CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military rulers are considering ways to speed up the transition to civilian rule, including moving up the date for presidential elections, a spokesman for a civilian body that advises the army said Monday. The remarks from Mohammed El-Kholy, a member of the civilian panel created by the army to advise it on transition issues, follow a series of mass street protests in the past week to commemorate the first anniversary of the uprising that ousted President... Read more

BEIJING (AP) — State media says China will send thousands of police officers to patrol rural villages in Xinjiang amid concern about religious extremism in the heavily Muslim region. The official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday that 8,000 police will be recruited so every village in Xinjiang has at least one officer on patrol. It said they will help manage migrants and crack down on illegal religious activities. Xinjiang, in far northwestern China, is home to the traditionally Muslim Uighur... Read more

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian atheist who was jailed and beaten last year for expressing anti-Muslim views on Facebook and in blogs says Palestinian security forces are harassing him again, despite government pledges to respect human rights. The blogger’s renewed ordeal is part of a persistent climate of intolerance of dissent in the territories controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, say human rights activists. They say they’ve seen improvements, including a marked decrease in the mistreatment of detainees,... Read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly six years after it was created, Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity is set to break ground on the construction of schools in the impoverished country, but they will be run by the local community, not the superstar’s organization. According to organizers, work on the first school will start on March 30 in the Kasungu area, about 80 miles from the capital of Lilongwe, and all of the schools should be built by June 2013. Raising Malawi... Read more

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus and the U.N. Security Council took up a draft resolution demanding that President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Security Council that action to end the violence in Syria would be different from U.N. efforts to pacify Libya. “I know that some members here may be concerned that the Security Council is headed... Read more

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops crushed pockets of rebel soldiers Tuesday on the outskirts of Damascus, fueling some of the bloodiest fighting of the 10-month-old uprising, as Western diplomats tried to overcome Russia’s rejection of a draft U.N. resolution demanding President Bashar Assad halt the violence and yield power. The U.N. Security Council was meeting Tuesday to discuss the draft, backed by Western and Arab diplomats. But Russia, one of Assad’s strongest backers, has signaled it would veto action against... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Turnout was low as Egyptians voted on Sunday for the upper house of parliament, in elections that are the latest step in the country’s planned transition from military to civilian rule. Few voters showed up to cast their ballots at polling stations in Cairo, one of 13 provinces where the first stage of elections for the largely advisory Shura Council are taking place. A second stage will take place on Feb. 14-15. “We now feel we have... Read more

BAGHDAD (AP) — An official with Iraq’s Sunni-backed political alliance says its leaders have decided to end a parliament boycott, but the bloc’s ministers will stay away from Cabinet meetings to protest arrests and prosecution of Sunni officials. Maysoun al-Damlouji, a spokeswoman for Iraqiya bloc, says its lawmakers will return to the parliament when it reconvenes Tuesday. She said Iraqiya’s leaders decided that the bloc’s ministers will not attend the weekly meeting of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet the same... Read more

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A fire swept through a private rehabilitation center for addicts in Peru’s capital on Saturday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 10 as firefighters punched holes through walls to rescue residents trapped inside. One resident of the “Christ is Love” center for drug and alcohol addicts in Lima’s eastern Zarate district said he was eating breakfast at 9 a.m. local time on the center’s second floor when he saw flames coming from the first floor,... Read more

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — More than 8,000 Tunisians marched Saturday through the capital denouncing violence committed by ultraconservative Islamist groups in recent months. Since the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s secular dictatorship in a popular uprising a year ago, small groups of ultraconservative Muslims known as Salafists have risen in Tunisia calling for greater piety, attacking unveiled women and secular intellectuals and occupying universities. Organized by two leftist opposition parties, the demonstration was one of the largest marches... Read more