Desperate to help Syrians stuck on Jordan's sealed border, U.N. agencies reluctantly agreed late last year to hand much of the control over aid distribution to Jordan's military, a Jordanian contractor and a Syrian militia.

Since then, the system has broken down repeatedly and only sporadic aid shipments have reached two remote desert camps on the border that house thousands of Syrians displaced by war. Rival groups in the larger Rukban camp accuse each other of diverting aid, and black marketers flourish.

A young Saudi woman sparked a sensation online over the weekend by posting a video of herself in a miniskirt and crop top walking around in public, with some Saudis calling for her arrest and others rushing to her defense.

State-linked news websites reported on Monday that officials in the deeply conservative Muslim country are looking into taking possible action against the woman, who violated the kingdom's rules of dress. Women in Saudi Arabia must wear long, loose robes known as abayas in public. Most also cover their hair and face with a black veil, though exceptions are made for visiting dignitaries.

The United Arab Emirates orchestrated the hacking of a Qatari government news site in May, planting a false story that was used as a pretext for the current crisis between Qatar and several Arab countries, according to a Sunday report by The Washington Post.

The Emirati Embassy in Washington released a statement in response calling the Post report "false" and insisting that the UAE "had no role whatsoever" in the alleged hacking.

Turkey has dismissed almost 7,400 civil servants for alleged links to terror groups in a government decree, the latest in a wave of dismissals since authorities quashed a coup attempt last summer.

Teachers, academics, military and police officers were sacked late Friday, including former Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu who was jailed last August for alleged links to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

They left their homes to escape the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and now they are going back.

Worn out from months of living in tents, about 150 Syrian families decided this week to return to the city of Homs — even if it meant going back to a life under Assad's rule.

A satirical cover for a political news magazine was all it took to see its editor eventually sentenced to more than two decades in prison.

Cevheri Guven, editor in chief of Turkey's Nokta magazine, fled while out on bail late last year, smuggling his family out of a country he says is rapidly descending toward all-out dictatorship. He took refuge in Greece, where he applied for political asylum.

Iraq says it will offer new oil and gas exploration rights as it looks to boost energy revenues to fund its war against the Islamic State group and shore up its finances amid low oil prices.

Oil Minister Jabar Ali Al-Luaibi said late Tuesday that his ministry plans to put nine border exploration blocks up for bidding by international energy companies. Five are shared with Iran, three with Kuwait and one is in the Persian Gulf.

The U.S.-led coalition said Wednesday that an Amnesty International report accusing its forces of violating international law during the fight against the Islamic State group in Mosul is "irresponsible."

The report released Tuesday said Iraqi civilians were subjected to "relentless and unlawful attacks" by the coalition and Iraqi forces during the grueling nine-month battle to drive IS from Iraq's second largest city. It said IS militants had carried out mass killings and forcibly displaced civilians to use them as human shields.

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry has welcomed the liberation of the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group as a "great victory" for the Iraqi people.

The ministry called for intensified regional efforts to contain the spread of terrorism "from one nest to another."

A Cyprus police spokesman says 85 Syrian migrants who arrived by boat to the island's northwestern coast have now been taken to a reception center.

Police spokesman Michalis Ioannou said Saturday the boat that brought the 64 men, nine women and 12 children to Cyprus set sail from Antalya, Turkey.