A new round of deadly clashes erupted Friday in Bangladesh, a day after the sentencing to death of a senior Islamist leader unleashed the bloodiest bout of violence since independence four decades ago.

The United States has announced it will provide direct aid to Syrian rebels, but not the arms they had hoped for, as well as $60 million in extra assistance to the political opposition.

A dance craze that began in an Australian teenager's bedroom landed on the doorstep of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Thursday, with dozens of protesters doing the "Harlem Shake" outside the ruling Islamists' Cairo headquarters.

French and Malian troops launched an operation Thursday in the village of Kadji, northern Mali, where Islamists are hiding out on an island in the Niger river, a military source told AFP.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki testified on Thursday in the murder probe of Chokri Belaid, as a judicial source named the Salafist suspected of the assassination that plunged the country into turmoil.

At least 34 people were killed in Bangladesh in a wave of violence on Thursday as Islamists reacted furiously to a ruling that one of their leaders must hang for war crimes during the 1971 independence conflict.

Tunisian students and radical Muslim Salafists have faced off in renewed scuffles over the "Harlem Shake" dance craze in the cities of Sidi Bouzid and Tunis, witnesses said on Thursday.

At least 30 people were killed in Bangladesh in a wave of violence on Thursday as Islamists reacted furiously to a ruling that one of their leaders must hang for war crimes during the 1971 independence conflict.

The Philippines and a Muslim separatist group hope to finalise a peace agreement ending a decades-old insurgency by April, a government negotiator said Thursday.

An alleged Salafist suspected of assassinating Tunisian politician Chokri Belaid earlier this month was identified by his own father on Thursday, confirming information AFP received from a judicial source.

A wave of violence killed at least 21 people in Bangladesh Thursday as Islamists reacted furiously to a ruling that one of their leaders must hang for war crimes during the 1971 independence conflict.

Seventeen people were killed in clashes Thursday after a Bangladesh war crimes court sentenced a top Islamist opposition figure to death, police said.

A Bangladesh war crimes court sentenced a top Islamist opposition figure to death on Thursday, a verdict that unleashed a new wave of deadly clashes between police and protestors.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki on Thursday testified in the murder probe of Chokri Belaid, his office said in a statement, after the opposition leader's family said he had received death threats.

A special Bangladeshi court sentenced a senior Islamist opposition official to death Thursday for crimes such as murder, rape and religious persecution during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

A special Bangladeshi court sentenced a senior Islamist opposition official to death Thursday for crimes such as murder and religious persecution during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

Indian police are probing a threatening letter sent by militant Islamists to India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, for supporting a hardline nationalist politician, police and reports said Thursday.

A nationwide strike left Bangladesh paralysed Thursday, ahead of a verdict against a senior Islamist opposition leader accused of genocide during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

An electro-dance craze that has gone viral on the Internet is sparking insults and fisticuffs in Tunisia, where secularists and Islamists are battling for the soul of a nation widely viewed as the Arab world's most progressive.

Salafist Muslims in socially divided Tunisia tried to prevent the filming of current Internet craze the "Harlem Shake" at a school on Wednesday, but were driven off after coming to blows with students.