Middle East News

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The United Nations Wednesday slammed Israel's demolition of 30 Palestinian properties in the West Bank, saying it displaced some families for the second time in less than two weeks.

Iran will set a date for a U.N. nuclear inspection of a uranium mine, an Iranian envoy said before talks on Wednesday between Tehran and the International Atomic Energy Agency .

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab neighbors wrapped up a summit meeting in Kuwait on Wednesday by agreeing to establish a joint military command, paving the way for tighter security coordination even as their regional rival Iran pursues outreach efforts in the wake of its interim nuclear deal.

The United States has suspended all non-lethal assistance destined for rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's forces in northern Syria, U.S. officials said Wednesday, citing fears the aid could fall into the hands of al-Qaida linked militants.

A Dutch water company says it has cut ties with Israel's national water carrier over its operations in the West Bank.

A blustery storm dropped torrential rain and snow on Lebanon on Wednesday, forcing aid agencies to scramble to distribute desperately needed winter supplies like blankets and plastic tarps to Syrian refugees who have sought safe haven in the country.

GAZA CITY: Gaza's Hamas government says its prime minister has held a rare phone conversation with Russia's foreign minister.

UN trucks carrying building materials which are part of projects funded by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees arrive in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip after crossing the Israeli Kerem Shalom terminal on December 10, 2013.

Israel, Egypt and North Korea should renounce chemical weapons, especially after Syria joined the convention banning them and three other nations plan to do so, the chief of an international watchdog said on Tuesday.

A Dutch couple freed after months in captivity in Yemen said they received good treatment from their abductors as they began their trip back home early Wednesday.

He doesn't trust Iran, vows it won't get nuclear weapons, and believes past rhetoric by its leaders threatening annihilation of Israel is unacceptable and kind of insane.

Croatia is considering taking part in the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, but only if there is no opposition from the public, the Adriatic country's prime minister said Tuesday.

Masked gunmen abducted a leading Syrian human rights lawyer and three other prominent activists in a rebel-held Damascus suburb Tuesday in a new sign that al-Qaida linked militants who have joined the fight against President Bashar Assad are trying to silence rivals in the opposition movement.

The U.S. air operations center in Qatar has long been a hub where combat sorties into Iraq and Afghanistan were tracked and international forces kept watch over hotspots in the Persian Gulf and western Mediterranean Sea.

Prosecutors say they could legally continue to pursue a domestic violence case against George Zimmerman, despite a signed affidavit from his girlfriend asking them not to.

"You know full well I am not guilty and that this accusation is false," Qatada, in prison overalls, told the judge of the state security court in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

Journalist and elected parliamentarian Mustafa Balbay was freed from prison on Monday pending appeal after Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled his pre-trial detention period of more than four years had violated his rights.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - A senior Palestinian official on Monday railed against U.S. attempts to broker a broad outline of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, saying Secretary of State John Kerry is breaking a promise to try to negotiate a final agreement in the current round of talks.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is returning to the Mideast for more peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and then will travel on to Vietnam and the Philippines, the State Department said Monday.

Fresh off a series of scandals over his high-flying lifestyle and expensive habits, Israel's prime minister says he will skip Nelson Mandela 's funeral on Tuesday due to the high cost of the trip.