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Egyptian actresses who left the world of entertainment for a more "religiously correct" lifestyle are back on TV screens this Ramadan, in a bid to reinvent their image more in line with the growing Islamic trend.
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Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims thronged the Iraqi shrine city of Najaf in a peaceful commemoration Sunday of the death of one of their most revered figures, while bombs exploded elsewhere in the country.
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More than 17 years after Irans late spiritual leader Ruhollah Khomeini launched a fatwa against him, British writer Salman Rushdie remains firm in his criticism of fundamentalist sects of Islam, fearing they will make the West surrender its values
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The Sudanese government and rebels from the Eastern Front signed a peace accord Saturday that was negotiated with Eritrean help and is aimed at ending a 12-year armed conflict, Sudanese public radio reported.
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Sara, 21, grew up in northern New Jersey, and is starting her senior year at a prestigious college in Massachusetts, majoring in philosophy and planning a career in law. Like many of her Jewish-American peers, she landed at Ben-Gurion Airport this
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The beheading of Syrian Orthodox priest Boulos Iskander Wednesday is among the latest in a spate of attacks on religious minorities in Iraq, according to a human rights group.
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Radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadr ordered his Shiite militia not to take part in the wave of sectarian bloodshed sweeping Iraq Friday, as dozens more Iraqis fell to sectarian death squads.
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Residents of Kunduz region in northern Afghanistan are concerned at a rising tide of land claims by incomers who say they used to live in the area.
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Fast is out. Television is on.
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Three Canadians suspected of Al Qaeda links said Thursday that Canadian officials were complicit in their arrests and alleged torture in Syria, and demanded public review of their cases.
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Three Hamas militants were killed Friday in an Israeli airstrike as the army pressed on with a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip amid deadlocked efforts on forming a Palestinian unity government.
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Oil wealth in - and historical ties to - Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, is spurring increased violence in the once peaceful city as the future of it, and the country, is decided.
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South Koreas president flew to summit talks with Chinese leaders Friday as world powers argued over the scale and nature of sanctions to impose on North Korea over its declared nuclear test.
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A Palestinian festival showcasing women filmmakers has battled against Israeli closures, rampant insecurity, recession, and funding shortages to promote cinema in Gaza and the West Bank.
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Six Palestinians, including a teenage boy and three Hamas militants, were killed by Israeli fire in the Gaza Strip Thursday as troops mounted a fresh incursion as part of a four-month offensive.
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Gunmen killed nine staff at a television studio and bomb attacks rocked Baghdad Thursday as Pentagon officials said that plans had been laid to allow US forces to stay in Iraq until 2010 if needed.
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French MPs Thursday adopted a bill that would make it a crime to deny that the 1915-17 massacres of Armenians by the Ottomans was genocide.
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The United Nations said Thursday that it had pulled out all of its foreign staff from largely Islamist-held southern and central Somalia, citing threats to workers.
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A burst of patriotic poetry, a broadside of drumming, a bellow to the imams, a curse to the enemies. Eight huge men enter the ring and begin exercising.
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Tears trickling down her cheeks, Vanessa Allouche lifts a golden trophy that she and her horse Dontito have just won in the event that marks the opening shot for Israels racing industry.
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The six major powers confronting Iran over its nuclear program failed Wednesday to agree on sanctions to impose on Tehran and sent the dossier to their ambassadors at the United Nations for further talks, senior US officials said.
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A study at the Toulouse University School of Medicine in France says that excess weight could impair memory, which is bad news for Britain, the new fat man of Europe.
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Iraqi militia fired a mortar round into a US military base in Baghdad, triggering a thunderous series of explosions that destroyed an ammunition dump and rocked the entire city.
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US scientists say dust rising from the Sahara Desert and blowing off western Africa might affect Atlantic hurricane frequency and strength.
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A well-preserved necropolis, discovered during the building of a parking garage in Vatican City, will open as a museum Thursday, offering new insights into society and religion in imperial Rome.
