LONDON- Britain's famed parliament clock tower Big Ben is set to be renamed the Elizabeth Tower in honour of the queen's diamond jubilee, a report said Friday. Prime Minister David Cameron is among...

CAIRO- Egyptian state television will broadcast live the verdict and sentencing on Saturday of ex-president Hosni Mubarak, his sons and security chiefs in a murder and corruption trial, official...

DUBAI- Nearly 300 stores in the Gulf emirate of Dubai will ban the sale of cigarettes for 24 hours on Thursday to mark the World No Tobacco Day, local media reported. "In Dubai, nearly 300 outlets...

KUWAIT CITY- Kuwait's court of appeals Thursday reduced a seven-year jail term of a Sunni tweeter to a six-month imprisonment for allegedly insulting the faith of the Shiite minority, his lawyer...

VATICAN CITY- Pope Benedict XVI leaves a scandal-hit Vatican on Friday for the World Meeting of Families in Milan, where he will argue that the traditional family is the key to galvanising a flagging...

CAIRO- Deposed Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak's sons, already on trial for corruption with their father, will face a new separate case for alleged corrupt stock market dealings, state media reported...

DUBAI- Global social online network, Facebook, opened on Wednesday a sales office in Dubai, expanding its operations in the Middle East and North African market, where it says it has some 45 million...

DUBAI- Two Bahraini opposition activists facing life terms for plotting to overthrow the Sunni monarchy told an appeals court on Tuesday they were "tortured" in detention and asked to be freed, their...

DOHA- A fire that erupted at a nursery in a huge Venice-themed shopping centre in the expat-dominated Qatari capital of Doha on Monday killed 19 people including 13 children, the interior ministry...