CAIRO – Arab states plan to cut commercial ties with President Bashar al-Assad’s government and freeze its assets in response to violence in Syria, where activists say 42 civilians and soldiers died yesterday.
CAIRO – Egyptian protesters demanding an end to army rule clash with police firing tear gas in central Cairo in a flare-up that cast another shadow over a parliamentary election billed as the nation’s first free vote in decades.
BAGHDAD – Three bombs explode in a commercial Baghdad district and another blast hits the city’s western outskirts, killing at least 13 people, police and hospital sources say.
BOGOTA – Colombian FARC rebels execute four members of the security forces during a botched mission to free them from a decade as hostages, the most violent act by the group since troops killed its leader Alfonso Cano this month.
BRUSSELS – Belgian political parties negotiating a coalition agreement reach a deal on the 2012 budget, clearing the last major obstacle to the formation of a new government more than 18 months after elections were held.
PARIS – French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s ruling UMP party dismisses allegations of a political plot to bring down disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, following an investigative report by a US journalist.
SANAA – Yemen’s vice president calls presidential elections for Feb 21 under a deal aimed at ending months of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh that have brought the country to the edge of civil war.
ZAWIYAH, Libya – Libyan tribal leaders meet in the hope of easing tensions between clans in a country where the new central government is still weak, weapons abound and rival militias sometimes lock horns.
RABAT – Morocco’s moderate Islamist PJD party is on course to win a parliamentary election, partial results show, in what would be the second victory for Islamists in the region in the wake of the “Arab Spring” uprisings.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla – Unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasts off from Florida, launching a $2.5 billion nuclear-powered NASA rover toward Mars to look for clues on what could sustain life on the Red Planet.