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Pilot errors caused the crash of a Cypriot airliner near Athens in August 2005 in which all 121 people aboard were killed, the Greek investigating commission said Tuesday.
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Singer Madonna and her husband are reportedly at odds when it comes to Madonnas plan to adopt a child from Africa.
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Kurdish women told Tuesday how they had witnessed savage rapes and other horrors in Saddam Husseins death camps, as the ousted Iraqi leaders genocide trial continued.
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Ankara launched a scathing attack against Paris Tuesday, accusing it of losing its reason over a draft law on the World War I massacres of Armenians and warning that bilateral ties will suffer if the bill is enacted.
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Bombers triggered a series of blasts around the war-torn Iraqi capital Tuesday, killing 11 as police continued their grim daily harvest of corpses from a city in the grip of a vicious sectarian war.
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Is a wind of change about to blow over Iraq, or is it more likely to be a desert storm bringing greater chaos?
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The Hamas-led government said Tuesday that talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on forming a unity government had stalled on recognition of Israel and renouncing the "resistance."
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Tens of thousands of Jews converged Monday on Hebron to celebrate the festival of Sukkot and stake their claim to the flashpoint Biblical city that lies deep in the occupied West Bank.
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A bomb struck a police bus in the Afghan capital Tuesday, wounding more than a dozen people in the latest attack in Kabul where security is at its worst since the Taliban were forced out five years ago.
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Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes is the only man on Tatler magazines list of the 10 worlds most powerful blondes.
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The fallout from a British ministers appeal for Muslim women to remove their veils spread Sunday, triggering a reported surge in abuse against Muslims and dividing government as well as Muslim opinion.
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In June 2004 two BBC journalists were attacked by Al Qaeda extremists in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Experienced Middle East correspondent Frank Gardner was shot and left for dead.
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Kurdish witnesses accused Saddam Hussein Monday of cramming their starving families into disease-ridden death camps and casting the bodies of the fallen into mass graves.
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North Korea conducted its first atom bomb test Monday, sending a shudder around the world and triggering calls for a tough UN response as it joined the select club of nuclear-armed powers.
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Around half of Lebanese children return to school this week after a war that killed hundreds of youngsters, reduced classrooms to rubble, and transformed many others into temporary refugee camps.
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Lebanese designer Elie Saab was so inspired by the renewed spirit and energy of people in post-war Beirut that he completely re-did his collection to give it a golden glow of optimism.
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Women are still a minority in boardrooms worldwide, filling less than 10 percent of the top posts in North America, Asia, and Europe according to a recent study, despite measures aiming to promote them, such as quotas and a growing web of womens b
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When hundreds of Fatah gunmen paraded past his West Bank supermarket last week, Mohammed Zahi stared unbelieving at their sparkling black M16 assault rifles.
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Mohammed Hussein winces in pain as he limps through the dusty gravel of this desolate Kenyan border town, an arduous 20-day trek from his home in neighboring Somalia from where he has fled.
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US and Iraqi military forces clashed with armed gangs during a search operation Sunday in the southern Iraqi town of Diwaniyah, leaving 20 dead and a US main battle tank destroyed.
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A suicide truck bomber ploughed into an Iraqi army post Saturday, killing 14 people, as violence continued around the country in defiance of large-scale security operations in several cities.
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Hour after hour, Barez Qadir sits in her car in the sweltering heat, waiting her turn at the Bakthiar filling station on the outskirts of Sulaimaniyah city in northeast Iraq. Other women manage to escape the blazing temperatures, finding shade unde
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This Friday, October 6, marks the 33rd anniversary of the fourth Arab-Israeli Middle East war; four wars fought in as many decades. It was also the last time Israel fought more than one Arab army at any one time, and the first time the Israeli army
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Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya was adamant Friday that Hamas would not recognize Israel, vowing to withstand huge international pressure to soften the stance of his ruling Islamist movement.
