BEIRUT – The commander of Syria’s armed rebels threatened yesterday to step up attacks on President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, saying he was frustrated with Arab League monitors’ lack of progress in ending a government crackdown on protests.
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MAHALLA EL-KUBRA, Egypt – Party agents flooded the streets with banners and verses from the Koran as the third phase of Egypt’s parliamentary election began yesterday, with Islamists trying to dominate an assembly that will rival the clout of the ruling generals.
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AMMAN – Israeli and Palestinian negotiators made no breakthrough during their first high-level discussions in more than a year yesterday, but agreed to hold further talks in Amman on a confidential basis, Jordan’s foreign minister said.
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BAGHDAD – Members of the Sunni Muslim-backed Iraqiya bloc boycotted Iraq’s parliament and cabinet yesterday, accusing Shi’ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s bloc of governing alone in a power-sharing coalition that was supposed to ease sectarian tensions.
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RABAT – Morocco’s King Mohammed awarded the foreign and justice ministries yesterday to the moderate Islamist party that won a November election but reserved the domestic security portfolio for a veteran conservative close to the monarch.
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TRIPOLI – Libya yesterday named Yousef al-Manqoush, a retired general from the anti-Gaddafi bastion of Misrata, as head of the armed forces in the first significant move to build a new Libyan military.
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ISLAMABAD – Al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani militants have held a series of meetings aimed at containing what could soon be open warfare between the two most powerful Pakistani Taliban leaders, militant sources have said.
KABUL – The Afghan Taliban said yesterday they have reached a preliminary agreement to set up a political office in the Gulf nation of Qatar, and asked for the release of prisoners held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
