Turkey's main opposition party asked the top court on Friday to overturn a law tightening government control of the judiciary, which it sees as a bid by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to snuff out a corruption scandal. Hours after the law was enacted late on Thursday, Justice...

An Islamic group met Wednesday to quash fatwas (religious edicts) ruling that polio vaccines cause infertility, Al Arabiya News Channel reported “The whole world rejects such fatwas that polio vaccines cause infertility,” Abbas Chouman, a senior official at Cairo’s al-Azhar University...

Israeli forces are using excessive, reckless violence in the occupied West Bank, killing dozens of Palestinians over the past three years in what might constitute a war crime, Amnesty International said on Thursday. In a report entitled "Trigger Happy", the human rights group...

Iraqi officials gave contradictory accounts on Tuesday about whether or not Baghdad had agreed to buy $195 million worth of arms and ammunition from  Iran  as reported by Reuters, a deal that if confirmed could damage Iraqi-U.S. relations. The Defence Ministry denied any such...

Jerd Arsal, Lebanese-Syrian border  - On the blurry border line between Syria and Lebanon lies a small stone building hidden in the rugged, mountainous terrain. It is a "surveillance centre" set up by rebels to monitor the "potential infiltration" of Shia Hezbollah fighters...

Egypt's government resigned on Monday, paving the way for army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for president of a strategic U.S. ally gripped by political strife. After the July overthrow of elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and subsequent crackdown...

 U.S. aerospace companies are seeking permission to sell airliner parts to  Iran  for the first time in three decades, in a key test of the temporary relief on sanctions given under talks to curtail Iran's nuclear activities. At least two leading manufacturers, ...

Egypt put three Al Jazeera journalists on trial on Thursday on charges of aiding members of a "terrorist organization", in a case that human rights groups say shows the authorities are trampling on freedom of expression. The journalists, wearing white prison outfits, appeared in...

Their campaign against Islamist President Mohamed Mursi helped the army topple Egypt's first freely elected leader, but some leaders of the Tamarud movement have broken away, saying the military threatens democracy. The split in Tamarud (Rebellion) is a sign of growing public anger...

An official with the pro-Syrian   Arab Democratic Party   was assassinated by masked gunmen in the northern city of   Tripoli   Thursday, triggering violence that left two people killed and five wounded. Unknown assailants on a small motorcycle...

Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday slammed Iraq's government as corrupt and headed by a "tyrant" while calling on citizens to vote, days after announcing his exit from politics. The televised speech seem aimed at establishing the cleric, whose political career began in...

There is devastation in several parts of Baghdad after a series of bomb attacks that killed at least two dozen people on Monday night. Nine people died in car bomb explosions that targeted mosques in the Iraqi capital’s predominantly Shi’ite districts of Amil and Karrada. In the...

Russia could build a second reactor at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant in exchange for Iranian oil, the Iranian ambassador to Moscow said in remarks published on Monday. Russia  could also supply  Iran  with trucks, railroad tracks, mini-refineries or other...

Leading Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri vowed on Friday to tackle sectarian radicalism in his Sunni sect but said Shi'ite Hezbollah must end its involvement in  Syria  if Lebanon is to avoid being drawn into a "sectarian holocaust". Citing the example set by his...

President Barack Obama will launch a new round of Middle East diplomacy Friday in a plush oasis in the arid California desert, hosting a Valentine’s Day summit with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Obama and the king will swap the piles of snow in Washington for the Sunnylands retreat at the...

    Gaza's Hamas authorities have blocked a U.N. refugee agency from introducing textbooks promoting human rights into local schools, saying it ignores Palestinian cultural mores and focuses too heavily on "peaceful" means of conflict resolution....

Gunmen seized part of Sulaiman Bek town and nearby villages in northern Iraq on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported local officials as saying. This is considered to be the latest instance of authorities losing ground to militants, who have held all of the city of Fallujah and parts...

At least 17 civilians and soldiers were killed in car and roadside bomb attacks across Iraq on Wednesday, police and medics said. No group claimed responsibility for any of the attacks, but Sunni Islamists and other insurgents have been regaining ground in a violent campaign to...

Lebanon's army on Wednesday arrested a senior al Qaeda-linked militant described by security sources as a "mastermind of car bombs" that have targeted several Shi'ite areas in recent months. Security sources said the arrest of Naim Abbas could help uncover radical jihadi cells in...

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the streets of the Iranian capital and cities around the country to mark the 35th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. In Tehran, huge crowds thronged central Azadi square on Tuesday for a speech by the president Hassan Rouhani, his...