Two more people died in clashes between police and protesters near Cairo's Tahrir Square earlier this week, the health ministry said Thursday, bringing to 56 the number of deaths nationwide in a week of violence.
The two -- a 26-year-old male and another unidentified man -- were shot in the head and chest during clashes late on Tuesday night and succumbed to their wounds overnight, health ministry spokesman Ahmed Omar said.
Full StoryRussia said Thursday it was checking reports of an Israeli air strike against Syria but would condemn the "unprovoked" attack if the information proved true.
The foreign ministry said it was "deeply concerned" by Syrian claims its military research center had come under Israeli fighter jet attack and other reports of bombs being dropped on a convoy near the Lebanese border.
Full StoryAssailants shot dead two Yemeni policemen on Wednesday in the southern town of Daleh, triggering clashes that killed two more people including another policeman, officials said.
The two policemen were gunned down by suspected southern secessionists before the police launched a manhunt for the attackers, sparking the shootout in which another officer and a civilian died, a security official said.
Full StoryEgyptian authorities on Wednesday detained suspected "Black Bloc" members as they protested an order by the public prosecutor to arrest anyone from the shadowy opposition group, Agence France Presse reported.
Riot police took into custody at least four protesters, who were wearing black masks, outside the public prosecutor's office in central Cairo, the journalist reported.
Full StoryGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the visiting Egyptian president Wednesday to ensure dialogue remains an option as his country grapples with a political crisis that has sparked deadly unrest.
Merkel told a joint press conference in Berlin with President Mohamed Morsi that Germany wanted a successful transformation process in Egypt, where Morsi took over last year, and was ready to help.
Full StoryUmm Mohammed walks slowly among the 32 shrouded corpses lying on the floor of a school in Syria's Aleppo city, some of scores shot at point-blank range who were being buried on Wednesday.
She stops and kneels down to draw aside the sheet covering a face too damaged to recognize. One of the fighters pulls the sheet further away to reveal a tattoo on the dead man's right arm.
Full StoryIsraeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday formally began a period of consultation with the parliamentary factions to select the MP most able to put together the country's next ruling coalition.
Pundits are unanimous that most of the parties will recommend that Peres task Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with forming the next coalition government in a decision likely to be announced within the next 48 hours.
Full StorySyria's opposition chief Moaz al-Khatib said on Wednesday he is ready for dialogue with officials of President Bashar Assad's regime, subject to conditions including that detainees are released.
"I announce I am ready for direct discussions with representatives of the Syrian regime in Cairo, Tunis or Istanbul," Khatib said via his Facebook page, citing as another condition that passports for exiled citizens be renewed.
Full StoryGaza's Hamas rulers on Wednesday authorized the Palestinian elections commission to begin voter registration as part of efforts to restart reconciliation, an official said.
"We have agreed to start operations in the Gaza Strip and we will begin in Gaza and the West Bank," Central Elections Commission chief Hanna Nasser said, after a meeting with Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya.
Full StoryU.N. humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos Wednesday denied that part of the aid money raised for war-hit Syrians goes to the regime, but agreed that several rebel-held areas were still out of reach.
"It's not true. We are working with a number of partners on the ground. There is no money going directly to the government," Amos told reporters on the sidelines of an international donors conference on Syria held in Kuwait City.
Full Story