Anti-government Protest | featured news

Syrian troops opened fire Friday during an anti-government demonstration that appeared to be one of the biggest yet, reportedly killing dozens of protesters and wounding many more in the central town of Hama as Syrians around the country poured onto the streets in a renewed effort to force the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.

A senior Egyptian general told CNN Tuesday that officials performed "virginity checks" on women arrested during the uprising that led to former President Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the first time the authorities have admitted they performed such tests during the revolution.

Tanks stormed the town of Talbiseh on Monday, a day after surrounding it, and at least 10 people were wounded, a resident said, in an expanding military campaign in central Syria to crush dissent against Baathist rule.

Protesters throwing stones and bottles clashed with baton-wielding riot police Sunday in Belgrade after several thousand Serbian nationalist supporters of jailed war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic rallied outside the parliament building to demand his release.

Hundreds of Islamic militants solidified their control over a town in southern Yemen Sunday after seizing tanks in clashes with fleeing soldiers, military officials said. Opponents of the country’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, accused him of allowing the militants to freely seize Zinjibar in a bid to stoke Western fears that al-Qaida would take over the country if he responded to demands by demonstrators to step down.

An Egyptian judge has fined Hosni Mubarak and two other former officials $90 million for government-imposed telecommunication disruptions during the popular uprising earlier this year.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Tuesday unveiled $6 billion in funding to help Tunisia and Egypt address budget and reserve shortfalls this year and next, following popular uprisings that ended years of dictatorships but which have caused economic stress.

Gunmen surrounding an embassy are angry about efforts by Arab mediators to ease Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power.

The demonstrations have overshadowed regional and municipal elections that were expected to result in a defeat for the governing Socialist Party.

Fueling the demonstrators’ anger is the perceived failure by politicians to alleviate the hardships imposed on a struggling population by a jobless rate of 21 percent.