Middle East
Latest stories
Australia Urges More EU Nations to Join IS Air Strikes in Syria, Iraq

Australia on Monday urged more European nations to begin air strikes against Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq as a way of tackling the escalating refugee crisis gripping the continent.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said jihadists were responsible for driving hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe and a broadening of the coalition fighting them was necessary.

W140 Full Story
Egypt Elections to Start on October 17

Egypt's legislative elections, the first since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office, are to be contested in phases starting October 17, the electoral commission announced on Sunday.

Analysts say the polls, with Sisi loyalists heavily favored to emerge the big winners, will serve to appease Egypt's backers in the West who see the president as a rampart against jihadist violence despite concerns over repression that has eliminated any meaningful opposition.

W140 Full Story
Seven Bodies Wash Up on Libya Beach

Another boat carrying migrants has sunk off Libya and the bodies of at least seven people have been washed up, Libya's Red Crescent said on Sunday.

"We were alerted that a boat had sunk and that there are bodies on the beach in Khoms," 120 kilometers (75 miles) east of Tripoli, Red Crescent spokesman Mohammad al-Misrati told AFP.

W140 Full Story
Israeli Troops Fire Tear Gas at Separation Barrier Demo

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades on Sunday to disperse a protest in a Palestinian Christian town near Bethlehem against renewed work on Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Dozens of Palestinian and foreign protesters marched in the West Bank village of Beit Jala towards an area where military bulldozers have uprooted olive trees to clear space for the barrier.

W140 Full Story
Egypt Summons British Envoy over Criticism of Al-Jazeera Trial

Egypt's foreign ministry on Sunday summoned the British ambassador over his criticism of prison sentences handed to three journalists from Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera.

"What counts is the Egyptian people's confidence in the transparency and independence of the Egyptian judiciary," the foreign ministry said, calling ambassador John Casson's comments "unacceptable interference."

W140 Full Story
Iran is 'True Enemy' of Gulf Arabs, Says Kuwaiti MP

A senior Kuwaiti lawmaker on Sunday described Iran as the "true enemy" of Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab states, in a sign of growing tensions with the Shiite power.

"It has become clear to all that Iran is an enemy plotting to swallow up our states and resources and is the true enemy of the region," Hamad al-Harashani, the head of the Kuwaiti parliament's foreign relations committee, said in a statement.

W140 Full Story
Saudi-led Coalition Air Raid Kills 31 in Yemen

A Saudi-led coalition air raid struck a factory in northern Yemen on Sunday killing 17 civilians and 14 Shiite Huthi rebels, medics and witnesses said.

The raid targeted a bottled-water plant in Hajja, a province bordering Saudi Arabia. Most of the bodies transferred to the main public hospital in Hajja were charred, according to medics.

W140 Full Story
Gunmen Kill Senior Security Officer in Yemen's Aden

Gunmen on a motorbike Sunday shot dead the director of security operations in war-strewn Yemen's second city Aden, police said. 

Colonel Abdelhakim al-Sanidi was killed as he was leaving his home in the coastal city's Mansura district, police officials said. The attackers fled after the shooting.

W140 Full Story
Women Register to Run for Election in Saudi First

Saudi Arabia allowed women to register to stand in local elections on Sunday, in a historic first for the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.

In a country where women face a host of restrictions including a driving ban, the move was welcomed as an important step forward.

W140 Full Story
Saudi Executes Pakistani for Drug Trafficking

Saudi authorities executed a Pakistani man on Sunday for attempting to smuggle drugs into the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said.

Up to 129 people have been executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, including the latest execution, compared with 87 for the whole of 2014, according to AFP tallies.

W140 Full Story