North African Politics

Credit ratings agency Moody's said on Thursday it has downgraded Egypt's government bond ratings by one notch to Caa1 from B3, saying political instability had "significantly weakened" the economy.

An Islamist activist on Thursday hacked the Facebook page of feminist group Femen's Tunisian branch and posted religious messages after images of two members of the group posing topless were published on the Internet.

Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood warned on Thursday that it will defend its headquarters, as opposition activists planned a march on the building where they have previously clashed with the Islamists.

The first observers are preparing to monitor a demilitarised buffer zone between Sudan and South Sudan, Khartoum's defence minister said on Wednesday, a move which aims to curb cross-border rebel support.

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi said Wednesday he hoped his country can join major emerging market peers in the BRICS group as he pitched for Indian investment in his country's troubled economy.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called on Tunisia to "urgently" repeal its criminal defamation law, which can lead to two years in jail and which it said has a "chilling effect" on freedom of speech.

Egyptian police arrested on Tuesday Moamer Kadhafi's cousin Ahmed Qaddaf al-Dam, wanted by Tripoli for his role in the regime of the slain Libyan strongman, Egyptian officials said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II launched a broadside against regional leaders in an interview published Tuesday in a US magazine, saying Egypt's president has "no depth" in reading the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and that Turkey's premier sees democracy as a "bus ride".

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle pledged Tuesday further investment and aid for Tunisia if it stays on track in turning its Arab Spring revolution into a democratic success story.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi called Tuesday for an urgent halt to the "bloodshed" in Syria after holding talks with Indian leaders in New Delhi.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi arrived in Pakistan on Monday, on a South Asian tour that will also take in India as he works to promote trade and investment in his nation's troubled economy.

The head of the International Monetary Fund's Middle East division was in Cairo on Sunday for talks with the Egyptian government to discuss steps towards a possible aid program.

Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court began hearings Sunday on an appeal lodged on behalf of the Islamist president against a lower court's cancellation of a controversial parliamentary election he had called for April.

Hundreds of Sudanese refugees fled heavy fighting in South Sudan, United Nations officials said Sunday, warning of "serious concerns" over the presence of armed groups in border camps.

Women are "the slaves of this age", according to an Egyptian politician who took a stand against the country's Muslim Brotherhood to back a UN declaration on violence against women.

Tripoli's embassy in Cairo said Saturday it was suspending work indefinitely, five days after demonstrators attacked the mission and burned the Libyan flag to protest the death of an Egyptian Copt in Libya.

The African Union's Peace and Security Council arrives in Sudan on Sunday to meet African peacekeepers serving in the troubled Darfur region, official media said, after fresh government-rebel clashes.

Hundreds of Egyptian football fans protested outside the public prosecutor's office on Saturday, demanding the release of fellow members of their Ultras hardcore fan group.

Several thousand people demonstrated on Saturday on the 40th day of mourning after the murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid, a critic of the ruling Islamists whose death plunged Tunisia into turmoil.

Hundreds of Egyptians demonstrated in Cairo on Friday to press for the army to assume power in a country plagued by unrest and instability two years after a revolution which toppled president Hosni Mubarak.