The Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline was bombed May 8 in the district of Shirqat in Iraq's Salah ad Din province, a source in the North Oil Company said, Alsumaria reported.

Libyan militias withdrew their trucks with mounted machine guns from outside the foreign and justice ministries May 8, but protesters remained, AFP reported.

Syria's Internet and communications were restored May 8 after a two-day blackout, Syrian state TV announced, AFP reported.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that he would return to the Middle East later in May for separate talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Reuters reported May 8.

Syrian regime forces captured Khirbet Ghazaleh, a strategic southern town on the highway to Jordan, from rebel fighters on May 8, Reuters reported.

Syria's Martyrs of Yarmouk brigade is holding four U.N. peacekeepers who were monitoring the cease-fire line between Syria and the Golan Heights, the brigade and a U.N. spokeswoman said May 7, Reuters reported.

Libyan Defense Minister Mohammed al-Barghathi retracted the resignation that he announced early May 7, The Tripoli Post reported.

Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan will make an important decision May 7 along with the Libyan army's chief of staff, a Libyan Defense Ministry spokesman said, denying reports that the chief of staff had quit, Reuters reported.