An Afghan delegation is heading to Qatar for "open discussions" with representatives of Taliban insurgents over the next few days aimed at ending Afghanistan's long war, an official said on Friday.
France's tough line in talks with Iran and a similar analysis to Gulf Arab states on regional crises has sealed strategic new links in the Middle East that will be cemented when President Francois Hollande attends a regional leaders' summit next week.
The U.N. human rights investigator for North Korea said on Monday he would probe allegations of an estimated 20,000 North Koreans working in slave-like conditions abroad, mainly in China, Russia and the Middle East.
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton on Saturday defended donations his family's charity receives from foreign governments after renewed criticism that they would create conflicts of interest should his wife, Hillary Clinton, run for president.
Saudi Arabia is pushing for Sunni Muslim Middle East countries to set aside differences over political Islam and focus on what it sees as more urgent threats from Iran and Islamic State.
The United States and Turkey have reached a tentative agreement to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition fighters and expect to sign the pact soon, U.S. and Turkish officials said on Tuesday with Ankara predicting a signing in days.
An Egyptian court put ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi on trial on Sunday on charges of endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar, furthering a state crackdown on his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi could still pardon three jailed Al Jazeera journalists who are now facing a retrial if he deems it appropriate, the country's foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Egypt's highest court has ordered a retrial of three jailed journalists working for Al Jazeera television, citing procedural flaws in last year's trial, defense lawyers said on Thursday.
Egyptian and Qatari intelligence officials have met in Cairo to discuss reconciliation as part of Saudi-brokered efforts to end an 18-month standoff over Doha's support of the Muslim Brotherhood, security and diplomatic sources said.
FIFA ethics investigator Michael Garcia resigned on Wednesday in protest at the way his report into allegations of corruption in awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar was handled by the soccer governing body's ethics judge.
An American couple convicted and later cleared in Qatar of wrongdoing in the death of their adopted African-born daughter celebrated their return to Los Angeles with a jubilant church service on Sunday morning.
The United Arab Emirates has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood and local affiliates as terrorist groups, state news agency WAM reported on Saturday citing a cabinet decree.
FIFA appeared to be in limbo on Thursday as a long-awaited report on the turbulent bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups was criticized by its own investigator while the soccer world watched on in a mixture of bewilderment and anger.
A Saudi court has sentenced 17 people, four of them women, to prison terms of up to 30 years in two separate cases, one of which involving an al Qaeda plot to attack U.S. soldiers in Qatar and Kuwait, the state news agency SPA said.
Michael Garcia, the lead investigator into alleged corruption surrounding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups bidding process, has criticized soccer's global governing body FIFA for not conducting its ethics investigations in an open manner.
Egypt has accused Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan of supporting terrorists and seeking to provoke mayhem in the Middle East after he questioned the legitimacy of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in a speech at the UN General Assembly.
The Qatar women's basketball team forfeited a game at the Asian Games on Wednesday after being refused permission to wear the hijab, saying they were taking a stand against what they say is a discriminatory policy against Muslim women.
It is more than 23 years since Arab countries last made common cause to join U.S.-led military action, and it has taken the threat of Islamic State to persuade them that any public backlash in an already turbulent region is a price worth paying.
