A car bombing Wednesday in southern Yemen claimed by al-Qaida seriously wounded a senior security official and killed one of his guards, a security source said.

Arabs across Israel closed businesses and schools on Wednesday in a one-day strike to protest against the demolition of Arab homes built without the required, but hard-to-get, permits.

An Egyptian court froze the assets of two NGOs and their founders on Wednesday, in a controversial probe into civil society groups that has been criticized by the United Nations.

Syrian warplanes launched strikes in several parts of the country on Wednesday despite a fragile truce, a monitor said, as Russia confirmed a January 23 date for new peace talks.

Nearly 1,400 children have been killed, hundreds more injured and many schools closed by the war in Yemen, the UN children's fund said on Wednesday.

A Saudi counter-terrorism court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence against one of the founders of a now banned human rights group, a monitor said on Wednesday.

Iraqi forces have retaken at least 80 percent of east Mosul from the Islamic State jihadist group, the spokesman of the special forces spearheading the campaign said on Wednesday.

Five UAE officials were among 56 people killed in a string of bombings across Afghan cities, authorities said Wednesday, as Taliban militants step up a deadly winter campaign of violence.

The Emiratis were among 13 people killed when explosives hidden in a sofa detonated inside the governor's compound in southern Kandahar on Tuesday, while the UAE's ambassador to Afghanistan escaped the attack with injuries.

Syrian Kurds have not been invited to the talks on the political future of Syria due to take place this month in Kazakhstan, their representative in France said Tuesday.

Tunisia's transition to democracy after its 2011 revolution has hit a roadblock, the electoral commission chief said Tuesday, criticizing a delay in holding the first local elections since the uprising.