Abu Dhabi: Real Estate professionals from across the globe have their eyes focussed on Abu Dhabi, with a number of companies set to announce, invest and sign on the dotted line at this year’s highly anticipated Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2011. Taking place from 17-20 April, exhibitors from the region and around the world will be taking part in this year’s event, and a number of participants have already announced that they plan on utilising the platform to communi... Read more »

A Palestinian has killed five Israelis including three kids in an attack on a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank. The overnight attack occurred in the Itamar settlement, near Nablus. The Israeli military is now scouring the area for the suspect. The Itamar settlement was the target of a previous attack by a Palestinian gunman, in 2002, in which five Israelis were killed and several injured. US-backed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ... Read more »

According to an African Union envoy, a major attack by African Union troops in Somalia, in which dozens of peacekeepers from Burundi and Uganda were killed, reclaimed "significant" territory from insurgents. During a session on Thursday, the United Nations Security Council paid tribute to those peacekeepers who had been died in operations. The UNSC was discussing ways in which to end a two-decade old civil war in the poorest country of the world and to curb... Read more »

France became the first country to recognise Libya's national transition council on Thursday and will send an ambassador to the opposition-held city of Benghazi. "France has recognised the national transition council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people," Alarabiya.net quotes one of the council's envoys, Ali al-Issawi as saying. "On the basis of this recognition, we are going to open a diplomatic mission, that is our own embassy in Paris, a... Read more »

Security forces in Yemen have opened fire at demonstrators outside the university in the capital, Sanaa. They were trying to stop thousands of protesters joining a camp at the university calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down. According to medics report at least 80 people were injured, and one subsequently died of his injuries in hospital. They call for Mr Saleh to resign and are want more job opportunities, an end to corruption, and a faire... Read more »

According to Sudan army’s spokesman Philip Aguer more than 50 people have been killed in two days of clashes between rebel groups and soldiers in south Sudan's Upper Nile state. He added that militia forces loyal to the rebel leader George Athor had clashed with military forces, killing 56 people but did not specify which side the deaths were on. on July 9 before the region is due to become independent. But a wave of mass killings in recent weeks has raised... Read more »

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas was heading to Britain on Sunday for a short visit to discuss the stalled peace process with Israel. Abbas was scheduled to hold negotiations with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague today. "The talks with Cameron and Hague will address the situation in the Middle East, the faltering peace process and Israeli settlement activity as well as the upcoming meeting of the Quartet," Alarabiya... Read more »

All kinds of protests, marches and sit-ins are to be forbidden in Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry has announced on state TV. It says security forces will use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order. The ban follows a series of protests by the kingdom's Shia minority in the eastern province. "Regulations in the kingdom forbid categorically all sorts of demonstrations, marches and sit-ins, as they contradict Islamic Sharia law and the ... Read more »

Beji Caid Essebsi, Tunisia's newly-appointed prime minister, has promised to form a new interim cabinet within two days. "Today we are working with a popular revolution that does not have a framework," Aljazeera quotes the prime minister as saying. He added the country was entering a new era and that the its way ahead would be challenging. A day before the interim president Fouad Mebazza said in a televised address to nation that he and a the government wou... Read more »

Kuwait is mediating in a row between Oman and the United Arab Emirates after Muscat charged its Gulf partner of operating a spy cell targeting the government and military. Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on Wednesday shuttled between the capitals of the two countries attempting to resolve the dispute. In January this year, Oman’s authorities announced they have dismantled an Emirati spy ring that was targeting the government and armed forces. M... Read more »