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met the leaders of Iraqs autonomous Kurdish region Friday, urging them to cooperate with Iraqi Arabs in building a peaceful and unified country.
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Amish families in mournful parades of horse-drawn buggies took part in the funerals Thursday of four schoolgirl victims of a gunman who went on a sexual-fantasy-fueled killing rampage at their school.
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President George W. Bush pledged US support for anti-terrorism efforts in Turkey, but concrete US action seems a remote possibility, given Americas split allegiances in the region.
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US forces said Thursday that they were closing in on Al Qaedas chief in Iraq, the author of deadly bomb attacks that have provoked a vicious sectarian war, but denied reports that they had already killed him.
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Britains top policeman ordered an urgent inquiry Thursday into a decision to excuse a Muslim officer from guard duty at the Israeli embassy during the recent Israel-Lebanon conflict, police said.
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Twenty-five years after being catapulted into Egypts top job by the assassination of his mentor Anwar Al Sadat, President Hosni Mubarak has such a tight grip on power that he is widely seen as a new Pharaoh keen to establish his own dynasty. {/bol
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ended a visit to Israel Thursday with limited pledges to ease restrictions on the Palestinians in a bid to bolster embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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NATO assumed control of international forces across Afghanistan Thursday, taking charge of the east of the country from the US-led coalition that toppled the Taliban regime five years ago.
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When she heard the news, Um Ahmed raced out into Palestine Street, screaming at the top of her voice and hitting herself frenziedly.
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel Wednesday on the third leg of a Middle East tour aimed at injecting new life into the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
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A series of bombs exploded near the convoy of Iraqs industry minister Wednesday, killing 12 people and wreaking havoc across a Baghdad neighborhood as leading politicians struggled to end the violence.
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President George W. Bushs Republican party was struggling Wednesday to contain political damage from a sex scandal fed by new revelations of inappropriate messages between a lawmaker and teenage aides.
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Sheltering from the scorching tropical heat in the cool shade of a mango tree, 68-year-old honeymooner Shehu Malami sat and pondered life with his four wives, after tying the knot 201 times.
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On the edge of a Beirut racetrack, a horseshoe-shaped field hospital is dispensing free medical care, as Saudi Arabia tries once again to bankroll a Lebanese revival with hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Italian and Vatican officials sought Wednesday to play down the impact of the hijacking Tuesday of a Turkish airliner on Pope Benedict XVIs planned visit to Turkey next month.
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Flicking through photographs of immigrant Zoroastrian friends in sunny California, 40-year-old Farzad Dehnavizadeh sighs and wishes that the young people of his faith stopped leaving Iran for the West.
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A Muslim leader in Australia says that the Koran should be questioned and interpreted for modern times.
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Jordan recalled its ambassador from Qatar Tuesday for consultations amid a diplomatic row over Dohas decision to back a South Korean candidate ahead of Ammans to succeed UN chief Kofi Annan.
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Iran Wednesday was facing a barrage of Western warnings that time has almost run out to clinch a deal over its nuclear program and it could be hauled up before the UN Security Council within a week.
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Britain has refused to accept eight men now in detention at Guantanamo because of a US condition that they be kept under 24-hour surveillance after release.
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Shocked by the murder of schoolchildren in their close-knit community, the Amish of Pennsylvania are trying to find the strength to forgive, a fundamental principle of their peaceful Christian faith.
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Baghdads last remaining rabbi announced on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar that he plans to leave Iraq.
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Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki held talks with Iraqs political leaders Tuesday after the divided nations factions signed up to a plan to stem spiraling sectarian violence killing 100 people a day.
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Palestinian territories teetered on the brink of chaos Tuesday after unprecedented internecine violence between the ruling Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas party left 10 dead.
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Cairo Tuesday for talks with "moderate" Arab counterparts after kicking off her regional tour in Saudi Arabia with an appeal for an end to Palestinian infighting.
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Survivors clung to life Tuesday as police tried to puzzle out an "execution style" shooting in a quiet Pennsylvania Amish community, the third fatal killing in a US school in a week.
