Spotlight
- Middle East Syrians protest after video showing attack on Alawite shrine Angry protests broke out Wednesday in several areas of Syria after a video circulated showing an attack on an Alawite shrine in the country's north...
- Middle East Yemen rebels claim ballistic missile attack on Israel Yemen's Houthi rebels said Wednesday that they had fired a ballistic missile at central Israel, with Israeli forces saying they intercepted...
Saudi Arabia on Monday executed a man convicted of trying to shoot dead security forces and weapons charges, with alleged links to figures accused of terrorist activities, state media reported.
He was executed in Dammam in the Eastern Province, which has seen bouts of unrest since 2011 when mostly Muslim Shiite protesters emboldened by the Arab Spring uprisings took to the streets.
Full StoryThe U.S. Air Force said it flew a B-1B strategic bomber over key maritime chokepoints in the Mideast with allies including Israel amid ongoing tensions with Iran as its nuclear deal with world powers remains in tatters.
The B-1B Lancer bomber flew Saturday over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes. It also flew over the Red Sea, its narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Egypt's Suez Canal.
Full StoryAt least 10 civilians were killed and 25 wounded when two ballistic missiles from Yemen's Houthi rebels stuck a religious educational facility in the central province of Marib, officials said Monday.
The missiles hit Dar al-Hadith - a religious school and a mosque - in the residential neighborhood of al-Aumd late Sunday and the casualties included women and children, they said.
Full Story
Three rockets on Sunday hit a Baghdad neighborhood near the high-security Green Zone where the U.S. embassy is located without causing any casualties, an Iraqi security official said.
Full Story
An Israeli missile strike wounded two Syrian soldiers near Damascus on Saturday, the official SANA news agency reported after explosions were heard in the Syrian capital.
Full StoryA landmark case that helped galvanize Tunisia's #MeToo movement reached court this week, involving a legislator charged with sexual harassment and public indecency.
Feminist activists held a small protest outside the courthouse, shouting chants and waving placards that read "My body is not a public space." The activists sported T-shirts and badges bearing the hashtag of their movement #EnaZeda, #MeToo in Tunisian dialect.
Full StoryTourists are being offered a new glimpse at one of the largest ancient mosaics in the Middle East after renovations undertaken by the Palestinian Authority were unveiled this week.
The 930-square-meter (10,000-square foot) stone mosaic, with intricate geometric patterns, is part of what's known as Hisham's Palace. It was built during the reign of the Umayyads, the first hereditary Muslim dynasty, which ruled from Damascus. The palace was the winter resort of Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, who ruled from A.D. 724 to 743.
Full StoryA group of 12 European countries on Thursday urged Israel to scrap plans for the construction of more than 3,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank.
A day after the U.S. criticized the plan, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden said in a joint statement that Israel should "immediately" reverse its decision to build the settlements.
Full StoryAn Israeli military court has convicted a Palestinian man of the December killing of a French-Israeli citizen in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Esther Horgen, a 52-year-old mother of six, had gone out jogging but did not return and was found dead in a forest near the Tal Menashe settlement in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.
Full StoryAlgeria will from now on deliver its natural gas to Spain exclusively through an undersea pipeline, ministers from both countries have reportedly said, after Algiers abandoned use of a line through Morocco.
In August Algeria cut diplomatic ties with its Maghreb neighbor Morocco which it accused of "hostile actions."
Full Story