Anti-government demonstrators spread to a second bridge in the Iraqi capital Saturday after security forces retreated from a key area where they had clashed with protesters, AFP correspondents said. Protesters have occupied Baghdad's Tahrir (Liberation) Square for more than three weeks,...

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday advocated for the establishment of an independent election government in preparation for early elections.  “Main task of the independent government is to carry the country into early elections,” al-Abadi said in a statement....

Turkey removed four more mayors from their posts on Saturday as part of a widening government crackdown against the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and replaced them with state appointees. President Tayyip Erdogan and his government accuse the HDP of having links to the...

Israel targeted Hamas in strikes on Gaza early Saturday after rockets were fired towards it from the Palestinian enclave, the army said, two days after a fragile ceasefire began.  Hamas, the Islamist movement that has de facto control over the Gaza Strip, has so far kept its distance...