At least 51 people have died after drinking tainted homemade alcohol in Tripoli, Libyan health officials say. They say 378 have been taken to the capital's hospitals since Saturday, and the number may rise further. A hospital official told the BBC the deaths occurred from methanol poisoning and that many patients were undergoing kidney dialysis for treatment.The consumption and sale of alcohol is illegal in Libya, but it is available on ... Read more »

The UN agency which organises Gaza's marathon has cancelled the event, blaming the refusal of the territory's governing Islamist Hamas movement to allow women to run.The marathon was scheduled for Sunday and would have been Gaza's third. Hamas said the marathon could go ahead if "local traditions" were respected.Conservative elements in Gaza have sometimes complained about mixing between the sexes, especially in schools and at sporting e... Read more »

At least 22 people are reported to have been killed when a fuel truck crashed and exploded in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.The explosion occurred under a flyover at an intersection in the east of the city.State television quoted an official saying that 111 people were also injured in the explosion. It engulfed surrounding cars and caused one extensive damage to a building in an industrial area nearby.Television pictures appeared to s... Read more »

Bahrain-based Noon By Noor will become the first Gulf-based fashion house to take part in New York’s fashion week, when it unveils its Spring/Summer collection at the prestigious industry event next month. “This is a really proud moment for us and we feel honored to be showcasing alongside such amazing designers. It is an incredible opportunity to present our vision and hard work to the fashion industry,” Alarabiya.net quotes ,” designer... Read more »

A Saudi women's rights activist has written to the king repeating demands to allow women to drive. Manal al-Sharif has led a campaign to remove bans on women driving in the oil-rich country for the past year. Her open letter urges King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to permit women with foreign licenses to drive. Last year Mrs Sharif was jailed after she posted a video of herself driving in the Saudi city of Khobar on YouTube, bbc.co.uk reporte... Read more »

A blaze at a shopping centre in the Qatari capital city of Doha has killed at least 19 people. The interior ministry said 13 of the victims at the Villaggio centre were children. Four of them were Spanish nationals, three from New Zealand and one child was French. The cause of the fire - believed to have started in the centre's nursery - is being investigated. The Villaggio, popular shopping centre in the small Gulf state, opened in 2006 - has a cinema, a h... Read more »

Israel's Supreme Court has upheld a law banning Palestinians who spouse Israelis from getting Israeli citizenship. Civil rights activists had petitioned the court to annul the law, saying it was unconstitutional. "Human rights do not prescribe national suicide," Bbc.co.uk quotes judge Asher Grunis writing in the judgement as saying. The law was introduced in 2003, with its supporters expressing security concerns and the need to ensure Israel remains a Jewis... Read more »

Yemeni women's rights activist Tawakul Karman along with Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee has been won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. "We want to point to the role of women and the inferior role of women and how this role can be improved," Aljazeera.net quotes the head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute Geir Lundestad as saying. Tawakul Karman dedicated the award to the Yemeni people and the Arab Spring. "This is f... Read more »

Qatar can postpone the 2017 world athletics championships for a late September date in case of winning bid, IAAF President Lamine Diack said today. This to be done to avoid the summer desert heat.Diack also informed that Barcelona, Spain, had decided at the last moment to drop out of the bid process, leaving only the Qatari capital to compete London. British capital announced last month that it will launch a bid led by Sebastian Coe, the organizing committe... Read more »

According to aid workers Somalia is now facing a fully-fledged humanitarian catastrophe. "We are no longer talking about a humanitarian crisis or a humanitarian emergency," Middle-east-online.com.quotes Jens Oppermann, the country director of Action Against Hunger (Action Contre La Faim, ACF) as saying. "We are seeing this as a humanitarian catastrophe," he concluded. Thousands of Somalis have fled in recent few months to neighbouring Ethiopia and Kenya in ... Read more »