The Somali militant group al Shabab has formally joined al Qaeda, according to a video translation released of a message from al Qaeda's leader.
Security officials say tribesmen have kidnapped 18 Egyptian border guards along the border with Israel in retaliation for the killing of one of their members.
Protesters and police clashed again overnight outside Cairo's security headquarters in the wake of deadly football violence and amid calls by activists for civil disobedience in Egypt.
A relative of Barack Obama says the president's step-grandmother suffered minor injuries after a car she was traveling in rolled over.
An Egyptian government building was set on fire on Sunday as protests disrupted the heart of Cairo for a fourth day and public figures demanded a faster transition to civilian rule.
Saboteurs on Monday blew up a pipeline that supplies gas to Israel, the 12th such attack in a year, security officials said.
Egypt's streets continued to simmer with anger with 10 lives lost over three days, as fuming protesters clashed with police over its failure to prevent Port Said's unprecedented football violence.
Sudan is closer to war than peace with the breakaway state of South Sudan, President Omar al-Bashir said on national television on Friday.
About 30,000 people have fled recent fighting in Sudan's South Kordofan state, the UN said on Friday after rebels captured 29 Chinese workers in the same area.
A health official says two protesters have been killed by police gunfire in clashes with police in Suez, Egypt.
The head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, said on Thursday that he was forming a fact-finding committee to investigate soccer violence that killed more than 70 people, state television reported.
A surge of violence in Syria on Monday, mostly in the flashpoint Homs region, killed almost 100 people, including 55 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Libya's ruling National Transitional Council will meet tomorrow to adopt the nation's new electoral law which aims to bar supporters of slain dictator Muammar Gaddafi from contesting polls.
A 42-year-old French tourist was killed by robbers at a currency exchange shop in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Xinhua reported.
The Arab League has suspended its controversial observer mission in Syria as the bloodshed in a crackdown on anti-regime protests spiked and the death toll in four days topped 210.