The United Arab Emirates said on Friday that a planned ban on BlackBerry services that had been due to come into effect next week will not go ahead.

"BlackBerry services will carry on as usual and will not be suspended on October 11," said a statement from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) carried by the state WAM news agency.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a joint call on Tuesday with visiting Iraqi Shiite leader Ammar al-Hakim for a national unity government to be formed in Iraq.

Assad and Hakim discussed "the ongoing dialogue between the various parliamentary blocs to find a solution to the formation of an Iraqi government," the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Lebanese Mossad agent Adib al-Alam has gathered information on an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor site in Deir al-Zour that Israel bombed in September 2007, a security source told al-Liwaa newspaper.

The daily quoted sources as saying that former security services officer Brig. Gen. al-Alam transferred the info to Israel without specifying the nature of the data.

The Security Council on Monday issued a new condemnation of tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border as it renewed the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon without changes to its rules of engagement.

In a unanimous resolution, the Council said it had determined that "the situation in Lebanon continues to constitute a threat to international peace and security" and had therefore decided to extend UNIFIL's mandate until 31 August 2011.

The International Criminal Court said Friday that it was reporting indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's visit to Kenya to the UN Security Council, so that appropriate steps might be taken.

Bashir attended a ceremony in Nairobi Friday to adopt a new constitution for Kenya despite warrants for his arrest issued by the ICC on charges of genocide and war crimes by the ICC.

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A suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber blew up a car by the Baghdad offices of Al-Arabiya television killing four people on Monday, a month after the Saudi-funded channel was warned of insurgent threats.

The bomber struck at around 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in front of the station's bureau in the city center, leaving a massive crater and sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen from several kilometers away.

Houthi rebels took control of a strategic army post in north Yemen on Monday and captured some 70 soldiers, in the latest clash to endanger an increasingly fragile truce, army and tribal sources said.

"Houthi (rebels) took control of a military position in al-Zaala and captured all remaining soldiers," a tribal source told Agence France Presse. "Violent clashes erupted since the early morning hours."

Sunni rebel group Jundallah claimed twin suicide bombings which killed 27 people in southeastern Iran, in a posting on its website, the latest in a string of attacks it has claimed against the Shiite country.

The rebel group, active in Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province for nearly a decade, said it had targeted the elite Revolutionary Guards who were marking the annual Guards Day in the provincial capital Zahedan.

The United States on Wednesday urged "all those wishing to deliver goods to do so through established channels so that their cargo can be inspected and transferred via land crossings into Gaza."

"As we continue to make clear to involved parties, mechanisms exist for the transfer of humanitarian assistance to Gaza," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.