RIYADH (Reuters) – A group of Saudi clerics has come out in support of a colleague who issued a fatwa saying two writers deserve to die if they did not retract views that he said made them apostates.

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas voiced willingness on Wednesday to talk to Fatah as part of a Yemeni reconciliation initiative but said the secular faction must drop its demand the Islamist group first give up control of the Gaza Strip.

ADEN, Yemen (Reuters) – A small bomb exploded in a market in Yemen’s southern port city of Aden on Wednesday but caused no casualties, witnesses said, a day after three mortars hit a school near the U.S. embassy in Sanaa.

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwait’s ruler has dissolved parliament days after the government resigned, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.

They said the victims, from the families of two brothers, were all civilians, but the U.S. military said the two brothers were involved in conducting bombing operations using improvised explosive devices.

KABUL (Reuters) – Scores of prisoners rioted in a high-security Kabul jail and at least nine people were wounded in an exchange of gunfire as Afghan police tried to restore order, sources in two foreign aid agencies said on Wednesday.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Serbia appealed to nations on Wednesday not to recognize the month-old republic of Kosovo, saying the breakaway state was part of its territory.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Police in a central Russian region have advised priests to apply for firearms licenses so they can defend their churches from marauding thieves who have been stealing religious icons at gunpoint.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s presidential council paved the way for provincial elections on Wednesday when it signed a law seen by Washington as crucial to helping reconcile the nation’s factions.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran reported it will sign a final agreement to export natural gas via pipeline to Pakistan in April.