Libya will hold a referendum on the country’s permanent constitution in January, the electoral commission said Thursday. “The vote will be held in the first half of January,” commission chief Emad al-Sayeh told a press conference in the capital Tripoli. Results of the vote...

Iraq needs at least two years to boost the country's gas production to stop importing Iranian gas used to feed its power stations, a senior Iraqi energy official said on Thursday. Hayan Abdel-Ghani, head of state-run South Gas Co., told reporters that Iraq's gas output is expected to...

Pope Francis will visit Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates from Feb. 3 to 5, where he will take part in an international "interfaith" meeting, the Vatican said Thursday. The pontiff was invited to the majority-Muslim country by both Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed...

Representatives from Yemen's warring sides sat in the same room in Sweden on Thursday as U.N.-sponsored peace talks for the war-torn Arab country got underway, aimed at halting a catastrophic three-year civil war. Sweden's foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, opened the talks at a castle...