Elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet issued a statement confirming the approval of a prisoner exchange deal with Egypt to release suspected Israeli spy Ilan Grapel, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen arrested in June and accused of being a spy in exchange for 25 Egyptian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Moderate Islamists claimed victory Monday in the first democratic elections in Tunisia, proving that years of state-sponsored secularism by toppled leader Ben Ali has not prevented the return of Islamists parties in Tunisia.

With the popularity of Islamic-based political parties in Tunisia and Egypt, and the announce of the continuation of a sharia law-based Libya, political Islam in some of the Arab Spring countries is it seems regaining momentum, re-launching the debate between democracy and Islam.

Gaddafi's death symbolises the beginning of a new Libya, its leaders have said, announcing the liberation of the country, but with the circumstances in which the former leader died still unclear and accusations of violations of human rights throughout the conflict, Libya it seems is still a long way from democracy.

The first elections in Tunisia since the revolution, held Sunday, have been hailed as a success after an exceptionally high turnout proved Tunisians are determined to use their new freedoms.

Libya's National Transitional Council might have successfully ousted Gaddafi following months of a conflict which culminated with the former leader's death, but in Syria, activists were still in the streets protesting against Assad, while Egypt and Tunisia are still reeling from the fall of their former dictatorship.

LIbya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was killed in a cross fire, moments after being captured trying to flee his birthplace of Sirte, officials from the NTC have said, and latest reports suggest the authorities are now planning a secret burial within the next few hours.

News that former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has died has been confirmed by several NTC officials, but NATO has warned it will need more times to confim the reports.

Conflicting reports saying that former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has been captured are still surfacing, but while it is impossible to confirm whether the colonel has been captured, injured or dead, reports from Libya show signs of jubilations in Tripoli and Sirte.

Tunisia's forthcoming elections are set to take place over the week-end but fears of violence and vote rigging are mounting as the Arab Spring's first polls are set to take place in a country still divided between islamist and secular tendencies.

With clashes reported in Tripoli, Sirte still embattled and Muammar Gaddafi still at large, observers fear the long and prolonged confrontation opposing the National Transitional Council (NTC) and the Gaddafi loyalists could plunge the country into chaos.

In 2007, Indian-born Booker Prize-winning author, Salman Rushdie, established a new high for Asian Muslims living in the UK, when he was honored with a knighthood. More recently, Abdul Arain, a Non Resident Indian and Cambridge-based grocery-store owner, shot to fame when he was nominated in the Cambridge University Chancellor elections. Though he lost, there continues to a lot of hype about the commoner with an MBA from Cambridge.

Liberia is to release a first batch of official results on Thursday from its hotly contested presidential election.

Mitt Romney currently leads the field vying for the Republican presidential nomination as Barack Obama faces deep disappointment from voters, a new poll suggests.

The news that Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will soon be released after five years being held captive by militant Palestinians has provoked strong reactions across the world. Here we take a look at the way the story has been covered in the U.S., the U.K., and the Middle East.

Bad weather and rain did not prevent Liberians from lining up to vote Tuesday in national presidential elections, marking the second time Liberians have voted since the end of a 14-year civil war, with current President and Nobel Prize winner Ellen Johnson Sirleaf facing as a main competitor football star George Weah.

The race for the socialist presidential candidate has now truly started after an unprecedented open primary held on Sunday saw previous presidential runner up Segolene Royale ousted, leaving Francois Hollande, and Martine Aubry to fight for the chance to run against President Nicholas Sarkozy in next year's presidential election.

Tunisian police on Sunday broke up a mob of angry Salafists who tried to attack a TV network that aired a film on the Iranian revolution, raising fears the growing movement could provoke more unrest just two weeks away from elections where Tunisians will choose members of a constituent assembly tasked with crafting a new constitution.

The news that Iranian actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her role in a film about the limits imposed on artists in the Islamic republic speaks of a dangerous level of censorship and intolerence in the country.

Despite months of protests, Yemeni President Saleh, 69, has remained defiant, reversing repeated pledges to quit and while fears of al-Qaeda's influence have been voiced, other criteria also threaten the country's stability. With Saleh's new pledge to leave power now in doubts, the future of Yemen is once more in tatters.

Despite its brutal crackdown on protesters and international calls to step down, the Syrian regime remains defiant, with the foreign minister Sunday threatening "tough measures" against any country that recognizes the newly formed opposition council.

Friday 7 October marks the 10th anniversary of the foreign troop's intervention in Afghanistan and recent polls show that 66 per cent of women said they feel safer now than they did 10 years ago and 72 per cent believe their lives are better now than they were 10 years ago. However, 87 per cent of all women in Afghanistan suffer domestic abuse, proving that there is still a long way to go before Afghan women can truly feel protected.

Prime Minister David Cameron delivered his Keynote speech yesterday on the last day of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. In it, Cameron appeals for a "can-do optimism" during an "anxious time" for the country's economy.

The transitional government's forces have been battling pro-Gaddafi forces in Sirte, and it seems that bringing most of their artillery material might have paid off as they insist they were able to advance several km (miles) into the city, capturing the southern district of Bouhadi.

After winning over the U.S. and the world with his 'Yes we can' slogan, Obama's next presidential campaign announces itself gloomier and harder than its precedent as a new poll suggest a majority of Americans expect him to be a one-term president, only, prompting the president to call himself an 'underdog.'

While the situation in Libya is still far from stable as the National Transitional Council forces are still fighting pro-Gaddafi forces and the new government struggles to implement the transitional plan regulating the transitional phase, emerging political voices are starting to surface. For example include the Berbers, who after fighting with the NTC now want to be assured more political space in the 'new' Libya.

Amid international outrage, King Abdullah of Saudi has decided to revoke a sentence condemning a Saudi woman to be lashed 10 times for defying the country's ban on female drivers.

Saudi Arabia King Abdullah has overturned a court ruling which sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the country's ban on female drivers, reports say.

Just two days after Saudi King Abdullah's announced that Saudi women would be allowed to participate in elections, two Saudi women were punished for breaking the ban on female driving with one being sentenced to 10 lashes by a court in Jeddah while another was detained in Riyadh, leading rights activists to question the King's apparent new reformist tendencies.

A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for breaking the county's ban on female drivers, according to Amnesty International.