A move by Iraq’s government to welcome a deadly insurgent group into its political system is adding to sectarian tensions and could tilt the nation’s center of gravity closer to Iran.
The Israeli and American militaries are gearing up for a major missile defense exercise, the largest joint drill between the two countries, the Israeli military said Thursday.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators exchanged position papers at a meeting this week, but neither side held out the promise of a breakthrough.
In their closing arguments at the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, prosecutors said he was ultimately responsible for the killings of hundreds of peaceful protesters.
Syria said it had released more than 500 prisoners, while a human rights group said it had gathered the names of at least 617 people who had died under government torture.
Ehud Olmert, who resigned as prime minister of Israel in 2008 amid corruption charges, was indicted Thursday for allegedly taking bribes while he was Jerusalem’s mayor.
Following Rick Santorum's sudden rise to prominence in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, new attention has been paid to his views on foreign policy issues, which apparently include a firm conviction that the West Bank is "part of Israel."
At least 24 people were killed on Thursday in attacks on two Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, and 44 died in a bombing in the south, raising sectarian tensions.
Mustafa Suleiman, the Egyptian prosecutor in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak, said the government’s internal security forces “deliberately sought to mislead justice.”
President Hamid Karzai’s pause before responding to the Taliban’s decision to open a political office raised doubts about his willingness to play a secondary role in the reconciliation effort.
The Qatari foreign minister, Sheik Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, said that technical help from the United Nations could help enhance the performance of monitors in Syria who lack experience.
The Egyptian novelist Miral al-Tahawy grew up in a traditional Bedouin village, and now teaches Arab literature in Arizona. She has transformed her life’s displacements into award-winning books.
