Spotlight
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is to make an official visit to Israel next month, his government said Monday, nearly two years after he sparked outrage by likening his deadly drug war to the Holocaust.
The September 2-5 trip will be the first by a Filipino leader since diplomatic ties were established between the two countries in 1967, a foreign department statement said.

Egypt is yet to prosecute members of the security forces over a bloody 2013 crackdown on protesters that left hundreds dead, Human Rights Watch said Monday, urging "justice" for the killings.

Thousands of Yemenis vented anger against Riyadh and Washington on Monday as they took part in a mass funeral for children killed in an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition.

Six suspected Islamist militants were killed in an Egyptian police raid on their hideout in a suburb west of Cairo, the interior ministry said Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday to discuss the Syrian and Ukraine conflicts, energy issues and other foreign policy issues, Berlin announced.

Another round of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip is inevitable, Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday, despite attempts to reach a long-term truce.

The death toll of an explosion of unknown origin at a weapons depot in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib has risen to 69, mostly civilians, a monitor said Monday.

Her scarred hands wrapped in gloves, Malakeh Harbaliyya lifted an infant out of an incubator at a hospital in Syria's rural north, holding him gently as he guzzled milk from a bottle.
Nearly two years ago, the nurse and her brave colleagues were scrambling to save premature babies from heavy regime bombardment of Aleppo city, before ultimately being forced to quit the facility altogether.

An explosion at a weapons depot in a rebel-held town in northwest Syria killed at least 39 civilians including a dozen children on Sunday, a monitor said.

Egyptian security forces have killed "terrorists" in a shootout in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, where the Islamic State group is active, an interior ministry source said Sunday.
The Egyptian army has since February been conducting a major operation focused on Sinai to wipe out jihadists from IS.
