CAIRO, Egypt Nov 27, 2005 — For months, the Bush administration has said it is serious about pushing for democracy in the Middle East. It’s about to get a serious test of that resolve.

Egypt, the world’s most populous Arab country, is suddenly roiling with a wide-open, combative election that seems certain to end with the country’s main Islamic group, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, as a big winner.

London, Nov. 28 – King Abdullah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud told a London-based Arabic daily that the United States-led war on Iraq benefited Iran’s clerical rulers.

“The result of the war in Iraq has been to the benefit of the Iranian regime”, the Saudi King told the daily al-Hayat.

King Abdullah told the paper that Tehran had sent Riyadh several messages, explaining that Iran and Syria were under great international pressure and were heading for crises.

Chittagong, Bangladesh
29 November 2005 10:52

Eight people were killed and 23 badly hurt on Tuesday in two suicide bombings in Bangladesh that police blamed on Islamic extremists, the latest in a string of attacks in the Muslim-majority nation.

Police accused the hard-line group Jamayetul Mujahideen, which wants to introduce strict Islamic law in Bangladesh, of staging the attacks targeting the nation’s legal system.

Baghdad – A German woman has been kidnapped in Iraq in the latest strike against foreigners in the war- torn country.

The woman, said to be an archaeologist in her 40s who had worked in Iraq for some time and who speaks Arabic, was seized a day before an American, two Canadians and a Briton were also taken hostage in Baghdad.