A twin car bomb blast in the southern city of Amara has killed at least four civilians and wounded 42 others.

      Al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on Europe’s high-speed rail network, German newspaper Bild reported on Monday, citing intelligence sources.

      Egyptian police say at least 35 detained protesters have been killed while attempting to escape from a prison convoy, but the Muslim Brotherhood has alleged that their supporters were killed in cold blood and called for an international inquiry into the incident.

      Israeli writer, Yossi Melman, has said that Israel’s main concern is the possible downfall of the military regime in Egypt. He has also said that Israel is fearful that chaos could lead the country into civil war.

Air strikes have hit bakeries and hospitals among other civilian targets in Syria, a watchdog reported Thursday, accusing the Syrian government of killing thousands in such raids it said amounted to war crimes.

A powerful earthquake has struck close to Iran’s only nuclear power station, killing at least 37 people and injuring 850 more as it devastated small villages, according to state media reports.

Al-Qaeda’s branch in Iraq says it has merged with Syria’s armed opposition group Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of hardliners within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to stoke renewed fears among its international backers.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has condemned deadly clashes at the Cairo headquarters of the Coptic Christian pope as “an attack against myself”, ordering a quick probe into the violence, a statement said.

Syrian government troops battled revolutionary fighters on Saturday in a town outside Damascus, part of a belt of communities around the capital that has been the scene of near-daily fighting in recent months, opposition activists said.

The U.N. human rights chief called on the United States on Friday to close down the Guantanamo prison camp, saying the indefinite imprisonment of many detainees without charge or trial violated international law.