More than a hundred Egyptians attacked police with rocks and sticks in the town of Samalut south of Cairo on Oct. 9 after a pregnant woman died during a police search of her home. Mervat Salam Abdel Fatah, in late pregnancy, died of internal bleeding when police shoved her to the floor after she refused to allow them into her home, authorities said. Police had a warrant for her brother-in-law, accused of theft. Police responded to the spontaneous uprising with tear gas. One officer was reported hospitalized. (Middle East Online, Oct. 9)

The Sept. 29 bus bombing in the Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, which killed five people including four soldiers and wounded at least 33 others, triggered angry reactions from political leaders. Future Movement MP Saad Hariri lashed out at Syrian President Bashar Assad, accusing him of trying to insinuate that Lebanon was responsible for recent terror attacks in Syria. Assad, who has recently mobilized troops to the Lebanese border, said after the Tripoli blast that North Lebanon had become "a real base for extremism and constitutes a danger for Syria." (Daily Star, Lebanon, Sept. 30)

At least 17 civilians were killed and 14 injured in a car bomb attack on a security post in the southern Sidi Qada suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus early Sept. 27. The explosion occurred on the intersection leading to Saydah Zeinab, a Shi'ite shrine frequently visited by Iranian and Iraqi pilgrims. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the most deadly to have ever hit Syria. The blast comes days after Syria had sent forces to the Lebanese border, citing unnamed internal security reasons but drawing protests from Beirut. It was the first explosion in Syria since the car bomb assassination of Imad Mughniyah, military commander of Hezbollah, in February. (AlJazeera, AP, Reuters, Sept. 27)

Presumed al-Qaeda militants attacked the US Embassy in the Yemeni capital Sana Sept. 17, exploding a car bomb and firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades in an assault that left 16 dead—six militants, six guards and four civilians. Three police officers and seven civilians were injured, including children in a residential compound across the street from the embassy. It was the deadliest attack on a compound that has been targeted four times in recent years by bombings, mortars and shootings. With the attackers—some dressed in army uniforms—unable to penetrate the compound's massive security barriers, civilians waiting in line for visas outside the embassy were among the casualties. Susan Elbaneh, 18, a US citizen from Lackawanna, NY, recently wed in Yemen in an arranged marriage, was killed along with her husband. (AP, Sept. 17; The Scotsman, Sept. 18)

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) denied involvement in two bombs that exploded in a busy Istanbul suburb on July 27, killing 17 people. "The PKK has nothing to do with this event," the group's leader, Zubeyir Aydar, said in a statement. Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Istanbul since the November 2003 car bomb attacks on British and Jewish targets that left some 60 dead. But Istanbul's Gov. Muammer Guler said, "There appears to be a link with the separatist organization," referring to the PKK. "We are working on that."

Turkish conscientious objector Mehmet Bal has started a hunger strike, claiming that he was subjected to violence and pressure following his arrest June 8. The Istanbul branch of Turkey's Human Rights Association and Antimilitarist Initiative said in a press release that Bal was beaten and denied water or use of the bathroom as he was kept waiting for hours the night of his arrest. The statement called for his immediate release, and that those responsible for his mistreatment be held responsible. (BIANet, June 11)

Middle East Development LLC, the Dubai-based construction company controlled by Tarek Mohammad bin Laden, half-brother of Osama bin Laden, announced it is seeking to raise $190 billion to build two new cities in Djibouti and Yemen and a 28.5-kilometer bridge linking them. This land link, across the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, would be the first joining the Arabian peninsula to Africa. Comments Bloomberg, June 2:

From Reporters Without Borders, via AllAfrica, May 7:

Egypt: TV Agency Boss Facing Charges Over Food Riots
Reporters Without Borders has voiced concern about legal action against Nader Gohar, owner of the Egyptian TV news agency Cairo News Company (CNC), who was charged on 5 May 2008 with unlicensed broadcasting of food riots in the north of the country on 6 April.