Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Sunday that Syria has agreed to host him for a probable visit this week to the strife-torn country.
"I have been informed that Syria welcomes" the visit which would take place "probably this week," Arabi told a news conference at his pan-Arab organization’s headquarters in Cairo.
Full StoryIsrael wants to calm a fierce row that has erupted with one-time ally Turkey over a 2010 raid on an aid flotilla, but not at any cost, including issuing an apology, ministers and officials said Sunday.
In recent days, ties between the once-friendly nations appear to have plumbed new depths, with Ankara expelling Israel's ambassador and suspending military agreements in the wake of a U.N. report on the deadly 2010 raid.
Full StoryAn Iranian airliner blew a tire on landing in the country's second-largest city Mashhad early on Sunday, injuring 11 people, three of them seriously, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Eight people received treatment at the scene and three others were taken to hospital," after the 12:02 am (1932 GMT Saturday) accident at the city's Shahid Hasheminejad airport, the news agency quoted the head of the provincial medical emergency center, Reza Vafainejad, as saying.
Full StoryItalian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Sunday urged the international community and the new Libyan authorities to avoid making the same "big mistake" as in Iraq.
"If somebody used to work for the regime but has no blood on his hands, why destroy all the structure, all the apparatus of Libya like we've done in Iraq, making a big mistake?" he said.
Full StoryAt least 24 people died in violence across Syria on Sunday, activists and state media said, as the visiting Red Cross chief sought access to those detained in five months of anti-regime protests.
The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which groups anti-regime activists on the ground, said 12 people were killed in various operations by security forces across the country.
Full StoryA suicide car bomber killed three Yemeni soldiers in an attack on an army post at the gates of the southern city of Aden on Saturday, a military official told Agence France Presse.
The bomber died and seven soldiers were wounded in the attack targeting a checkpoint at al-Aalam in northeastern Aden, southern Yemen's main city where al-Qaida has a strong presence, the official and a medical source said.
Full StoryAn estimated 400,000 Israelis poured into streets across the Jewish state on Saturday to protest the high cost of living, after organizers called for a "million-man march" to revitalize their movement.
The estimated figures were record-breaking, exceeding even the 300,000 people who took part in similar demonstration on August 6, and lending new life to the six-week old movement calling for sweeping economic reforms.
Full StoryThe separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has battled Turkey for years, said on Saturday it will aid another north Iraq-based Kurdish rebel group in fighting against Iranian forces.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards said earlier they had resumed operations against Kurdish rebels in northwestern Iran along the Iraqi border, inflicting "heavy blows."
Full StoryTop diplomats piled pressure on Turkey and Israel to make up Saturday after Ankara's decision to expel the Jewish state's ambassador in retaliation for last year's deadly Gaza flotilla raid.
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, senior European foreign ministers and officials in Washington all urged the one-time allies to end their increasingly poisonous dispute that they worried could impact on the wider Middle East.
Full StoryLibya's National Transitional Council on Saturday announced the creation of a supreme security council tasked with protecting the capital Tripoli.
"This committee represents all those who are concerned for the security of our new capital," Ali Tarhuni, who chairs the newly formed body as well as the NTC's executive committee, told reporters.
Full Story