Officials said Egyptian authorities accidentally fired at a Bedouin funeral in Sinai during a search for security personnel kidnapped by suspected militants, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. A security official said a senior military officer offered an apology to the family of the dead man. ... Read more

Iran's electoral watchdog has barred moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from standing in a June 14 presidential election, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. Eight candidates won approval to stand -- five conservatives close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as two mo ... Read more

Jordan on Tuesday summoned the Iraqi charge d’affaires after employees at Baghdad’s embassy beat and kicked Jordanian supporters of Saddam Hussein at a seminar on mass graves in Amman. “The foreign ministry today summoned the Iraqi charge d'affaires to condemn this assault that co ... Read more

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been transferred to a new facility in Paris to continue his recovery after treatment in a French military hospital, France’s defense ministry said Tuesday. Bouteflika, 76, was flown to the Val de Grace hospital in Paris three weeks ago following a m ... Read more

Libya’s interior minister has submitted his resignation, two official sources said on Tuesday, after months of efforts to curb armed groups who helped topple Muammar Qaddafi but have since stalled the transition to democracy. Two years after the popular uprising that ended Qaddafi’s 42-y ... Read more

A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. government had properly classified top secret of more than 50 images of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden taken after his death, and that the government did not need to release them. The unanimous ruling by three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeal ... Read more

Syria's opposition and government are preparing to take part in an internationally-sponsored peace conference, the United Nations-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Tuesday. "The Syrian people are building great hopes on the conference, as the opposition prepares itself to take part a ... Read more

Thousands gathered in Yemen's main southern city of Aden on Tuesday to call for renewed independence for the south 23 years after it united with the north. Waving the flag of the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and portraits of exiled southern leader Ali Salem al-Baid, the protesters ga ... Read more

Saudi Arabia faces a possible inflation risk due to buoyant growth that may warrant policy action to prevent the economy from over-heating, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday. In a regular assessment of the oil-rich kingdom’s economic health, the IMF also urged it to take adv ... Read more

The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is to help seal a $2.1 billion defense deal during his visit to Oman, where he is due to arrive today, officials said. One of the main focuses of Kerry's trip to Muscat is to expedite a letter of intent between Oman and the U.S. manufacturer Raytheon, with a vi ... Read more

Arabtec, Dubai’s largest construction firm, said on Tuesday that its projects delivery schedule would not be affected by a labor stike over pay. Thousands of workers launched a strike on Saturday in a rare labor protest in the Gulf Arab country, which relies on migrant laborers hired on a cont ... Read more

Turkey aims to double the number of Saudi Arabian tourists it attracts to 400,000 by the end of this year. The country attracted 120,000 Saudi tourists in 2011 and 200,000 in 2012 and hopes to double that number in 2013, an official at the Turkish embassy in Riyadh told Aleqtisadiah newspaper. Turke ... Read more

 The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) held Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah personally responsible for the situation in the Syrian border town of Qusayr, as sectarian tension was on the rise in neighboring Lebanon. “We announced that Hassan Nasrallah will be held personally responsible for th ... Read more

Trying to fight back against the persistent economic crisis in the Balkans, food producers here have turned towards halal food, targeting rising demand from markets in Western and Muslim countries. At a recent three-day halal food fair in the Bosnian capital, the first of its kind in the Balkans, s ... Read more

The number of tourists visiting Egypt rose in the first four months of 2012, the cabinet said on Tuesday, but analysts say the sector is still suffering from the aftermath of the country's 2011 uprising. The revolt that ousted President Hosni Mubarak sparked more than two years of protests, riots an ... Read more

Lebanese designers have made a fashion statement at the 66th Cannes Film Festival this week. The star-studded list of attendees wore dresses by designer-veterans Elie Saab and Zuhair Murad as well as Lebanese newbies to the fashion scene, such as Georges Hobeika, the son of a seamstress who studied ... Read more

The first woman from Saudi Arabia to scale Mount Everest said she doesn’t intend to inspire a movement, but would be happy to change people’s opinions of Saudi women and Saudi women’s opinions of themselves. Raha Mobarak told reporters in Katmandu on Tuesday after returning from t ... Read more

Jose Mourinho will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season after coming to a mutual agreement with the Spanish club three years before the end of his contract, president Florentino Perez said on Monday. The Portuguese’s imminent departure will add fuel to widespread expectation he is poise ... Read more