SANA'A, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's coast guard says Somali pirates have hijacked a Panamanian cargo ship in the treacherous Gulf of Aden between the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian officials announced Friday that a new date for parliamentary and presidential elections will be set next month now that President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to postpone the January vote, though the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers maintain they will boycott the voting.
BAGHDAD (AP) — A top aide to Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader on Friday urged the country's fractious political blocs to resolve a crisis over a key election law that threatens to delay national polls planned for January.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran plans to launch a communications satellite by late 2011 with no outside help, a top Iranian official said Friday, after Italy and Russia declined to put it into orbit.
CAIRO (AP) — A famous Lebanese pop singer, who normally stirs controversy for her seductive dresses and provocative dancing, has now been accused of singing a song with racist lyrics that compares black Egyptians to monkeys.
BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi court on Thursday sentenced the Sunni leader of a government-allied paramilitary group to death for murder and kidnapping in a case that highlighted tensions over the treatment of former insurgents who turned against al-Qaida.
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt has recalled its ambassador to Algeria for consultations as part of a growing diplomatic row caused by a bitter soccer rivalry between the two Arab nations.
BEIRUT (AP) — The militant Hezbollah group announced Thursday that Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has been re-elected as the Shiite Muslim group's leader for a sixth term.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli aircraft struck a weapons-manufacturing facility and two smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, in response to recent rocket attacks on Israel, the military said.
