Tunisia's Islamist party has claimed victory in the post government elections, that will write the new Constitution there.
Libya's Rebel Government plans to bury the rotting corpse of Qaddaffi as early as Tuesday, as it claims it was a "crossfire" that killed him, rather than an execution as suggested by the video. The Rebels say they'll base the new government on Sharia Law.
Israel has agreed to release 25 Egyptian prisoners in exchange for an aid worker accused of spying.
Turkey sent its troops into Iraq to attack a Kurdish Communist terrorist camp there.
Syria withdrew their Ambassador to Washington after Obama ended the short lived return of the US Ambassador to Syria.
Iranian Arbabsiar has pled "not guilty" of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the US. His co-conspirator and his taskmaster are both believed to have escaped to Iran. In Iran, parliament is moving forward with impeachment procedures against the Minister of Finance.
Iraqi police and health officials said a series of attacks Monday targeting traffic police in the capital, Baghdad, killed at least four people and wounded 12 others.
Iranian news agencies said Sunday enough Parliament members have signed a motion to start impeachment proceedings against Shamseddin Hosseini. They say he hired unqualified people for important positions in his ministry. They also blame his poor monitoring of banks for a $2.6 billion bank scam.
The $2.6 billion bank fraud estimate has been hailed Iran’s largest in history.
The islamist-dominated Parliament has kept up pressure on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government, which some members have called a “deviant current” that seeks to undermine Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Impeachment is somewhat common in Iran.
One of the suspects accused in a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States has pleaded not guilty.
Manssor Arbabsiar, a naturalized U.S. citizen holding Iranian and American passports, entered his plea in a New York court Monday. He is charged with trying to hire a Mexican drug cartel to kill Saudi envoy Adel al-Jubeir by bombing a Washington restaurant.
U.S. officials have alleged that Arbabsiar was part of a $1.5 million plot by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s terrorists Quds force to kill the Saudi ambassador. A second suspect, Gholam Shakuri, is at large, but is believed to be in Iran.
Iran has denied involvement in the case. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the CNN television network on Sunday that “we never have any intention to hurt Saudi Arabia.”
The 56-year-old Arbabsiar has lived for many years in the U.S., working as a used car salesman in Texas.
In an anticipated move, Syria has ordered home its ambassador to the United States. The move came hours after the announcement from Washington that the U.S. ambassador to Syria had been withdrawn.
A U.S. State Department spokesman said Monday the decision to recall Ambassador Robert Ford was based on ensuring his safety after he received what were called “credible threats.”
Ford has been an open critic of the Syrian government's violent crackdown on political dissent, which the United Nations says has killed 3,000 people since the uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad began in March.
U.S. officials say Ford left Damascus in recent days. It is not known when he will return. They called on the Syrian government to end its “incitement campaign” against the ambassador.
A spokesman for the Syrian government says its ambassador was recalled for consultations and that the embassy's charge d'affaires is replacing him. No further details were provided.
In July, the Syrian government issued an order restricting the movements of foreign ambassadors after Ford and the French ambassador visited the flashpoint city of Hama to show solidarity with residents there.
Last month, an angry mob confronted Ford as he prepared to meet a leading opposition figure in Damascus.
Turkish security sources say hundreds of Turkish troops in an armored column crossed into northern Iraq late Monday heading toward a Kurdish militant camp.
The sources say hundreds of Kurdistan Workers Party fighters are believed to be based in Iraq's Haftanin valley, about 20 kilometers from the Habur border post near the city of Zakho. Turkish warplanes took off earlier from bases in Diyarbakir and Malatya to launch airstrikes on the camp.
The Firat News Agency, which supports the Kurdish cause and the PKK, confirmed Monday that Turkish troops had entered northern Iraq.
Their incursion is the latest phase of a cross-border operation that began following last week's attack by PKK fighters that killed 24 Turkish soldiers along the Iraqi border, the army's biggest losses since 1993.
On Saturday, the Turkish military said it had killed 49 militants during two days of fighting in a valley on the Turkish side of the frontier.
Ankara's swift reaction has fueled speculation that Turkey could move to a full-blown incursion to clear out PKK camps deeper inside northern Iraq.
Israel's security cabinet meets Tuesday to endorse a prisoner exchange that will free 25 Egyptians from Israeli jails in exchange for a 27-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen who was accused of spying.
Ilan Grapel, who apparently entered Egypt in January, has been jailed since mid-June. It is alleged that he engaged in espionage activities in connection with the popular revolt that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak, although formal charges were never filed.
