WASHINGTON - In 2008, an ancient Egyptian coffin in a shipping crate raised the suspicions of a customs agent at the Miami, Florida, airport.  For the past two years, the ornate sarcophagus has been at the heart of an international mystery and investigation. The ancient artifact was returned to Egyptian possession Wednesday.
The painted wooden coffin, […]

ANKARA - A strong earthquake has shaken several villages in eastern Turkey, destroying homes and killing at least 57 people.
Turkey’s Kandilli Observatory says the magnitude 6.0 quake struck the province of Elazig early Monday at 4:32 a.m. local time.  It was centered near the town of Karakocan.
The quake toppled stone and mud-brick homes, and brought […]

CAIRO - Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed what they say is the 4,000-year-old sarcophagus of a mysterious ancient Egyptian queen.
A French team discovered the stone coffin in a burial ground, or necropolis, at Saqqara, south of the capital Cairo.
Egyptian experts say the burial chamber included ancient texts, or hieroglyphics, identifying the coffin as belonging to […]

JERUSALEM - The West Bank city of Hebron has been the scene of clashes between rock-throwing Palestinian demonstrators and police almost daily in the past two weeks. The violence stems from Israel’s decision to add Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem to Israel’s list of national heritage sites.
The sites are holy […]

ADEN - As donor countries met today in Saudi Arabia to decide how best to spend international aid recently pledged to Yemen, a second day of protests swept the southern half of the country. The protesters are calling for secession from the Yemeni state, and for support from donor countries.
As international donors were meeting in […]

DAMASCUS - The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group has met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Syria.
Part of their Thursday evening meeting aired on Syrian television.
The Syrian Arab News Agency said the men met at a dinner hosted by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.  Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television says Mr. Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah […]

DAMASCUS - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in Damascus, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged to support Iran’s nuclear program. 
The Syrian and Iranian leaders knelt side by side during a celebration of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad’s birthday.
Earlier in the day, President Ahmadinejad stressed Iran and Syria share both common interests and common enemies.
Speaking in Damascus, […]

CAIRO - The DNA testing of several prominent Egyptian mummies has revealed the identities of the mother and the father of famous boy king Tutankhamun.  Egypt’s head of antiquities, Zahi Hawass, says tests also revealed what killed Tut.
Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass says the results of two years of tests on famous Egyptian mummies show […]

SANAA - In Yemen, the government controls the cities, sheiks control the countryside, and everybody it seems is connected to everybody.  For a month, about 300 people have been camping in the capital city, protesting what they say are human-rights abuses from a powerful sheik who rules their district. 
This is a situation that could be, […]

DAMASCUS - One of the highest-ranking U.S. officials to visit Syria in years held talks with Syria’s president Wednesday, one day after Washington nominated its first ambassador to the country since 2005.
The U.S. Under Secretary of State, William Burns, said he and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad spoke candidly while meeting in Damascus.  Burns said they […]

BEIRUT - Tens of thousands of Lebanese rallied in Beirut Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination.
He and 22 other people were killed in a truck bombing in Beirut on February 14, 2005.  U.N. investigators have accused Syria of plotting the attack, a charge Damascus denies.
Mr. Hariri’s son and […]

CAIRO - Egyptian police have arrested a number of top figures in the banned Muslim Brotherhood, less than a month after the group elected new leaders. 
The website of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood says state security forces arrested close to a dozen senior leaders of the group in pre-dawn raids on their homes across the country.  […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. media reports say the United States is speeding up the deployment of anti-missile defenses in four Persian Gulf nations as it continues to confront Iran over its nuclear program.
The reports say the United States is also beefing up its naval presence in the region with special ships with the ability to shoot […]

JERUSALEM - A year after U.S. President Barack Obama took office, the Middle East peace process has faltered and there is broad disappointment in the Obama administration among both Israelis and Palestinians.
When President Barack Obama took office a year ago, he vowed to make the Middle East peace process a top priority. He appointed Mideast […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell has failed to lure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas back to peace talks with Israel.
Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat says Mitchell appealed to Mr. Abbas to resume negotiations during their meeting Friday in the occupied West Bank.
But Erekat says Mr. Abbas told Mitchell he must first get Israel’s […]

SANAA - Security officials in Yemen say an airstrike has killed six al-Qaida militants, including a senior military leader who escaped a Yemeni prison in 2006.
Officials say the attack took place in northern Sana’a province near the Saudi border on Friday morning.
Officials say the strike targeted two vehicles that were carrying eight al-Qaida members.  Authorities […]

CAIRO - Archaeologists say they have found a huge granite statue of an Egyptian pharaoh in Sudan, the furthest south that such a statue has been discovered.
They say the massive one ton statue is of Pharaoh Taharqa who came to power in 690 BC and ruled an empire stretching from Sudan to Palestine. 
The southern borders […]

DUBAI - Human rights groups are criticizing an Emirati court for exonerating Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who was caught on videotape beating a man with a nailed plank, setting him on fire and running him over with a vehicle.
Sheikh Issa, who is the half brother of UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, has […]

WASHINGTON - Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he is willing to negotiate with al-Qaida members who renounce violence and lay down their weapons.  The offer goes against the aims of the United States and other nations that are seeking to help Yemen vanquish the local al-Qaida off-shoot.
Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh says talks are […]

CAIRO - Egyptian security officials one of their soldiers has been shot and killed during a protest by Palestinians along the Egypt-Gaza border.
The incident took place Wednesday while Palestinians threw stones across the border at Egyptian security forces near the Rafah border crossing.
Witnesses say at least two Palestinians were wounded by Egyptian police who fired […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the problems in Yemen are a threat to regional and global security.
Secretary of State Clinton told reporters there are global implications from the unrest in Yemen and the ongoing efforts by al-Qaida to use it as a base for terrorist attacks far beyond the region.
Clinton made […]

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Embassy in Yemen says it is closed Sunday because of ongoing threats by the group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula “to attack American interests” in the country.
The short news release issued by the embassy in Sana’a Sunday did not say if the closure was in response to any specific threat.
The statement […]

WASHINGTON - Yemen’s government vowed it will not tolerate foreign terrorists on its soil, one day after a Somali insurgent group said it was sending fighters.
Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told the official Saba news agency Saturday that Yemen is ready to oppose anyone threatening its security and stability.
His comments follow a promise Friday by […]

GENEVA - The International Committee of the Red Cross reports conditions are continuing to deteriorate in northern Yemen where fighting between the government and al-Houthi rebels has been raging for the past five months.  A Red Cross official tells VOA large numbers of civilians continue to flee the conflict zone in search of safety.
The Red […]