BADAKHSHAN, Afghanistan -- The bazaar sits on a small island in the river Panj, a narrow expanse of shallow but fast-flowing water that is all that separates the Badakhshan region of Tajikistan from the Afghan province of the same name. On either side loom the Pamir mountains, a range of high peaks that cuts the region off from the rest of the world.

This year the Turkish Constitutional Court will hear a crucial petition aimed at banning the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), including its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul, and 70 more AKP politicians. This will be the fifth petition in the history of the court to prohibit political parties. It granted four in the past.

What the Arab papers said on April 30:

CAIRO -- The Muslim Brotherhood is facing its most difficult test in recent times after a controversial ruling by a military court in Egypt on Wednesday sentenced 25 of its leading members to prison sentences.

The decision at their Doha summit this week by the leaders of the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council to proceed to a full common market on Jan. 1, 2008 is as ambitious as it is significant.

Gulf Arab leaders Tuesday wrapped up a two-day summit that agreed to maintain their currencies peg to the U.S. dollar and to launch a pan-Gulf common market in January.