Islamic World News

Darija, the language Moroccans use in everyday life, is coming to the fore in media and music and prompting calls it be declared a national language as some in the North African country ask for the first time: “Who are we?” Morocco’s official language is standard Arabic.

Yemen remained on high alert Wednesday as security forces deployed to the capital to protect embassies, government buildings and top state officials two days after a suicide attack outside an ancient temple killed 10 people including the bomber and seven Spanish tourists.

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was released early Wednesday after being held for 114 days, ending the longest-ever captivity of a journalist kidnapped in Gaza.

Egyptian border guards shot a Sudanese refugee and arrested two others early Wednesday as they tried to cross from Egypt into Israel, a police official said.

Egypt’s state-appointed Grand Mufti, who last week declared female genital cutting as banned in Islam, defended his decision by likening the practice to an ancient custom once wrongly seen as necessary for good health.

An Egyptian court accepted an appeal Monday from 45 Copts who were denied the right to reclaim their religious identities after they decided to convert back to Christianity from Islam, a lawyer and court officials said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged on Monday he had spoken out of turn in a report that leaned towards the Moroccan side in protracted negotiations with the Polisario movement over western Sahara.

The death toll for private contractors in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has topped 1,000, a stark reminder of the risks run by civilians working with the military in roles previously held by soldiers.

At least 12 people were killed and 58 injured when two buses crashed head-on in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on Tuesday, a security source said.

Egypt’s president has denied that the son-in-law of the country’s late leader Gamal Abdel Nasser was a spy, the state-run news agency reported Monday, breaking the state’s silence soon after the man’s death.