Doaa al-Waseai spent many happy years working as a tour guide in the Old City of Yemen's capital Sanaa, showing foreigners its hidden hammams and markets teeming with silver and spices.
After nearly a decade of war, that life feels like a distant memory. The Old City itself -- Waseai's childhood home -- feels cut off from the world, its warrens of thousand-year-old rammed-earth buildings falling into disrepair.
Thousands of fans in Syria's last opposition bastion have packed into a stadium for the frenzied final of a football cup -- an escape valve amid years of conflict and misery.
"I'm really happy today," said Mohammed al-Zeer, 28, from the northwestern city of Idlib. "Between the war and the destruction and explosions and the problems", events like a football match are "a great joy".
Syria's rebel-held Idlib region is home to about three million people, around half of them displaced from other parts of the country.
Israeli troops launched a manhunt Saturday after a father and son were shot dead at a car wash in the occupied West Bank amid an upsurge of bloodshed in the territory.
"A suspected shooting attack was carried out at a number of Israeli civilians in the area of the town of Huwara," an army statement said, adding that two civilians had been killed.
A Palestinian man shot by Israeli forces during a raid this week in the occupied West Bank died on Saturday, the official Palestinian news agency and a health worker said.
Mohammed Abu Asaab was "seriously injured in the head" on Wednesday in Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and on Saturday succumbed to his wounds, news agency Wafa reported.
It said Abu Asaab was hit during clashes that erupted when Israeli "undercover forces" surrounded a house in the camp.
Egyptian activist Ahmed Douma, a leading figure in the country's 2011 uprising who has spent the past decade behind bars, walked free from prison Saturday following a presidential pardon.
Douma, now 37, was a leading activist in the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak. He was arrested in the sweeping crackdown that followed the army's 2013 ouster of Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president elected after the uprising.
Morocco's King Mohammed VI is set to celebrate his 60th birthday on Monday away from the public eye, as challenges abound almost a quarter century after he ascended the throne.
The monarch is credited with effectively maintaining stability in a volatile region -- in part through suppressing criticism -- as well as modernising the economy and pursuing assertive diplomacy.
But his efforts have fallen short in addressing the profound inequalities that continue to plague Moroccan society.
Iran's foreign minister met Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler on Friday during his first visit since the Middle East rivals announced a surprise rapprochement, officials said.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who travelled to Riyadh on Thursday, held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, the Saudi foreign ministry announced, after extending a scheduled one-day visit.
Neymar was greeted with much fanfare Friday as he arrived in Saudi Arabia where he joins a growing list of big names lured to the oil-rich kingdom.
The 31-year-old Brazil forward who will be unveiled as an Al-Hilal player on Saturday after six seasons with French champions Paris Saint-Germain landed in a Riyadh airport equipped with extra security for the occasion.
Neymar was received in an airport lounge packed with club officials and press, a large diamond-studded cross hanging around his neck as he posed for pictures.
Iran's foreign minister met Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler on Friday during his first visit since the Middle East rivals announced a surprise rapprochement, officials said.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who travelled to Riyadh on Thursday, held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, the Saudi foreign ministry announced, after extending what had been scheduled to be a one-day visit.
Sevilla's Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou has become the latest big name to quit Europe for the riches of Saudi Arabia, signing for Al-Hilal the two teams announced on Friday.
Bounou, who featured in this week's UEFA Super Cup match against Manchester City, is the second big signing for Al-Hilal this week, following the transfer of Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain.
