The United Arab Emirates authorities claim to have broken up a terrorist cell that was planning domestic and foreign attacks.

The British Prime Minister said in a recent interview that safe passage for Syria's president may be provided if he agrees to leave the country.

Politics got intense on Friday in Jordan, where a member of Parliament pulled a gun on an opposition activist on live television.  A heated debate between MP Mohammed Shawabka and political activist and former MP Mansour Sayf al-Din Murad over the Syrian regime, broadcast on the Jo Sat televison network, turned into a noisy, incensed shouting match before live audiences.

At least eight people died when a car bomb exploded outside a market in the mainly Shia Washash district of Baghdad, while four people were killed in another car bomb attack in the mainly Sunni town of Taji.