Arabic

The Arab Spring uprisings that toppled four Arab leaders have forced Mideast governments to allow more freedom of expression and of the press, Jordan’s prime minister said Monday, but critics charged that Jordan itself is not doing enough.

Egyptian security forces were preparing Monday to launch a rescue operation to free seven kidnapped soldiers and police officers in the Sinai peninsula, security sources said

Libya's deputy prime minister said on Sunday an investigation has shown that last weeks’ deadly explosion outside a hospital in Benghazi was an accident, not an attack, the Associated Press reported.

At least 40 Hezbollah fighters have been reportedly killed in the Syrian town of Qusayr late on Sunday, sources told Al Arabiya, following clashes between Syrian rebels and regime forces who attempted to enter the town earlier in the day.

A Yemeni man on a mission to “save the Quran” has perhaps up more than he bargained for, after finding more than 3,000 discarded copies of the Islamic holy book over the past five years, piling them up at his home.

Overnight gunfire from Syria hit the central Israeli-occupied Golan Heights near an Israeli military patrol, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported on Monday.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on Sunday for joint Sunni-Shiite prayers after a spate of attacks on places of worship, saying the attackers wanted to ignite sectarian strife in Iraq.

At least two people were killed and six others wounded in running gun battles in the flashpoint northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, a security source told AFP on Sunday.

The Egyptian army has urged President Mohammed Mursi to give them the “green light” to launch an attack operation on Sunday against kidnappers of policemen at the North Sinai town of al-Arish, presidential sources told the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

Supporters of hardline Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia clashed with Tunisian police in two cities on Sunday after the government banned its annual rally and group urged its supporters to stand firm against the authorities.