The Arab Spring uprisings that toppled four Arab leaders have forced Mideast governments to allow more freedom of expression and of the press, Jordan’s prime minister said Monday, but critics charged that Jordan itself is not doing enough. Abdullah Ensour told a meeting of the Vienna-based In ... Read more

An opposition leader, rights activist and long-time dissident in Syria’s rebel-held city of Raqa has been abducted, a watchdog said on Monday. “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has learnt of the abduction by an armed group of lawyer, human rights activist and head of Raqa city&rs ... Read more

At least three people were killed and nearly 50 injured on Monday in twin car blasts outside a court building in a southern Russian city in the restive region of Dagestan. The local investigative committee initially said that “within the space of a few minutes, two cars blew up. At least eigh ... Read more

Jordanian terror suspect Abu Qatada was on Monday denied bail in his latest skirmish with British authorities, who have been trying to deport him for a decade. The cleric has been in and out of British prisons since 2002 as he fights successive government attempts to deport him to Jordan, where he h ... Read more

Iran’s election overseers say they will bar candidates who are physically weak from running in next month’s presidential election, a clear nod toward a former president. The entry of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 78, into the election race could reduce chances for conservatives loyal to Iran ... Read more

The emir of Qatar, a strong supporter of the Syrian rebels, on Monday slammed what he called inaction by the international community over the conflict there, lamenting the failure to reach a political solution. “It is no longer acceptable that influential states in the international community ... Read more

Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn has threatened to mobilize 100,000 people against plans to build a mosque in Athens, state television reported on Monday. “If a mosque is constructed for Islamist criminals in Greece, a front of 100,000 Greeks headed by Golden Dawn will be created,” part ... Read more

The stairwell and door to the apartment of a woman active in promoting egalitarian prayer at Jerusalem’s Western Wall were vandalized by unknown assailants, who scrawled threatening messages found on Monday. “This is disturbing, scary, sad,” the activist Peggy Cidor told AFP. &ldqu ... Read more

Syria’s pharmaceutical industry once catered to 90 percent of the population’s needs, but a shortage of foreign currency has brought production to a near halt, a pro-regime daily reported on Monday. The central bank previously provided local industries with foreign currency at preferenti ... Read more

Libya will have to pay Kuwait’s Kharafi group $930 million in damages for former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s cancelling of the construction of a vacation resort, Kuwaiti newspapers reported on Monday. M. A. Kharafi and Sons, a company owned by one of Gulf state’s biggest merchant fami ... Read more

About 30 Saudi women teachers have demonstrated outside the kingdom’s Education Ministry, demanding full time jobs. An Associated Press reporter saw women holding posters Monday calling for full time contracts and benefits that include steady pay and retirement packages. Some say they have bee ... Read more

Yahoo is buying online blogging forum Tumblr for $1.1 billion as CEO Marissa Mayer tries to rejuvenate an Internet icon that had fallen behind the times. The deal announced Monday represents Mayer’s boldest move yet since she left Google 10 months ago to lead Yahoo’s latest comeback atte ... Read more

A “war on mosques” -- deadly attacks by militants on Sunni mosques and Shiite places of worship called husseiniyahs -- using weapons ranging from bombs to mortar rounds is raging in Iraq. Dozens of attacks this year have stirred already-simmering sectarian tensions between Iraq’s ... Read more

Egypt’s liquor stores are under growing pressure to stop selling alcohol, they say, not from the country’s Islamist government, but from society itself. The shelves of Amir Aziz’s central Cairo premises are stacked with beer, wine and spirits, but they are invisible from the stre ... Read more

Taghreedat, the largest Arabic crowd-sourcing initiative in the Middle East and North Africa, has announced a partnership with Coursera, the world’s leading Massive Open Online Course provider, to translate major international university courses across multiple disciplines for Arab students wo ... Read more

Palestinian film "Condom Lead" is in the running for an award at the 2013 Cannes film festival this week. The low-cost film, shot on a single day in Amman for a budget of $7,000 U.S. dollars, is competing in the Short Films category in the prestigious French festival. The plot is based on ... Read more

Alex Ferguson bowed out of management on Sunday with a smile, a wave and a bucketful of goals in his 1,500th Manchester United game but without the victory he had so wanted. The 71-year-old Scot entered retirement having watched his Premier League champions draw 5-5 at West Bromwich Albion on the f ... Read more

Champions Barcelona moved a step closer to matching Real Madrid's La Liga record of 100 points with a 2-1 win over Real Valladolid, that was the prelude to a title party at the Nou Camp on Sunday. Tito Vilanova's side wrapped up their fourth league crown in five years last weekend, but still have t ... Read more