Jordan said on Sunday the bloody crackdown on the opposition in Syria is "worrisome," and called for dialogue and reforms to end the crisis in the neighboring country.

"What is happening in Syria now is worrisome, unfortunate and sad," Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told the state-run Petra news agency in an interview.

Shoppers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are among the wealthiest and most discerning in the world. Most major malls in Dubai, for instance, feature couture retailers usually associated in the United States with upscale fashion districts. It is not an uncommon sight to see shoppers with several large shopping bags, loaded into a cart just as a family buying groceries would, only the purchases being Gucci shoes and Louis Vuitton handbags. According to Business Monitor International, U.S.$31 billion worth of retail sales are expected this year in the UAE, and will top U.S.$41 billion in less than five years.

As there is more total retail space supply in the country than its entire population -- according to retail surveys, an estimated 5.75 million square meters by the end of 2014, or 1.27 square meters of shopping space for every UAE resident -- online retail has struggled to find room. Because of concerns about fraud, 45% of UAE shoppers said they would not buy online, according to a survey this year by MasterCard.

A Jordanian who confessed to killing his wife's alleged lover cut off the man's penis before putting it in a bag and handing it over to police, a judicial official said on Monday.

The 35-year-old man "lured the victim to a hotel room in downtown Amman, claiming that he wanted to resolve the issue about his wife quietly" on Saturday, the official told Agence France Presse.

More than 300 Jordanian youths demonstrated in Amman Friday to condemn government "oppression" and "terrorizing" of the media, a week after several journalists were beaten up as they covered a pro-reform sit-in.

"No to government intimidation, oppression and terrorizing of the press," the youths chanted as they marched from Al-Husseini mosque in central Amman to the nearby city hall.

Four policemen suspected of attacking journalists at a demonstration in the Jordanian capital were arrested on Saturday, officials said.

"So far, four police officers suspected of being linked to the attacks on journalists have been arrested," said a statement from the criminal investigation department received by Agence France Presse.

At least 10 people, mostly journalists, were injured on Friday when police tried to stop clashes between pro-reform demonstrators and government supporters in central Amman.

Police used batons to disperse the clashes outside city hall, beating and injuring nine journalists who were wearing orange vests marked "press," an Agence France Presse reporter at the scene witnessed.

Saboteurs bombed an Egyptian gas pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula on Monday, sending flames into the sky and cutting supplies to Israel and Jordan, a security official said.

Officials said a car had parked near the pipeline in the Bir al-Abd area, 80 kilometers from the north Sinai town of el-Arish, shortly before the explosion.

A French official has said that he would ask Lebanese Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi to exert all efforts to cooperate with the international tribunal “no matter what the price might be.”

Francois Zimeray, who is France’s Ambassador for Human Rights, said in remarks published in the Saudi al-Watan daily on Sunday that he would ask Qortbawi “about the future intentions on the international court and how Lebanon would cooperate with it.”

Jordan's Information Minister Taher Adwan said on Tuesday he has resigned because of laws he deemed "restrictive for freedom of expression."

"I submitted my resignation today to Prime Minister Maaruf Bakhit in protest at a government decision" to debate new press and publication laws in parliament that he opposed, Adwan told Agence France Presse.

Jordan's King Abdullah II expressed pessimism about the prospects of Middle East peace in an interview published Thursday, speaking openly about a "one-state solution" to the conflict.

"2011 will be, I think, a very bad year for peace," Abdullah told The Washington Post in an interview at his palace in the Jordanian capital.