Three bombs struck security targets in Damascus and Aleppo (Syria), killing 30 people.

Hana Shalabi, a Palestinian activist detained without charge by Israel, was said by a medical rights group to be facing “immediate risk of death” after more than 30 days of hunger strike.

A wave of bombings in Iraq killed scores of people. Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad and other cities were the primary targets.

Voters in Yemen were asked to rubber-stamp the promotion of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the vice-president, to the presidency. He was the only candidate in the presidential vote.

The Arab League suspended an observer mission to Syria that was meant to aid a peaceful end to an increasingly-violent conflict between the government and protesters.

Iraq’s main Sunni party returned to parliament and will resume talks with Shia leaders, following a protest over an arrest warrant for the country’s Sunni vice-president.

Bedouin tribesmen in Egypt’s Sinai region released 25 Chinese workers they had kidnapped.

Bombings in Baghdad and Basra killed at least 45 people. As the last Americans troops prepare to leave Iraq, such attacks may cast doubt on the Iraqi forces’ ability to maintain security.

Kuwait’s prime minister and his cabinet resigned in Kuwait over allegations of corruption.

Five bloggers in Abu Dhabi received prison sentences of between two and three years for insulting the country’s rulers and sowing dissent, but were promptly granted a presidential pardon.

A string of bombs likely to be planted by Al-Qaeda went off all over Iraq. A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people in Baghdad, including a prominent parliamentarian.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack on a military academy in Algeria that killed 18 people.

Several dozen bomb attacks across Iraq on one day killed at least 89 people and unnerved the government ahead of the withdrawal of American troops later this year.

Around 98.5% of Moroccan voters approved a new constitution proposed by King Mohammed VI, who faced pro-democracy protests earlier this year.

Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the former dictator of Tunisia, was again convicted in absentia, this time of illegally possessing drugs and weapons. Ben Ali fleed Tunisia in January and now resides in Saudi Arabia.

The German parliament questioned the sales of 200 tanks to Saudi Arabia because of the country’s poor human rights record and participation in the crackdown on protesters in Bahrain in March.

Tunisia’s ousted president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and his wife were sentenced in absentia to 35 years for corruption and fined US$ 66m.

Dozens of Al-Qaeda members escaped from a prison in the port city of Mukalla in Yemen.

In Bahrain, eight pro-democracy campaigners, all Shias, were given life sentences for “plotting to overthrow the government”.

A series of bombings in Iraq killed at least 35 people, predominantly in Diwaniya, south of Baghdad. The attacks were presumed to have been carried out by Sunni extremists linked to Al-Qaeda.

Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Meshal, leaders of respectively Fatah and Hamas, cancelled a meeting at which they were meant to select a prime minister. The news came as a blow to Palestinian hopes of unity.

Scores died in Syria as security forces suppressed anti-regime protests, particularly in Latakia and Deraa. President Bashar Assad said he would lift the 48-year-old state of emergency, but did not say when.

Following weeks of violent protests, Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh offered to transfer his powers to a caretaker government while retaining the presidency until elections are held. Protesters declined the offer.

Sectarian relations in the Middle East soured after Nuri Al-Maliki, Iraq’s prime minister and a Shia himself, praised the Shia protesters in Bahrain and criticised Sunni Saudi Arabia for helping to suppress them. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hizbullah, Lebanon’s Shia party-cum-militia, also aroused anger among Sunni governments by praising the Bahraini protesters and likening the Bahraini ruling family to Libya’s Gaddafi.

At least 55 people were killed in Tikrit, Iraq, after suicide bombers thought to be linked to Al-Qaeda to a score of hostages, including several members of the local council, prompting government forces to storm the building.

Open defiance of protesters against authoritarian governments in the Middle-East spread to Morocco and Iraqi Kurdistan. In Bahrain protesters were met with fierce retaliation from the royal family, resulting in several casualties. After heavy criticism it relented and vowed to work towards political reform.

The chief prosecutor in Egypt called for the freezing of assets of deposed President Hosni Mubarak.

Oil prices soared as a result of the political strife in Libya. Brent crude traded at well above US$ 115 a barrel.