men and women.

Three bombs struck near simultaneously at a busy bird market in eastern Baghdad on Friday morning, killing five people and wounding dozens, police and health officials said.

Iranians rallied Friday to denounce efforts by Bahrain's Sunni rulers to forge closer ties with Saudi Arabia, a pact the Shiite powerhouse Iran claims would go against the will of the tiny island nation's majority Shiites.

Algeria overturned the Arab Spring's revolutionary narrative with elections that bolstered the longtime ruling party and dashed Islamists' hopes of gaining power. The vote did something else, too: It burnished Algeria's democratic image with Western allies who rely on it to fight terrorism and supply natural gas.

Egypt's vice police on Thursday arrested the owner of a belly dancing TV station on suspicion of operating without a license, inciting licentiousness and facilitating prostitution, a security official said.

Government troops battling al-Qaida fighters in southern Yemen have made inroads into the militants' strongholds, but the offensive on a strategic city has slowed because of concerns the extremists could launch a surprise counterattack, military officials said Thursday.

An Egyptian court on Thursday found 14 policemen not guilty in the killing of protesters during last year's popular uprising, the latest verdict in what activists claim to be a pattern of acquittals for police blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people during the revolt.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that he is eager to attend the Olympic Games in London to support Iranian athletes but that Britain doesn't want to host him.

The U.S. has plans in place to attack Iran if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, Washington's envoy to Israel said, days ahead of a crucial round of nuclear talks with Tehran.

The head of a U.N. observer team in Syria cautioned Friday that the mission cannot achieve a permanent end to the violence without genuine talks between the two sides that have been locked in a violent conflict for more than a year.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Thursday his country is seeking "cooperation" from world powers in next week's nuclear talks in Baghdad and warned against pressure by the West.

Clashes in a western Libyan city left six dead and at least 20 injured on Wednesday, a government spokesman said.

A black smoke covered Cairo's Tahrir Square. Around a dozen protesters who had been holding a weekslong sit-in demanding an end to military rule had come to the conclusion their gathering was useless. So over the weekend, they splashed gas on their tents and banners, burned them to ashes and left.

Yemeni troops battling al-Qaida fighters in the country's south have forced them to retreat but military officials said Thursday the push in a major southern city is going slowly because of concerns the militants could stage a surprise counterattack.

Egypt's military ruler said Wednesday he hopes that a "great leader" will emerge from the country's upcoming presidential election, and said it will be a free and fair vote that will reflect the will of the people.

A key activist group threatened Thursday to withdraw from Syria's main opposition umbrella grouping, saying the council has drifted away from the spirit of the Syrian revolution.

A prominent rights activist jailed in Bahrain says his detention is a political act aimed at weakening the uprising against the Gulf kingdom's rulers.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad replaced almost half of his West Bank-based Cabinet on Wednesday, a clear sign that efforts to end the Palestinian political split are stuck.

The late Yasser Arafat's powerful moneyman is the target of the highest-profile Palestinian corruption probe to date, facing allegations he syphoned off millions of dollars in public funds, the chief investigator said Wednesday.

After years of neglect, the Palestinians are going green.

The negotiating stance from Iranian officials never varies: The Islamic Republic will not give up its capabilities to make nuclear fuel. But embedded in the messages are meanings that reach beyond Tehran's talks with world powers.