Former Brooklyn Nets starter Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was hailed as the "missing piece" for Jordan at the Asian Games on Thursday, with the "Kobe Bryant clone" hitting a game-high 17 points against Bahrain.
The American was naturalised in time to play for his adopted homeland at the World Cup last month, where his 39-point barrage against New Zealand sparked chants of "Kobe, Kobe, Kobe" from the crowd in Manila.
Israel's top court debated appeals Thursday against a law restricting how a prime minister can be removed from office, as current premier Benjamin Netanyahu faces protests against the judicial overhaul.
Eleven of the Supreme Court's 15 judges sat to hear three appeals against legislation passed by parliament in March, which determined a premier can only be declared unfit for office due to health reasons.
The law also stipulated that a two-thirds majority in cabinet is required to take such a step, before the move is approved by at least 80 of the parliament's 120 members.
Survivors of a fire that ripped through an Iraqi wedding and those mourning the at least 100 people killed filled the pews of a Christian mass Thursday, two days after the disaster.
Mourners wept, ululated or quietly embraced one another under the arches of the Syriac Catholic church of Al-Tahera where portraits of the dead lined the stairs, showing men, women and children of all ages.
Five-time Dakar Rally champion Nasser Al-Attiyah did no training for the Asian Games -- and still came away with two medals in shooting.
The 52-year-old all-rounder, already an Asian Games gold medallist in shooting in 2002 and 2010, returned to the podium with a men's skeet team silver and skeet individual bronze in Hangzhou.
Such is the Qatari's busy life on the rally circuit that he had no time to pull the trigger in training before arriving in China.
Syrian beekeeper Ibrahim Damiriya struggles to produce honey from his hives on parched land near the capital Damascus after years of war, economic collapse and worsening climate change impacts.
"The war bled us dry. We could barely keep our beekeeping business afloat, and then the insane weather made things worse," the 62-year-old in a beekeeping suit told AFP as he examined meagre honey stocks inside the hives.
Before Syria's conflict erupted in 2011, Damiriya owned 110 hives in Rankus, a village near Damascus that was once filled with apple orchards.
US Senator Bob Menendez pleaded not guilty Wednesday to corruption charges in a New York federal court, where he and his wife appeared on bribery and extortion allegations involving the Egyptian government.
Menendez and his wife Nadine Arslanian were greeted outside the Manhattan courthouse by at least one protester holding up a sign demanding in block letters that the 69-year-old from New Jersey "RESIGN."
A huge portrait of Jesus Christ dominates the crowd, which parts to make way for a stream of coffins after a fire tore through an Iraqi Christian wedding.
At the cemetery in the northern city of Qaraqosh, mourners gathered around the clergy from various churches, chanting prayers in Syriac and delivering sermons in Arabic.
Some of the faithful held up portraits of deceased loved ones.
The day before, those in the pictures had gathered in an elegant banqueting hall to attend a wedding.
The United States said Wednesday it will start letting Israelis visit without visas, granting a key wish of its ally after concluding it had reduced discrimination against Arab Americans -- an assessment rejected by some lawmakers and activists.
By the end of November, Israelis will be in the same league as citizens of most Western nations by not needing visas for trips of 90 days or less to the world's largest economy.
"We have been working on this for years, almost a decade," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The lawyer for an Italian-Palestinian student detained by Israel since August called Wednesday on Italy to intervene, saying he was being held in violation of his legal rights.
Khaled El Qaisi, 27, has been detained by Israel without charges since August 31, when he was arrested while crossing from the West Bank to Jordan after a family vacation in his home city of Bethlehem.
On a summer evening, Iraqis smoke shisha and go bowling at a sprawling riverside complex in Baghdad, one of the many new investments reviving the capital after decades of turmoil.
"Iraq is fertile ground for investments," said Falah Hassan, the executive director of the complex of restaurants and shops built on the grounds of one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces and named after the famed "One Thousand and One Nights" folktales.
