Protesters in the southern Iraqi city of Basra set fire to parliament's local office Friday as security forces fired live rounds in the air to disperse them, a Reuters witness and security sources said. The protesters had gathered to demand that Iraq's parliament sack the provincial...

A Lebanese judge leading investigations into Beirut's port blast issued two new arrest warrants Friday, a judicial source told AFP. "The investigating judge, Fadi Sawan, continued his investigations... and today issued two arrest warrants," the source said. According to the official...

In under a week, two activists have been assassinated and three more narrowly survived murder attempts in southern Iraq, where tensions between pro-Iran groups and a Western-leaning government are claiming new victims. One of them was Riham Yaaqub, a 29-year-old athletics coach who was...

Hezbollah's emphatic defence of the political status quo in Lebanon has exposed it since the deadly Beirut blast to levels of public contempt and anger it was once shielded from. The powerful Shiite movement remains the dominant player in Lebanon, but the special status it enjoyed and the...