Egypt was to decide Thursday the venue for Islamist Mohamed Morsi's swearing in as the nation's first civilian president, as Washington praised the military for facilitating a "free" poll.
Media reports said Morsi was consulting with a cross-section of Egyptian society ahead of appointing a prime minister and a cabinet that would largely comprise of technocrats.

Violence killed at least 69 people, including 38 civilians, in Syria on Thursday after one of the bloodiest days of the 15-month revolt left nearly 150 dead, a human rights watchdog said.
Two bombs exploded outside the Palace of Justice in central Damascus on Thursday, state television reported.

A senior Hamas member has been killed in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, an official of the group told AFP on Thursday, accusing Israel's spy agency of carrying out the attack.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded coyly to the suggestion, telling army radio: "I'm not sure that that's necessarily right."

The Council of Europe on Thursday expressed its concern at the "obstacles" threatening democracy in Egypt, which will swear in its first civilian president this Saturday.
While welcoming the election of Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist winner of Sunday's presidential poll, the Council's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) said in a resolution that it was worried about "real obstacles to democracy" in the country.

Bahraini security forces are searching for three suspects believed to be planning "terror" attacks in the kingdom and harboring materials used to make explosives, media reports said on Thursday.

Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday ordered parliament to amend a controversial electoral law after opposition Islamists threatened to boycott general polls expected to be held by end of this year.
"The king asked parliament today to hold an extraordinary session early next month to amend some articles in the electoral law to help ensure wider public participation in the process," a palace statement said.

Yemeni forces have arrested a cell of al-Qaida operatives suspected of carrying out a suicide bombing in Sanaa in May that killed more than 100 troops, a security official was quoted as saying Thursday.
"Security forces have captured (members of) the terrorist cell behind the attack on Sabeen Square," national security chief, Ali Mohammed al-Ansi, was quoted as saying by 26 September, a daily owned and published by the ministry of defense.

Violence killed at least 69 people, including 38 civilians, in Syria on Thursday after one of the bloodiest days of the 15-month revolt left nearly 150 dead, a human rights watchdog said.
Two bombs exploded outside the Palace of Justice in central Damascus on Thursday, state television reported.

A criminal court on Thursday jailed for 15 years each a former Mubarak-era cabinet minister and a businessman for selling Israel natural gas below market value, a judicial source said.
"The Cairo criminal court sentenced former oil minister Sameh Fahmi and fugitive businessman Hussein Salem to 15 years in prison each over the (Israel) gas deal," the source told Agence France Presse.

The opposition Syrian National Council said on Thursday that it will not join any interim government until President Bashar Assad quits after diplomats said peace envoy Kofi Annan was pushing the idea.
"The opposition has not yet received the details of the Annan proposal and cannot reply to it," SNC spokesman George Sabra told Agence France Presse by telephone.
