King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has sacked one of his most conservative advisors, an outspoken critic of moves towards relaxing the strict

segregation

of men and women in public places. No reason was given for Sheikh Abdelmoshen al-Obeikan's dismissal. The move comes a few days after Mr. al-Obeikan attacked what he called plans by influential people to corrupt Muslim society by trying to change the natural status of women. The Saudi King has recently support the gradually relaxation of more hard-line interpretations of Islam.

The party that has ruled Algeria for 50 years, the National Liberation Front has won a big majority in parliamentary elections. The Islamist coalition which came a distant third complained a fraud. From Algiers, here is Cloy Amos.

The party of the president Abdelaziz Bouteflika has won almost half the seats in parliament, 220 of the available 462 seats next to his 68 seats with the RND, the National Democratic Rally whose leader is the prime minister Ahmed Ouyahia. The green ally, a coalition of three Islamist parties came a distant third with 48 seats. They have already disputed there saying the figures from their observers do not

tally with

the official results. Cloy Amos

World News from the BBC

Syrian state television says that an attempted suicide bombing has been stopped in the country’s second city Aleppo. State television said that there would-be attacker had been killed. It says his car contained 1200 kilograms of explosives. There’s no other verification of the report so far. Opposition activists have already dismissed it as a lie.