CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s Coptic Church withdrew Monday from an Islamist-dominated committee to draft the nation’s new constitution and a leading Christian figure said the minority was never really represented to begin with. The move fed growing fears that Islamists and the military will end up controlling the most important governmental bodies in post-revolutionary Egypt and minorities, women and the liberal groups that drove last year’s uprising will be largely excluded. Out of 100 members of the committee originally selected,... Read more

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s official news agency says the country’s Coptic Church is withdrawing from a committee to draft the nation’s new constitution. The state news agency MENA reported Monday that the church called its participation “futile” under the current makeup of the panel, dominated by Islamists. Out of 100 committee members, only two were chosen from the church among six Christians. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population. Most are Copts. The Muslim Brotherhood’s party and a... Read more

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Just 12 days after they stormed the presidential palace, the young officers that seized control of Mali in a coup were slapped Monday with harsh financial sanctions that could cause the country to run out of gasoline. The body representing nations in West Africa announced Monday that starting immediately they are closing the land borders with Mali. The landlocked nation of over 15 million imports nearly all its petroleum products from neighboring Ivory Coast, and economists... Read more

BEIJING (AP) — Dozens of Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past year to protest Chinese rule, sometimes drinking kerosene to make the flames explode from within, in one of the biggest waves of political self-immolations in recent history. But the stunning protests are going largely unnoticed in the wider world — due in part to a smothering Chinese security crackdown in the region that prevents journalists from covering them. While a single fruit seller in Tunisia who... Read more

In shift away from diplomacy, international coalition plans to fund Syrian opposition groups ISTANBUL (AP) — A coalition of more than 70 partners, including the United States, pledged Sunday to send millions of dollars and communications equipment to Syria’s opposition groups, signaling deeper involvement in the conflict amid a growing belief that diplomacy and sanctions alone cannot end the Damascus regime’s repression. The shift by the U.S. and its Western and Arab allies toward seeking to sway the military balance... Read more

ESFARAYEN, Iran (AP) — Iranians flocked to parks and orchards to mark Sizdeh Bedar, an ancient festival that predates Islam and goes back thousands of years to the time when Zoroastrianism was the predominant religion of Persia. Iran’s hard-line ruling clerics have discouraged many pre-Islamic rituals, but they’ve been unable to put Iranians off the Persian New Year, or Nowruz, and its ending celebration of Sizdeh Bedar. The festival falls on the thirteenth day of Nowruz — Sizdeh is 13... Read more

AGADEZ, Niger (AP) — Booms from rocket launchers and automatic gunfire crackled Sunday around Mali’s fabled town of Timbuktu, known as an ancient seat of Islamic learning, for its 700-year-old mud mosque and, more recently, as host of the musical Festival in the Desert that attracted Bono in January. On Sunday, nomadic Tuaregs who descended from the people who first created Timbuktu in the 11th century and seized it from invaders in 1434, attacked the city in their fight to... Read more

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s vice prime minister is playing down the Muslim Brotherhood’s decision to seek the presidency in neighboring Egypt. Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon says maintaining peace with Israel is in any Egyptian leader’s interest, and that Cairo’s relationship with Washington is linked to the peace deal. He told Israel Radio on Sunday that “as long as … the Muslim Brotherhood president understands Egypt’s commitments and its interests, that will preserve the peace deal.” Israel’s 1979 peace agreement with... Read more

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi arrived in Qatar on Sunday on what the Gulf nation’s state news agency called an “official visit.” The unexpected visit marks al-Hashemi’s first foreign trip since he fled to Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region to avoid an arrest warrant issued in December. Al-Hashemi is Iraq’s highest-ranking Sunni official. Iraqi officials accuse him of running death squads against Shiite pilgrims, government officials and security forces. He denies the charges, which... Read more

ISTANBUL (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred with Turkey’s prime minister about his nuclear discussions with Iran as the United States began intensively preparing for a round of negotiations between Tehran and world powers to take place within two weeks. The meeting came a day after Clinton announced that Istanbul would host the Apr. 13 talks on Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which have taken on added urgency amid speculation that Israel or the U.S. could take military... Read more