Saudi officials have said they have no suspicions about Osama Bin Laden's widows and children, who arrived in the kingdom late last week. The three women and reportedly 11 children were deported from Pakistan last week. "Saudi Arabia acted out of humanitarian considerations... in so far as there are no reports or evidence of any implication in criminal or illegal acts," Bbc.co.uk quoted the official Saudi Press Agency as saying.

The Lebanese army intercepted three containers of weapons on board of a ship caught in the Mediterranean which may have been trying to supply Syria. An overnight search uncovered weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in three freight containers. The Sierra Leone-flagged Lutfallah II had been given permission to dock in the port of Tripoli. It had made a short stopover in the Egyptian port of Alexandria en route from Libya, Alarabiya.net rep... Read more »

Jordan's Prime Minister Awn Khasawneh asked King Abdullah II about resignation, barely six months after forming a government to bring in much-needed reforms. "His Majesty, the king, accepted Khasawneh's resignation Thursday morning," Middle-east-online.com quotes a senior official as saying. It was unclear why Khasawneh quit, but news reports quoted sources as saying that he was unhappy after the king extended parliament's ordinary session until June 25. Kh... Read more »

Up to 70 people have been killed in an attack on a house in Hama, according to Syrian activists. Bbc.co.uk reported: "This kind of devastation would have been hard to cause by conventional shelling". Activists said several houses in the Masha at-Tayyar district in southern Hama were destroyed by a huge explosion. State media informed about 16 people died in the blast in a house used as a bomb factory by "armed terrorist groups". The violence comes despite a... Read more »

Israel has approved three settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, the office of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said in a statement. The UN and the US criticised the decision, with US State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland calling it unhelpful to making peace with Palestinians. On Monday an Israeli ministerial committee "decided to formalise the status of three communities Bruchin, Rechalim and Sansana which were established in the 1990s following the decisions of past governments," a statement said on Tuesday.

Five people were lightly injured and a building was damaged when a bomb exploded in a restaurant in Lebanon coastal town of Tyre early today. There has been a spate of bombings in majority-Muslim Tyre in the last few months of clubs, shops, café and restaurants that sell alcohol, whose consumption is forbidden by Islam, and several restaurants have stopped serving alcohol as a result. “Five employees were injured, but only lightly,”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) officer, a French citizen, has been kidnapped by armed men in Yemen. He was taken as a hostage late on Saturday around 30 km from the Red Sea port of Hodeida. Nobody has taken responsibility yet but kidnappings of westerners are not uncommon in Yemen. The ICRC said it had not heard from the kidnappers but it has called for the aid worker's immediate release. Last week, al-Qaeda announced that it was holdin... Read more »

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have gathered in Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, to protesr against continuing military rule. Supporters of a variety of political movements, including Islamist, liberal and leftist forces, entered the square - a regular focal point for rallies. Many are angry at the barring of popular presidential candidates. The first presidential poll since Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power last year is due to be held in... Read more »

African Union troops in Somalia said they took control of Al-Qaeda allied Al-Shebab insurgent bases on the outskirts of Mogadishu, the latest loss for the extremist fighters.Burundian troops with the A.U. force seized quartes of the capital’s Banadir district late Thursday, including securing the Deynile airstrip, part of long-running efforts to drive the militants from the city. “The operation was necessary to deny the extremists a platform to target the p... Read more »

A series of deadly explosions has struck a number of Iraqi cities, killing at least 35 people and injuring 100 more. Blasts were reported in the capital, Baghdad, and in Baquba, Kirkuk, Samarra, Dibis and Taji. Reports said that police appeared to be the main target. Iraq has seen a decline in the overall level of violence in recent years but still suffers bomb attacks on a daily basis. The attacks also appear to have targeted a convoy in which Health Minis... Read more »