Middle East

By Agencies

Unidentified gunmen have shot dead at least seven women and five men at a brothel in the Iraqi capital in the same area where alcohol shops were attacked last week, security and medical officials have said.

Read more: Dozen shot dead at Baghdad brothel

By Agencies

US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to make "a commitment to find peace in his country," ahead of a meeting of the so-called Friends of Syria group in Amman.

Read more: Kerry urges Assad to commit to peace

By Agencies

Saudi Arabia has executed five Yemenis and displayed their bodies in public for killing a national and forming a gang that committed robberies across several towns in the kingdom, the interior ministry said.

Read more: Saudi reportedly executes Yemeni gang members

By Agencies

Saudi authorities have arrested ten more suspects in an alleged Iranian spy ring unveiled two months ago, according to an interior ministry spokesperson.

Read more: Saudi Arabia arrests ten Iran spy suspects

By Agencies

Six Egyptian policemen and a border guard abducted on the Sinai peninsula last week have been released, the Egyptian army has said in a statement.

Read more: Egyptian security men abducted in Sinai freed

By Agencies

Iran's president is to challenge a decision to disqualify his top aide from a vote to elect his successor, but former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has said he has no objections to his own ban.

Read more: Ahmadinejad to appeal Iran poll-ban on ally

By Agencies

Iran's electoral watchdog has barred former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a close aide to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running in the June 14 presidential election, state media has reported.

Read more: Two key candidates barred from Iran election

By Agencies

Attacks in Iraq have killed at least 13 people and wounded 99 others, a day after a series of bombings killed 77 people across the country, officials have said.

Read more: Deadly bombings continue across Iraq

By Agencies

Three people have been killed and about 40 wounded in two days of fighting in Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli, security sources say, as sectarian violence spills over from the civil war in Syria.

Read more: Deadly clashes continue in Lebanon's Tripoli

By Agencies

Syria's opposition and government are preparing to take part in an internationally-sponsored peace conference, according to Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations-Arab League mediator.

Read more: Syria parties 'preparing for peace talks'