Spotlight
A senior Saudi official told an international conference on security on Saturday that the "terrorist" threat remains and urged global cooperation to combat it.
"The danger of terrorism and terrorists still persists and affects several countries," Prince Turki bin Mohammed al-Saud of the foreign ministry told delegates at the opening of the two-day event.

Clashes erupted at dawn on Saturday around Aleppo airport and a nearby airbase, as Syrian troops bombarded the Golan ceasefire zone bordering Israel in response to rebel attacks, a watchdog said.
The rebel fighters "clashed with government troops in the vicinity of Aleppo international airport and Nayrab military airbase on Saturday morning as shelling was heard in the area," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Saturday called for urgent action to bring about a power transfer in Syria that excludes President Bashar Assad.
"Given the enormous price paid already by the Syrian people... it is more urgent than ever to act to overcome differences in favor of a political transition," Le Drian told a security forum in the United Arab Emirates.

The U.N. Security Council Friday praised plans for a national dialogue in Yemen and warned former president Ali Abdullah Saleh he could face sanctions for undermining the political transition.
Yemen's interim President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi last week set March 18 as the date for the long-awaited talks to push forward the transition process, after violent protests in 2011 and another year of political uncertainty.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali announced on Friday that talks on the formation of a new government of technocrats had been rescheduled for Monday, after he met the leaders of the main political parties.
"There has been some progress on all the points raised... That is why we have decided to continue the discussions on Monday," Jebali told reporters.

Thousands of people gathered in Libya's two main cities Tripoli and Benghazi on Friday to celebrate two years since the start of the revolution that ousted long-time strongman Moammar Gadhafi.
In central Tripoli, hundreds of people assembled in Martyrs' Square, waving flags and balloons and chanting slogans praising the martyrs of the Libyan revolution as cars drove through the capital sounding their horns.

The opposition National Coalition said on Friday it refuses to accept President Bashar Assad in any talks on ending Syria's war, as part of a "framework" it has drawn up for solutions to the conflict.
The Coalition issued the framework after a meeting in Cairo to discuss a proposal by its chief, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, to hold peace talks with regime representatives, a move that ruffled feathers in the umbrella opposition group.

Besma Khalfaoui, Chokri Belaid's widow, has become a symbol of Tunisia's secular opposition and scourge of the ruling Islamists, waving her fingers in a victory sign just hours after her husband was killed.
On February 6, Tunisians saw the mother-of-two, her face lined with grief and her trousers still covered in blood, urging people not to react to her husband's assassination with violence, as she joined outraged protesters in central Tunis.

President Bashar Assad's regime has sent a letter to the United Nations blasting Turkey's "destructive" role in the conflict that has ravaged Syria for the past 23 months, state media reported Friday.
The Syrian foreign ministry's letter accuses Turkey of harboring "terrorists from al-Qaida's network", the SANA news agency said.

Finnish customs said Friday they had seized military equipment en route from Russia to Syria on board a Finnish ship docked at Helsinki's Vuosaari port in January.
During an inspection of the ship, customs officials discovered spare parts for tanks in a container on board the M/S Finnsun, Finnish Customs said in a statement.
