Greater Middle East
Saudi court convicts Egyptian rights lawyer
A Saudi Arabian court convicted Egyptian human rights lawyer Ahmed el-Gezawi of smuggling drugs, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and 300 lashes.
Tag: Arab Revolution
Greater Middle East
Qatar: imprisoned poet appeals life sentence
Muhammad al-Ajami, a Qatari poet who was sentenced to life in prison for “insulting” the Emir in a poem extolling the Arab Spring, has been granted an appeal.
Greater Middle East
UN rights office: 60,000 killed in Syria conflict
A study by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights finds that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Syria since March 2011.
Iraq
Iraq: sectarian attacks, protests
A wave of bomb attacks across Iraq taregted Shi'ite pilgrims, as Sunni protesters blocked highways to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
North Africa
Attack on Coptic church in Libya
Two Egyptians were killed and two injured in an explosion at a Coptic church at Dafniya, near the Libyan city of Misrata. The blast came just as mass was ending.
Greater Middle East
Saudi Arabia: blogger faces death penalty
Human Rights Watch has urged Saudi Arabia to dismiss a criminal case against a website editor who may face the death penalty on apostasy charges for abandoning Islam.
Greater Middle East
Egypt: president signs new constitution into law
President Morsi signed Egypt's new constitution into law, despite the fact that only 33% of Egypt's total of 52 million voters actually participated in the referendum.
Greater Middle East
Egypt: opposition to appeal constitution vote
Egypt’s opposition will appeal the referendum that appears to have voted in a new constitution backed by ruling Islamic parties, asserting the vote was marred by fraud.
Palestine
General strike on West Bank
Palestinian Authority employees, who held a general strike last week, will shut down the West Bank again this week to protest non-payment of their salaries due to Israeli sanctions.
North Africa
Libya declares martial law in southern region
The Libyan government closed the country’s southern borders and declared the southern provinces a military zone in response to growing lawlessness.
Greater Middle East
Syria: Nusra Front makes ‘terrorist’ list
The US government added Syria's al-Nusrah Front for the People of the Levant to the "foreign terrorist organizations" list, placing sanctions on two of its senior leaders.
Africa
Protests rock Sudan, South Sudan…
Security forces mixed it up with protesters both in Sudan, hit by a wave of student unrest, and in South Sudan’s West Bahr el-Ghazal state, where 10 were killed by army troops.