Source : Maggie Fick | AP
JUBA : Sudan | 31 May 2011

North and south Sudan have agreed to establish a jointly patrolled demilitarized border zone between the two sides as the south prepares to declare independence in July, the African Union said Tuesday.

Source : Marius Bosch | Reuters
JOHANNESBURG | 31 May 2011

Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi is not prepared to leave Libya but will press efforts to find a political solution to the country’s conflict, South African President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday.

In a statement issued after meeting Qaddafi in Tripoli on Monday, Zuma said the Libyan leader had called for an end to NATO bombings “to enable a Libyan dialogue” and renewed a call for a cease-fire.

Source | World Bulletin
Istanbul | 01 June 2011

A top Turkish general was jailed on Monday pending trial over an alleged 2003 plot to unseat Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government.

General Bilgin Balanli, commander of Turkey's military academies, is the highest-ranking serving officer among nearly 200 serving and retired officers charged with involvement in the alleged conspiracy, dubbed "Operation Sledgehammer".

Source | Al Arabiya
Brussels | 01 June 2011

Declaring that there was “no contradiction between Islam and democracy,” political and religious leaders of the European Union have called for more religious tolerance in Europe and its neighboring countries.

Source | Islam Today
Kishinev | 01 June 2011

Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat has pledged to review the recent registration of Islam as one of the country's recognized religions, Moldovan news sources report.

Prime Minister Filat made the pledge at a meeting with Metropolitan Vladimir, the head of the powerful Moldovan Orthodox Church.

Source : Ghazanfar Ali Khan | Arab News
RIYADH | 31 May 2011

Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan have set out a new vision of bilateral relations by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote cooperation in the field of diplomacy, research and international affairs in Riyadh on Sunday.

Source : AP
CAIRO | 31 May 2011

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt’s military rulers have discussed Middle East peace efforts.

The official Middle East News Agency said Monday that Abbas thanked Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s ruling Supreme Military Council, for Egypt’s support of the Palestinians.

Source : Reuters
TEHRAN | 31 May 2011

Three hundred drug traffickers are on death row in Iran, the judiciary said, reflecting Tehran’s hard line on narcotics which has added to international concerns over its extensive use of capital punishment.

“For 300 drug-related convicts, including those who were in possession of at least 30 grams of heroin, execution verdicts have been issued,” Sharq daily quoted Tehran prosecutor-general Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying on Monday.

Source : Rahim Faiez  | AP
KABUL | 31 May 2011

A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed car at the gates of an Italian military base in Herat Monday and a second explosion ripped through a busy downtown intersection in the normally peaceful western city, officials said. At least four Afghans were killed. Five Italian soldiers were wounded, one of them gravely, Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said.

Source | Cihan News Agency
Jeddah | 31 May 2011

The Turkish secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, began a tour of African countries on Monday to strengthen cooperation among the African members of the 56-nation organization.

İhsanoğlu will be visiting Benin, Togo, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Niger before wrapping up his visit on June 7. The visits take place at the invitation of the seven countries.