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A lengthy policy letter from a senior Al Qaeda strategist to the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq has been declassified by US officials.
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The worlds biggest book fair in the German city of Frankfurt opens its doors Wednesday, shining a spotlight on the rise of the Internet as a challenge to the printed word and the flourishing literary scene in guest country India.
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An Iranian who hijacked a jet to Oslo in 1993 and later won asylum in Norway has been arrested for alleged drug smuggling, police said.
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A wave of coup chic in childrens fashion has hit the Thai capital since the putsch two weeks ago, raising concerns that parents are teaching youngsters to glorify the military.
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Singing and dancing in a churchyard under the shade of olive trees, a group of university students takes a break from their efforts to build a "New Lebanon" with their labor and idealism.
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A decision to allow women to ride in the cabs of water tankers in response to the water crisis has caused uproar in one Saudi Arabian city. The move was to keep drivers from running off with the water for which families had already paid.
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Several Spanish villages dropped the custom of blowing up Mohammeds head during this years holiday marking the re-conquest of Spain from the Moors.
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A knife-wielding intruder was arrested after scaling an outer fence into the high-security grounds of British Prime Minister Tony Blairs Downing Street residence, officials said Monday.
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A suicide blast in the Afghan capital wounded three NATO soldiers and three civilians Monday, while officials said 14 people had died in other attacks blamed on the extremist Taliban movement.
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Pakistan is fighting back against a wave of allegations by both allies and enemies that its intelligence service is playing a double game in the "war on terror." Suspicions were fuelled on Sunday when President Pervez Musharraf admitted on US telev
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The Jeddah Hope Center (JHC) in Saudi Arabia, which helps people with special needs, is planning to construct the worlds largest maze game.
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A newly disclosed letter from Ayatollah Khomeini written in 1988 says that Iran would need nuclear weapons to win the war with Iraq, a report says.
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Lebanon deployed its army on its southern border with Israel for the first time in almost 40 years Monday, vowing to reassert control in the area by stopping attacks and arms smuggling.
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Their skimpily clad dancers and tireless musicians have fired up the nights of Istanbul for nearly a millennium - now the Roms of Sulukule, two neighborhoods clinging to the Byzantine battlements of the old city, are fighting for survival.
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A British documentary aired Sunday claimed that Pope Benedict XVI was implicated in the systematic cover-up of child sex abuse allegations against Catholic priests.
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The West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian government was set on fire Sunday as rivalry between the governing Islamist Hamas movement and the presidents Fatah faction erupted in deadly violence.
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Well-wishers have returned more than 1,000 works of modern art looted from Baghdads top gallery as curators continue the painstaking task of restoring what was once one of the Middle Easts finest collections.
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Baghdad was abuzz Sunday over revelations of a plot to attack the heavily fortified Green Zone, the seat of the government, as parliament cancelled a session to discuss a contentious law.
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A British newspaper claimed Sunday it had obtained a copy of a film showing two of the pilots in the September 11, 2001 attacks reading martyrdom wills at Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Ladens headquarters.
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The man set to become Thailands new junta-appointed premier is a royal advisor and former army chief who has, ironically, spoken out against a military role in politics in the past.
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Bombers killed an Iraqi police colonel and bloodshed continued around the country on the Muslim day of prayers Friday, as the head of the British army called for his troops to be brought home.
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Typhoon Xangsane barreled into central Vietnam Sunday, forcing tens of thousands to flee and cutting electricity and many telephone lines after killing scores of people in the Philippines.
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The intelligence chiefs of several Arab states have asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to keep Hamas out of any new government, a report claims.
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Iraqi security forces locked down their strife-torn capital Saturday in a largely successful attempt to ward off attacks by suicide bombers against the countrys embattled government.
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Israel has modified plans to assassinate Hezbollahs chief, Hassan Nasrallah, and plans to complete its withdrawal from south Lebanon by the end of next week.