Israel insists Grapel is not a spy and has no ties with either Israeli or U.S. intelligence services.
The swap is expected to take place Thursday.
A statement issued by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said none of the 25 Egyptians being released is considered a security risk. Among them are three minors.
The exchange comes after an Egyptian-mediated deal between Israel and Hamas that freed captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit for more than 1,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails.
That deal and the exchange announced on Monday are seen as an attempt to improve relations between Israel and Egypt that have been strained since President Mubarak's ouster in February. Egypt and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1979.
Grapel, who is a student at a U.S. law school, was temporarily interning for a non-profit organization in Egypt when he was arrested.
Libyan provisional government officials say ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi will be buried Tuesday in an unmarked grave in a secret desert location, ending a growing controversy over his decomposing corpse.
The officials said the bodies of Gadhafi, his slain son Mutassim and former Defense Minister Abu Bakr Younis will be buried together in the same ceremony. They said Muslim sheikhs will attend the burial.
Gadhafi's body has been on public display since Friday in a commercial refrigerator in the port city of Misrata, where residents had lined up to see it.
The Associated Press said its reporters saw three vehicles leave the warehouse area late Monday. The reporting team then entered the freezer and found it empty.
Earlier Monday, National Transitional Council head Mustafa Abdel Jalil said he hopes that talks to form a new interim government will end in about two weeks. He also attempted to reassure Western powers that Libya's new leaders are “moderate Muslims.”
On Sunday, Mr. Jalil said Islamic Sharia law will be the main source of legislation for Libya, that laws contradicting its tenets will be nullified, and that polygamy will be legalized.
A French foreign ministry spokesman played down the comments. Bernard Valero expressed confidence that the Libyan people “will build a lawful state in conformity with the principles and universal values shared by the international community.”
Mr. Jalil also said the NTC has ordered an investigation into Gadhafi's death, after the U.S. government, rights groups and others called for the probe.
Libyan doctors performed an autopsy on Gadhafi's body in the city of Misrata Sunday and said he died of gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen during last week's takeover of Sirte. Cellphone video shows provisional government fighters taunting and beating a wounded Gadhafi shortly before he died.
Libyan officials said the former leader was shot in a crossfire between his loyalists and provisional government forces. Fighters on the scene have acknowledged beating the ousted leader after his capture.
Meanwhile, a human rights group is asking Libya's new authorities to investigate a possible mass execution of suspected Gadhafi supporters during the battle for Sirte.
Human Rights Watch says it found the bodies of 53 people who appear to have been executed in an area that was controlled by NTC fighters at the apparent time of the deaths about a week earlier.
The group said the bloodstains on the grass, the bullet holes on the ground and the bullet casings scattered around the site suggest that executioners killed some, if not all, of the people at that location, an abandoned hotel.
Sirte residents preparing the bodies for burial said most of the victims were local people and some were Gadhafi supporters.
Tunisia's Islamist party says it has won enough votes in Sunday's election to claim victory and is prepared to shape a new government in the small North African nation.
The landmark election, which was widely "called" free and fair, is the first to emerge from the Arab Spring which has seen governments topple across North Africa and the Middle East.
Although official results will not be announced until Tuesday, provisional results give the Ennahdha party close to 40 percent of the vote. But there are estimates the party's share could reach 50 percent.
Voters were electing a 217-seat constituent assembly that will draw up a new constitution. The assembly will be charged with determining the system of government and definining civil liberties. In the meantime, it will also appoint a caretaker government.
A large turnout has been reported. Tunisia's 'independent" electoral commission said more than 90 percent of the 4.1 million registered voters cast ballots.
Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo was among thousands of international and domestic observers. He called the vote not only free and fair but exemplary.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a message of congratulations on Sunday, said the election is a significant development in the democratic transition of the region.
The Islamist Ennahdha party has already taken steps to form a coalition that would model a government after the one in Turkey, whose ruling party also has an Islamist identity.
Election observers predict that women could capture nearly one third of the seats in the constituent assembly, a far larger proportion than in any Arab country.
But there is concern that Ennahdha could reverse some of the progress in women's rights that has been made in Tunisia.
This first vote of the Arab Spring came a little more than nine months after Tunisians overthrew longtime President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
President Barack Obama has offered his congratulations, saying Tunisia has “changed the course of history” and “inspired the world.” VoA.
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