A GROUP of citizens in the United Arab Emirates petitioned the rulers yesterday to allow a popularly elected parliament, as demands for leadership overhauls continued to spread across the Middle East.

Al-Jazeera television reporters have been banned from entering Iran’s parliament building in protest at perceived insults by the network against the country’s most revered Shiite cleric, Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported.

Hundreds of angry Shiites poured onto the streets of two cities south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad today to protest over what they considered insults by Al-Jazeera television against Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

A DISGRUNTLED Education Ministry employee opened fire at colleagues at a ministry office in Lebanon yesterday, killing eight people and wounding five before he was apprehended

A man opened fire today at a Beirut university, killing eight people before he was arrested by police, officials said.