Pope Francis starts a landmark, three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, becoming the first pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church to visit the Arabian Peninsula. The visit offers a rare note of hope for Christians in the Middle East, who in recent decades have come under intense pressure in the region where […]

It’s a year since the Syrian city of Raqqa was freed from the grip of the group known as Islamic State. Evidence of the brutal battle to dislodge the extremists is visible everywhere you look. But the fear of the people who’ve returned to this broken city is that the rest of the world is […]

MINYA (REUTERS) – Egyptian archaeologists uncovered a Pharaonic tomb containing 50 mummies dating back to the Ptolemaic era, in Minya, south of Cairo, the ministry of antiquities said on Saturday (Feb 2). The mummies, 12 of which were of children, were discovered inside four, nine-metre deep burial chambers in the Tuna El-Gebel archaeological site. The […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Iran unveiled a new cruise missile with a range of 1,300 km (800 miles) on Saturday (Feb 2) during celebrations marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, state television reported. “This cruise missile needs a very short time for its preparedness and can fly at a low altitude,” Defence Minister Amir […]

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sat in the first-class compartment of the chartered Boeing 747, looking out through the window at the country he had had to leave 15 years before. I stood over him, with my cameraman beside me, and asked how he felt now that his exile was over. No answer. An American correspondent repeated […]

Reports of chlorine gas attack emerge as Syrian government forces continue offensive against rebel-held Damascus suburb. Health officials in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta are accusing Syrian government forces of using chlorine gas in their aerial bombardment campaign in the Damascus suburb. Syria’s Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said on Sunday that […]

Russia calls for restraint as tensions escalate between Israel and Syria after an Israeli warplane was brought down. Israel’s intensive air raids against what it said were Iranian targets inside Syria have ratcheted up regional tensions, as Russia, a key player in Syria’s long-running war, urged restraint. The Israeli army on Saturday launched “large-scale” attacks […]

Gene-testing initiatives promise to shed light on what happened to thousands of babies taken from parents in the 1950s. Nazareth, Israel – Thousands of Israeli families who have been searching in vain for answers since their babies mysteriously disappeared in the early 1950s – shortly after Israel’s creation – have been thrown a lifeline. The […]

Home to 1.9 million people, Gaza is 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, an enclave bounded by the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Egypt. Originally occupied by Egypt, which retains control of Gaza’s southern border, the territory was captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war. Israel withdrew its troops and around 7,000 settlers […]

US denounces failure to implement ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta during UN Security Council meeting. The United States has accused Russia and the Syrian government of violating the Eastern Ghouta ceasefire at a United Nations Security Council meeting. The 30-day ceasefire, enshrined in Resolution 2401, was voted for unanimously by members of the Security Council on […]