Spotlight
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Middle East Hamas agrees to new Gaza ceasefire proposal A Hamas source told AFP on Monday that the Palestinian militants had agreed to a new proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, devastated by more t...
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Middle East Druze demand self determination, wave Israeli flags in Syria demo Hundreds of people demonstrated in Syria's southern city of Sweida and elsewhere on Saturday to demand the right to self determination for the Druz...
Israeli police were in a standoff Monday with a Palestinian man who carried a gas cannister on the roof of his home in a Jerusalem flashpoint as his family faced eviction.
Israeli media reported that Mohammed Salhiya had threatened to set himself on fire if the eviction order from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem was carried out.

Jordan's military has said that an army officer was killed in a shootout with smugglers on the country's northern border with Syria.
A Jordanian military website said Capt. Muhammad Yassin Musa al-Khudayrat was killed and three others were injured when a group of smugglers opened fire on border guards.

Egyptian authorities have announced the arrest of a prominent member of a U.S.-designated terrorist group. According to government media, the suspect was detained after a Turkey-bound flight from Sudan that he was on made an emergency landing in Egypt.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that a man, identified as Hossam Menoufy, had been arrested earlier in the week but did not provide further details.
The U.N. Security Council has condemned the seizure of a United Arab Emirates ship and demanded that Yemen's Houthi rebels immediately release the vessel and its crew.
A press statement from the U.N.'s most powerful body called on all sides "to resolve the issue quickly and underlined the importance of freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, in accordance with international law."

China said Friday it gained support on issues including the treatment of Uyghur Muslims from a number of Gulf states following talks between their foreign ministers at which they agreed to upgrade relations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the ministers and Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf expressed firm support for China's "legitimate positions on issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and human rights."

A fire erupted in Kuwait during maintenance work at a major oil refinery on Friday, killing two workers and critically injuring five others, the Kuwait National Petroleum Company said.
This is the second fire to erupt at the Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery in as little as three months. In October, the state-owned oil company reported a fire had erupted at the facility, with some workers suffering from smoke inhalation and others being treated for light burns.

Israeli police has fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of Bedouin Arabs protesting a tree-planting campaign they say is aimed at pushing them off disputed land.
It was the third consecutive day of demonstrations by Bedouin residents of southern Israel's Negev desert against a forestry project they say is aimed at seizing land near unrecognized villages.

At least four rockets have targeted the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, two Iraqi security officials said. The area is home to diplomatic missions and the seat of Iraq's government,
Three of the missiles struck within the perimeter of the American Embassy, the officials said. Another hit a school located in a nearby residential complex. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Thousands of Israeli nationalists have staged a protest outside the parliament building in Jerusalem, urging the government not to demolish a West Bank settlement outpost.
The demonstration came a month after a Palestinian gunman fired on a car filled with seminary students at the Homesh outpost, near the West Bank city of Nablus, killing 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman and wounding two people.

Mourners took Thursday a last look at the body of Omar Asaad, 80, in the family house, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Jaljulia, north of Ramallah.
Asaad, an 80-year-old Palestinian with U.S. citizenship, died of a heart attack after being detained by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank.
