Spotlight
The United Arab Emirates is reviewing a request for clemency from the family of a British researcher sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges this week, the country's ambassador to London said on Friday.

The U.N. envoy to Yemen on Friday urged warring sides to "keep the peace" in Hodeida, saying the rebels agreed to talks on the U.N. taking a leading role in running the lifeline port.
Griffiths, who started a Yemen peace mission in rebel-held Sanaa on Wednesday, said he has discussed with Huthi rebel officials "how the U.N. could contribute to keeping the peace" in the key port city of Hodeida.

Turkey on Friday said President Donald Trump intended to turn a "blind eye" to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder after he said Washington's ties with Riyadh would not be affected by the incident.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman embarked Thursday on a regional tour starting with the United Arab Emirates, his first official trip abroad since critic Jamal Khashoggi's murder tipped the kingdom into crisis.

Prominent Kurdish leader Massud Barzani met with Iraqi premier Adel Abdel Mahdi in Baghdad on Thursday during his first visit to the capital in over two years.
Barzani's visit is seen as another sign of an improvement in relations between Baghdad and Iraqi Kurdistan that deteriorated sharply after the autonomous region held an independence referendum last year.

Denmark on Thursday suspended arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the second country to do so after Germany.

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his partnership with Saudi Arabia, calling it an indispensable ally after a journalist's grisly murder, but critics say his position ignores Washington's enormous leverage over Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has warned criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a "red line", after Donald Trump heaped praise on the kingdom in defiance of warnings he was giving Riyadh a pass on a journalist's grisly murder.

Dozens of migrants have been forced off a cargo vessel by Libyan authorities after refusing to disembark over fears of abuses, in a move decried Wednesday by human rights groups.

Amnesty International said Wednesday it is enlisting the help of thousands of online activists to speed up its investigation into the U.S.-led campaign that drove Islamic State militants from their self-styled capital of Raqqa but left the Syrian city in ruins.
The London-based rights group said the new phase of its investigation enables thousands of online activists, using satellite imagery of the city, to map out the destruction over the four-month campaign, which ended in October 2017.
