Middle East | featured news

A new virus from the same family as SARS which sparked a global alert in September has now killed two people in Saudi Arabia, and total cases there and in Qatar have reached six, the World Health Organisation said.

The courtship of Hamas between rivals Iran and Qatar has been one of the Middle East's intriguing subplots of the Arab Spring.

Syria on Friday condemned Turkey's request for NATO to deploy Patriot defense missiles near their common border, calling it "provocative", after a spate of fighting there that has raised fears of the Syrian civil war embroiling the wider region.

A week of bombardment by Israel has pulverized government buildings and militant weapons stores, and left 161 Palestinians dead. But the Gaza Strip’s Hamas leadership has emerged stronger than ever, Palestinians in Gaza said Thursday.

In Damascus, two mortar shells struck the upscale neighborhood of Mazzeh during the morning rush hour Thursday.

Israel agrees to end hostilities on land, sea and air and to halt targeted assassinations of militant leaders. Palestinians agree to stop rocket and border attacks... An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire agreement to end eight days of clashes between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip relies heavily on the goodwill of two of the Middle East's bitterest enemies, but gave each enough to claim success.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a cease-fire, the Egyptian foreign minister said Wednesday, ending eight days of fighting that killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis. The cease-fire is set to start at 9 p.m. Cairo time (2 p.m. ET), Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr announced in a news conference alongside visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Six world powers are committed to holding a new round of nuclear negotiations with Iran as soon as possible, said a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief, who represents the six in talks with Iran.

Turkey has asked NATO to deploy Patriot missiles on its territory, the alliance said on Wednesday, to help it defend itself against any Syrian attacks.

A bomb attack on a Tel Aviv public bus Wednesday injured at least 21 people -- three seriously -- shattering the sense of security in Israel's second-largest city and raising questions about the fate of cease-fire talks underway to end the violence in the Gaza Strip.

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