Middle East News

The government faces a months-long crisis in Anbar province, where it has lost the city of Fallujah as well as shifting parts of provincial capital Ramadi to anti-government militants.

Shoulder to shoulder, cheek to cheek, young women and men sit next to each other while a thick film of cigarette smoke fills the dimly lit cafe in central Tehran.

Three northeastern provinces of Syria face an "alarming" food crisis, although access to relieve the impact of civil war has improved somewhat elsewhere, a U.N. aid agency said on Monday.

Turkey ordered the release of 19 men convicted of plotting a coup, days after an ex-military chief was freed in a case now entwined in a power struggle between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and a U.S.-based Muslim cleric.

With the release of 13 Greek Orthodox nuns held hostage by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in Syria for over three months, here's a list of some other prominent people, including clerics, journalists and activists still missing in Syria and believed in the captivity of rebels.

Israel's military said Sunday that a cargo ship it intercepted in the Red Sea last week carried 40 rockets with a range of up to 160 kilometres .

Israeli guards shot and killed a Palestinian on Monday as he tried to grab a rifle from an Israeli soldier at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, the military said.

A suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives killed at least 34 people and wounded 121 others at a police checkpoint in the southern Iraqi city of Hilla, police officials said on Sunday.

The U.S. Secretary of Commerce is in the Middle East where she said Sunday she will tell officials from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar that closer economic cooperation with Washington is a way to build deeper security ties with the United States.

Syrian rebels released a group of about a dozen Greek Orthodox nuns who had been held since December, Lebanon's official news agency reported Monday.

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A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews is staging a mass prayer in New York City to protest Israel's proposal to draft strictly religious citizens into its army.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby has urged Arab countries to take a "firm stand" against Israel's demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state, calling it a deviation from an agreed-upon framework for peace talks.

Activists say a group of some 50 Israeli youths have sent Israel's prime minister a petition refusing to enlist for compulsory military service to protest Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories, the largest such group of objectors since 2001.

The United Arab Emirates has thrown its support behind neighboring Saudi Arabia's decision to label the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, deepening Gulf Arab pressure on the group.

GAZA CITY: Fatah activists say troops from the rival Palestinian movement Hamas broke up a Fatah gathering in the Gaza Strip, beating participants.

A Sunni Lebanese militant group linked to al Qaeda has apologized for the civilian casualties of a suicide bombing last month and said its fight was against Iran and its ally Hezbollah, not Shi'ites in general, Reuters reported.

EILAT, Israel: A ship seized by the Israeli navy on suspicion of smuggling arms from Iran to the Gaza Strip docked on Saturday in Israel, which planned to put the cargo on display in hope of denting Tehran's rapprochement with the West.

This photo provided by an anti-Bashar Assad activist group Edlib News Network , which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, show anti-Syrian government protesters hold a placard resembling U.S. President Barack Obama during a demonstration, at Kafr Nabil town, in Idlib province, northern Syria, Friday, March 7, 2014.

In this Tuesday, March 4, 2014 photo, Nada Sabbagh weeps in front of a picture of her daughter, Manal Assi, who was killed last month, as she recounts during an interview with The Associated Press how her son-in-law killed Manal in front of family members, south of Beirut, Lebanon.