Middle-East

ALGIERS: Algeria’s prime minister, reacting to reports that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is seriously ill, said the 76-year-old was recovering in France but has

CAIRO: Egyptian troops and policemen began sweeps of north Sinai yesterday ahead of a possible showdown with heavily armed gunmen who abducted seven security personnel,

CAPE TOWN: A shipment of 259 elephant tusks smuggled out of Africa has been seized in the UAE, the International Wildlife Fund for Animal Welfare said yesterday.

CAIRO: Egyptian officials say troops and police mistakenly fired on a Bedouin funeral in the Sinai during a sweep searching for security personnel kidnapped by suspected militants.

BAGHDAD: A wave of attacks killed at least 95 people in Shiite and Sunni areas of Iraq on Monday, officials said, pushing the death toll over the past week to more than 240 and extending one of the

BEIRUT: Hezbollah was pulled more deeply into Syria’s civil war as 28 guerrillas from the Lebanese Shiite militant group were killed and dozens more wounded while fighting rebels, Syria activ

DUBAI: Iran’s electoral watchdog said yesterday it would bar physically feeble candidates from running for president, in an apparent hint that it could disqualify

TUNIS: Tunisia’s Premier Ali Larayedh vowed tough action against Ansar Al-Shariah yesterday after bloody clashes between police and members of the radical Salafist

JERUSALEM: A bank robbery in Israel yesterday ended with the deaths of five people, including one of the holdup men who apparently shot and killed himself when police la

ISTANBUL: Two Brazilian tourists died yesterday and 23 other people were hurt after two hot-air balloons collided in a beauty spot in central Turkey, officials said.