BIRAT ARMANAZ, SYRIA (AFP) – Inside a rusty, abandoned bus in northwestern Syria, Ms Umm Joumaa washes a silver tray and glass teacups, light pouring into her makeshift kitchen through broken windows. Around her, towels, bedsheets, clothes and plastic bags hang from wires that stretch across the smashed-out vehicle where the 44-year-old widow lives with […]

RIYADH/DUBAI/LONDON (REUTERS) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it attacked two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry on Saturday (Sept 14), knocking out more than half the Kingdom’s output, in a move expected to send oil prices soaring and increase tensions in the Middle East. The attacks will cut the kingdom’s output […]

BASRA, Iraq — Hussein Karim sold his three cars, he sold the land where he planned to build a house, and he spent his savings — several thousand dollars — all on his crystal meth habit. He is one of thousands of meth addicts in Iraq, a country where drug problems have been rare. But […]

Saudi Arabia’s oil production has been severely disrupted by drone attacks on two major oil facilities run by state-owned company Aramco, reports say. Sources quoted by Reuters and WSJ said the strikes had reduced production by five million barrels a day – nearly half the kingdom’s output. The fires are now under control at both […]

Relatives of a Palestinian woman whose death was labelled an honour killing by activists have been charged with her murder. Israa Ghrayeb, 21, was beaten to death by three relatives, the West Bank’s chief prosecutor alleges. She suffered “severe respiratory failure” due to complications from injuries caused by “torture and abuse” and died in hospital […]

Karoui, the owner of Nessma TV channel, was detained three weeks ago on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering. Nabil Karoui, a Tunisian media mogul and one of the frontrunners in the upcoming presidential election, has started a hunger strike demanding to be allowed to vote during the September 15 elections. Karoui, 56, the owner […]

GENEVA — Hundreds of young children have died from disease and malnutrition in the desert camp holding families of Islamic State fighters in northeast Syria, United Nations investigators said on Tuesday, warning that international inaction on the situation risked incubating a new wave of extremism. The Commission of Inquiry, created by the United Nations Human […]

Rows of date palms stand sentinel across the vast, flat stretch of land along the border between the West Bank and Jordan. The view is dotted by dozens of Israeli settlements and Palestinian villages. This is the Jordan Valley, captured by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War, most of it now still under Israel’s […]

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex part of the occupied West Bank if he is returned to office next week. He would apply “Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea”, a policy certain to be backed by the right-wing parties whose support he would need for a coalition. Palestinian diplomat […]

Her dream was to watch a soccer match from a stadium in Iran where women are banned from attending most sports events. For this simple dream she paid with her life. Sahar Khodayari, 29, died in a hospital in Tehran this week from severe burns that covered 90 percent of her body. She had set […]