Egyptian luxury brands are harnessing traditional craftsmanship from jewellery design to carpet weaving to bring the country's ancient cultural riches to the world.
Experts in the sector say the global appeal of Arab and Islamic designs from other countries shows Egypt could do more to promote its rich, millennia-old artistic heritage.
Conflict-plagued countries in the Middle East are among the most vulnerable to climate change but are almost entirely excluded from meaningful financing to mitigate its effects, aid groups warned Thursday.
In a joint report focusing on Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Norwegian Red Cross demanded greater assistance, saying the combined effects of climate change and armed conflict create an alarming cocktail of humanitarian woes.
On a gentle slope looking out over Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, villagers work their way across pink-dotted terraces, gathering perfumed Damask roses that are used for essential oils, sweets and cosmetics.
The rose harvest "gives you a bit of hope, it makes things beautiful, it calms you down -- it gives you strength to carry on", said Leila al-Dirani, picking the flowers from her family's land in the village of Qsarnaba.
A Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old sold for $38.1 million in New York on Wednesday, setting a record for the most valuable manuscript ever sold at auction.
The Codex Sassoon -- which dates to the late ninth to early 10th century -- is the earliest near-complete Hebrew Bible known to still exist.
It was sold by Sotheby's following a four-minute bidding battle between two bidders, the auction house said in a statement.
Tunisian President Kais Saied has hosted Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders following a deadly mass shooting outside a local synagogue, telling them Tunisia was a country of "tolerance and coexistence".
The May 9 attack on the resort island of Djerba killed five people and sparked panic during an annual Jewish pilgrimage at the historic Ghriba synagogue, Africa's oldest.
The interfaith meeting on Wednesday "attests to the tolerance and coexistence that have characterised Tunisia for centuries", Saied said, according to a video released by the presidency.
On a sandy lot below a Khartoum apartment building, helmetless Sudanese soldiers in a mishmash of uniforms raised their fists as machine gunners blasted away from atop two small trucks.
It was another day in a war which has not stopped for more than a month, and continued Wednesday, as the UN said more than 50 percent of the country's people need aid.
"Today, 25 million people -- more than half the population of Sudan -- needs humanitarian aid and protection," Ramesh Rajasingham, head of the UN humanitarian agency's Geneva bureau, told reporters there.
The World Bank has warned that nearly half of crisis-hit Lebanon's economy is now cash-based as trust in banks has plummeted, heightening money laundering risks and slashing hopes for recovery.
Lebanon has been mired since 2019 in an economic crisis that the World Bank has dubbed one of the worst in modern history, as the currency's market value has fallen by at least 98 per cent against the dollar.
Russia and Ukraine agreed Wednesday to extend a deal allowing grain exports across the Black Sea, a rare example of cooperation as the war rages and one of Kyiv's valuable Patriot anti-missile systems was confirmed to be damaged.
The grain deal was welcomed by the United Nations and United States, though both called for more certainty over the exports as Russia has threatened to end the pact, which is crucial to global food security.
Sudan's brutal war has pitted the traditional urban elite that has long monopolised wealth and power in the capital Khartoum against forces from the marginalised rural periphery, analysts say.
For the past month, two rival generals have fought for control of the northeast African country in a war that has spread chaos, claimed at least 1,000 lives and displaced nearly a million people.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will attend this week his first Arab League summit in 13 years, his foreign minister said Wednesday, signalling regional reintegration after more than a decade of war.
The host of Friday's summit, Saudi Arabia, has championed Assad's return to the pan-Arab body and invited the Syrian leader over the objection of other regional leaders.
The Syrian government had been isolated in the region for years since its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2011 triggered a war that has killed more than 500,000 people.
