Since war-torn Syria was hit by a deadly earthquake, volunteers have kicked into action, cooking food for the homeless, giving free haircuts and bringing cheer to traumatised children.
Amid the rubble of Aleppo, a charity group has set up a free kitchen in a building in a park, where steam rises into the chilly air from huge pots of fragrant rice for the thousands who now live outside.
The lead Palestinian negotiator of the Oslo accords with Israel, Ahmed Qorei, who went on to serve as prime minister in the self-rule authority it created, has died aged 85.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas paid tribute to Qorei as an indefatigable "fighter" for the Palestinian cause after his death was announced by their ruling Fatah party.
Israel launched air strikes on Gaza targets in return for rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave Thursday, a day after the deadliest Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank in nearly 20 years.
Eleven Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed and more than 80 wounded in a gun battle on Wednesday after Israeli troops raided the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
The death toll was the highest since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, ended in 2005.
Yael Rashlin holds on to her Jewish practices, but as a transgender woman in Israel, she struggles to find acceptance in her Orthodox community -- a feeling exacerbated by the country's new right-wing government.
Along with her partner, Rashlin is busy wrestling with piles of clothes and toys that have been scattered around by their children, ahead of the Shabbat day of rest.
"I can no longer pray to the same God as people who today are trying to destroy my community and destroy our lives," she said, referring to the anti-LGBTQ agenda espoused by some cabinet members.
With rents soaring and properties selling fast, the expatriate hub of Dubai is in the throes of a housing boom bolstered by rich emigres that has buoyed investors and burdened tenants.
Dubai, renowned for its towering skyscrapers and ultra-luxury villas, saw record real estate transactions in 2022, largely due to the influx of wealthy investors -- especially from Russia.
That helped to rake in more than $140 billion last year, marking a 76 percent annual rise in property market transactions for the Gulf city state, based on the latest official figures.
Meta on Thursday said that tens of millions of people in Iran are using Instagram despite government efforts to block the service due to months-long protests.
Iran has been rocked by citizen outrage since the September 16 death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her arrest for an alleged breach of dress rules for women.
"Instagram has been widely used by Iranians to shed light on the protests and the brutal response to them," Meta president of global affairs Nick Clegg said during a briefing.
A woman dies every two minutes due to pregnancy or childbirth complications, despite maternal mortality rates dropping by a third in 20 years, the United Nations said Thursday.
Rates fell significantly between 2000 and 2015 but largely stagnated between 2016 and 2020 -- and in some regions have even reversed, the UN said.
The overall maternal mortality rate dropped by 34.3 percent over a 20-year period -- from 339 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2000 to 223 maternal deaths in 2020, according to a report by the World Health Organization and other UN agencies.
The Israeli army and Palestinian militants traded air strikes and rocket fire in and around Gaza Thursday, a day after the deadliest Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank in nearly 20 years.
Eleven Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed and more than 80 wounded by gunfire on Wednesday when Israeli troops raided the flashpoint West Bank city of Nablus, drawing international appeals for calm.
Top Palestinian official Hussein Al Sheikh described the raid as a "massacre" and called for "international protection for our people".
Half a dozen dump trucks offloaded their potentially hazardous cargo of rubble in a cloud of dust by a roadside in Antakya, Turkey, one of the cities worst hit by a deadly earthquake.
Two weeks after an earthquake devastated southern Turkey, which on Monday was once again rattled by a quake, experts fear millions of tons of debris will end up dumped in the open.
Police watched on as the rubble-laden trucks trundled along a winding road leading to the ancient citadel that overlooks the city of 400,000 people which is now almost entirely deserted.
A woman stripped of her British citizenship after travelling to Syria as a teenager to marry an Islamic State group fighter on Wednesday lost her legal battle to reverse the decision.
The ruling from Judge Robert Jay means that Shamima Begum, 23, cannot return to the UK from her current home in a refugee camp in northern Syria.
While the court determined the decision was for the government to make, it also said that some of Begum's arguments had merit.
