TUNISIA

Tunisian forces have arrested two suspected members of al Qaeda near the Libyan border.

Osama bin Laden apparently supported the revolts which spread across the Arab world this spring, according to an audio message found at his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, according to a U.S. government official.

Libya's army fired streams of rockets at the rebel-occupied Zintan, forcing thousands to flee the town to bordering Tunisia.

The Swiss government has imposed a three-year freeze on bank assets valued at 830-million Swiss Francs (almost $1-billion) which are linked to Moammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak, the former leader of Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the deposed ruler of Tunisia.

Amidst a growing chorus accusations by India that the Pakistani authorities had been harboring Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in their country for years, the former chief of Pakistani intelligence vehemently has denied the allegations. However, he also warned that Al Qaeda may take revenge in retaliation for the killing of Osama.

Libyan rebels have rejected a proposal by Moammar Gaddafi to call for a ceasefire in exchange for an end to NATO military strikes.

Rev. Franklin Graham's comments on President Barack Obama's birth certificate, views on presidential politics and his charge that the Muslim Brotherhood has influence in U.S. State Department and military have come into the spotlight this week.

Human rights groups have demanded that the government of Bahrain put a stop to committing human rights violations against protestors and halt the practice of detaining patients and doctors suspected of either having participating in protests or being sympathetic with them.

Protests in Syria against the autocratic rule of the Assad regime took a grave turn on Friday as security forces killed over 75 people to control the mass uprising.

A prominent former official of the Syrian government said he thinks that President Bashar al-Assad will eventually be overthrown as a result of the regime’s brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

A court in Tunisia has dropped charges against a policewoman whose dispute with a fruit vendor inadvertently sparked a crisis that ultimately led to the downfall of the nation’s dictator and spread the seed of revolution across the Arab world.

Authorities in Tunisia said they are seeking to formally file eighteen separate charges against former president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, including voluntary manslaughter and drug-trafficking.

The international “contact group” that is meeting in Qatar to discuss the crisis in Libya has agreed to establish a temporary “trust fund” that will be used to move financial assistance to rebel groups seeking to topple Moammar Gaddafi.

A cell phone network called Free Libyana, brain child of a Libyan-American telecom executive Ousama Abushagur, is allowing rebels to communicate using a hijacked portion of the Libyana network.

Two anti-government activists in Bahrain have reportedly died in police custody weeks after they were first detained, as the government’s crackdown against opponents appear to be ever-hardening

Angelina Jolie, who is in Tunisia doing charity work, appeared with a new tattoo on her left arm.

A boat carrying illegal migrants from North Africa capsized near the Italian island of Lampedusa, rendering about 130 people missing, according to Italy’s coast guard officials.

As efforts to forcibly remove Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo have been launched, Ibrahim Coulibaly, a spokesman for the Ivory Coast embassy in France has re-asserted that no French forces were involved in the assault.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) says that the regime of Moammar Gaddafi planned to kill civilians even before the revolt in Libya commenced as a way for the government to stave off the kind of rebellion witnessed in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has awarded the Tor Project for championing Internet by protecting Anonymity in an era of social media revolutions in Middle East and the North African country Libya.

Libyan rebels have reportedly offered terms of a ceasefire if Moammar Gaddafi withdraws his soldiers from opposition-controlled cities and subsequently permits peaceful protests against the regime, according to a report in Al Jazeera.