Main headlines

June 9, 2013

Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during the opening session of the Ministry For European Union Affairs Conference on June 7 (AFP)
11:49 GMT

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged supporters to 'teach protestors' a lesson at the ballot box in next year's local elections

Iranian advisor to the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hopeful conservative presidential candidate, Ali Akbar Velayati (Atta Kenare/ AFP)
11:35 GMT

Veteran diplomat Ali Akbar Velayati's candidacy has been endorsed by a leading clerical group

A peacekeeper of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) stands guard on Friday at an entrance of the UNDOF zone near Quneitra crossing in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights. AFP Photo
11:28 GMT

Israeli defense forces submitted a reported to the UN Security Council threatening to attack Syrian tanks on its border.

A Palestinian protester throws back a tear gas canister fired by Israeli security forces during clashes following a demonstration against the expropriation of Palestinian land by Israel in in the occupied West Bank on Friday. AFP Photo
10:20 GMT

The Deputy Israeli Defence Minister told Israeli radio on Sunday that his government will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian state on the borders that existed prior to the 1967 war.

Iraqi Shiite Muslim women pray at the shrine of Imam Al Kadhim in the northern district of Kadhimiya, where the bomb exploded on Saturday. The bomb may have specifically targeted Shiites in the area. AFP Image
08:41 GMT

A bomb exploded outside a police station in a largely Shiite area of Baghdad on Sunday morning, killing six people including three police guards.

Members of Libyan security forces run away holding weapons during clashes between protesters and troops of the Libyan Shield Forces (LSF), a coalition of militias, in Benghazi. AFP Photo
08:18 GMT

At least 27 people have died in Benghazi, Libya, as protesters fought with a Libyan militia that is apparently working in conjunction with the Defence Ministry.

Lebanese Red Cross volunteers use a stretcher to move a Syrian, who was wounded in the nearby Syrian city of Qusair, from an ambulance upon their arrival at an hospital on Saturday. AFP Photo
05:00 GMT

The Red Cross started to airlift wounded civilians from the bitter battle in Qusair safety in Lebanese hospitals on Saturday, as the Syrian army moved north in search in more rebels.

George Sabra, the acting head of the Syrian National Coalition. Image courtesy of Al Arabiya
04:00 GMT

At a meeting in Istanbul for the leaders of the Syrian opposition in exile, head of the Syrian National Coalition George Sabra spoke out over the increasingly obvious Iranian presence in the Syrian civil war

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. AFP
04:00 GMT

The trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been adjourned until Monday the Cairo Criminal Court said late on Saturday, as Mubarak's supporters and opposers clashed outside the court.

June 8, 2013

Iranian Shiite Muslim pilgrims walk past a member of Iraq's security personnel in Kerbala, 110 km south of Baghdad, June 7, 2013. (Reuters)
10:27 GMT

Iran said it condemns deadly Iraq attack on its pilgrims. The attack occurred on Saturday, June 8, 2013.

Syrian soldiers look at the damage of a hanger in central Homs. (AFP photo)
10:00 GMT

The late Friday raid was second such Syrian strike against the Sunni-majority border areas in less than a week.

A demonstrator writes slogans on a building painted with graffiti at Taksim square in Istanbul on 6 June 2013. (Photo: AFP - Aris Messinis)
09:29 GMT

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan came flew back to Turkey and stated the Gezi Park protest "must end immediately." He also added that police "might have used excessive force."

The vote, to be held on June 14, is a race between eight presidential candidates. (AFP)
08:55 GMT

Iran‘s hardline nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, was criticized by rival candidates over the lack of progress in nuclear talks with world powers. The vote, to be held on June 14, 2013, will be Iran’s first since the 2009 re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos at press conference announcing largest-ever humanitarian appeal by the UN for Syria. (Photo: United Nations website)
08:41 GMT

The United Nations made its largest appeal in history in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday, asking for some $5.2 billion in aid. More than 80,000 Syrians have been killed since the conflict in Syria began.

June 7, 2013

A handout image grab released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Friday allegedly shows blindfolded rebel fighters detained after a Syrian army ambush in the area of Shamsin in the rebel stronghold of Qusair. AFP/SANA
11:24 GMT

The Syrian army is attempting to fully eradicate a rebel presence in the north of the country, and is hunting rebels in the areas surrounding Qusair, which they took control of earlier this week.