2111 GMT:Saudi Arabia. Claimed footage from a sit-in protest by women and children of political detainees, burning the picture of the Minister of Interior:
1755 GMT:Saudi Arabia. Thirty Saudi women have become the first female members of the Shura Council, as they were sworn in before King Abdullah at his palace in the capital Riyadh.
The women are among 160 members of the advisory body.
"The development we are working at must be gradual," King Abdullah said. He recommended that the Council show "realism" in its discussions and allow "reason to prevail in issues [with which] it has to deal".
On 11 January, the King appointed the women, who include university graduates, human rights activists, and two princesses.
1749 GMT:Palestine. The Forum of Palestinian journalists has criticised Israeli forces for detaining three Palestinian journalists on Tuesday in Bethlehem.
The three men are Mamdouh Hamamreh, a reporter for the Al-Quds satellite channel; Samer Hamad, a cameraman for Palmedia news agency, and Abdul-Rahman Younos, a reporter for Al-Quds.com.
The arrests follow the claimed abduction of Mohamed Saba’na, a political caricaturist for Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, after his return from a ocnference in Jordan.
1739 GMT:Tunisia. The leader of the Ennadha Party, the dominant faction in the ruling coalition, has said he expects that agreement will be reached on a new Cabinet led by Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.
Rachid Ghannouchi said, "I expect that agreement will be reached and I expect Jebali will remain the prime minister of a coalition government."
Following last week's assassination of opposition politician Chokri Belaid, Jebali proposed a Cabinet of apolitical technocrats but pthers in Ennahda objected.
Ghannouchi said a counter-proposal would be made, "There is a project for a political government that will be presented to the prime minister to form a team of politicians and technocrats."
The Ennadha leader continues, "We don't have much time before we announce this government. The time limit is this week."
Ghannouchi indicated that Ennahda was prepared to compromise over the control of portfolios such as defence, foreign affairs, justice, and interior.
Some groups in the ruling coalition, notably President Moncef Marzouki's Congress for the Republic, had threatened to withdraw their ministers if the Justice and Foreign Ministers were not replaced.
The French-Malian force took the town earlier this month, as insurgents --- who had moved in last April --- withdrew.
Gunfire broke out in the area of the central market and police station, hours after French and Malian forces reinforced a checkpoint that had been attacked for the second time in two days by a suicide bomber.
French helicopter gunships flew overhead.
"Islamists who have infiltrated the town are trying to attack our positions, but we're fighting back," a Malian army officer said. Another Malian soldier said one group of rebel infiltrators had come in on motorbikes.
1642 GMT:Saudi Arabia. Thousands marched in Qatif on Thursday night in memory of leading cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, shot and detained by security forces last year.
Al-Nimr was a leading figure in the protests in the mainly-Shia Eastern Province, protesting detentions and calling for political reforms.
1855 GMT:Palestine. A boy in his the rubble of his home, destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer:
1755 GMT:Palestine. A Palestinian court has sentenced a West Bank man, Anas Awwad, to a year in jail for "cursing the President" on Facebook.
Awwad's father said his son --- commenting on a picture of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas kicking a soccer ball during his visit to Barcelona Football Club in 2011 --- wrote, "The new striker in Real Madrid".
2106 GMT:Bahrain. Opposition groups have "stressed the need to agree on the mechanism and the rules of the national dialogue" before the start of talks on Sunday.
"Agreeing on the mechanism before the dialogue starts would strengthen public trust in the dialogue," the groups, including leading society Al Wefaq, continued. This would "spare" Bahrain from the failure of the talks in the first round, a situation that would have unwanted "political and public implications."
The groups will write to the Justice Minister on Thursday to emphasise their position, renewing their request to meet him to agree over the mechanism of the dialogue.
The minister, Sheikh Khalid bin Ali al-Khalifa, announced on Monday that the dialogue would resume this weekend, after an earlier round failed to the bring the opposition on board.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 6:57 | 