Planned crisis talks set for Friday between Iraqi political leaders after deadly attacks in Baghdad were cancelled, an official said, after the two main parliamentary blocs refused to meet.
The meeting had been called in an effort to resolve a worsening political row between the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's National Alliance and the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, the latter of which is boycotting the cabinet and parliament.

Suicide bombers hit two security service bases in Damascus on Friday, killing at least 40 people, in attacks the regime blamed on al-Qaida but which the opposition said were the work of the regime itself.
The bombings, which officials blamed on al-Qaida, were the first attacks against Syria's powerful security services in the heart of the capital since the uprising began and overshadowed new protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

German's foreign ministry said Thursday it had summoned Syria's ambassador to Berlin to demand an immediate halt to the "brutal" repression of anti-regime demonstrators by government forces.
"The brutal acts by the security forces against the Syrian population are absolutely unacceptable and a flagrant violation of Syria's agreement with the Arab League," said Boris Ruge, in charge of Middle East affairs at the foreign ministry.

A wave of attacks across Iraq killed 67 people Thursday as it faced a political crisis, with its vice president accused of running death squads and the premier warning he could break off power-sharing.
Apparently coordinated blasts in the capital and the slaughter of a family of five in restive Diyala province were the first major sign of violence in a row that has threatened Iraq's fragile political truce and heightened sectarian tensions just days after U.S. forces completed their withdrawal.

Five straight days of clashes in Cairo between protestors hostile to Egypt's military rulers and security forces have left 17 people dead, the health ministry said Thursday.
The toll rose Thursday after two people died from their injuries, health ministry official Hisham Shiha told state television.

Tunisia's Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali on Thursday announced his new cabinet lineup, with key ministerial posts allotted to his dominant Islamist Ennahda party.
The list of 41 cabinet members was drawn up two months after Tunisia's first free elections on October 23, which chose an assembly tasked with writing a new constitution following the ousting of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton "strongly" condemned Thursday's attacks in Baghdad that left 57 dead and urged Iraqi leaders to engage in dialogue immediately to address their differences.
Ashton "strongly condemns the latest wave of violent attacks in Iraq," a statement from her office said.

More than 2,000 members of Syria's security forces have been killed in nine months since anti-regime protests broke out, state news agency SANA said on Thursday.
"In response to a fallacious U.N. report on the situation in Syria, we have informed the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that the number of martyrs has surpassed 2,000 members of the security forces and the army," according to a letter SANA says was sent.

The Tunisian-Libyan border post of Ras Jdir reopened in both directions on Thursday after three weeks of being shut over security concerns, an Agence France Presse photographer said.

Iran will launch 10 days of naval drills from Saturday around the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping route, media said, after a rumor emerged earlier this month that it planned to close the strait.
"Our naval drill will begin from 24 December lasting 10 days covering east of Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman to the Gulf of Aden", navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari was quoted as saying on Thursday by the Fars news agency.
