A year after Iraq's last general election, the United Nations mission urged political factions to end the deadlock paralysing the oil-rich country, warning that "Iraq is running out of time."
"The protracted crisis is breeding further instability ... it threatens people's livelihoods," the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq said, urging "dialogue without preconditions" toward a stable government in the war-scarred nation.
When yoga instructor Nada took up pole dancing, the backlash in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia was both harsh and quick, and she has struggled to overcome the fallout ever since.
Family and friends in the capital Riyadh told her the gruelling form of exercise –- a test of strength and coordination involving acrobatic movements on a vertical pole –- was "so wrong".
Pole dancing as a form of exercise has been tainted by its association with the seedy strip clubs and burlesque houses often depicted in Hollywood films.
Beneath the waters off Egypt's Red Sea coast a kaleidoscopic ecosystem teems with life that could become the world's "last coral refuge" as global heating eradicates reefs elsewhere, researchers say.
Most shallow water corals, battered and bleached white by repeated marine heatwaves, are "unlikely to last the century," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said this year.
That threatens a devastating loss for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who depend on the fish stocks that live and breed in these fragile ecosystems.
When a goal is scored in the Qatar Stars League, Khalil al-Balushi makes sure viewers feel the full force of the moment as he dials up the decibels to make their TV sets tremble.
"La-la-la-la-la!" he shouts after the ball hits the back of the net in one of Qatar's World Cup stadiums.
Viewers of the Alkass sports channel might not see it, but sometimes the 42-year-old Balushi, one of Qatar's top football commentators, dances a little jig in the press stand after a goal, pointing a celebratory finger towards the pitch.
It's an unusual sight in the conservative Gulf state of Bahrain: a young mother in an indoor basketball court is instructing the male players.
Fatima Reyadh has overcome prejudices to become the assistant coach of Al-Najma basketball club in the capital Manama -- and she doesn't plan to stop there.
The 33-year-old, who is also a Taekwondo black belt, aims to become head coach of the basketball team one day and then bring home the national championship.
Egypt and Greece on Sunday said a deal allowing Turkish hydrocarbon exploration in Libya's Mediterranean waters was "illegal" as Athens said it would oppose it by all "legal means".
On Monday, Turkey said it had signed a memorandum of understanding on exploration for hydrocarbons in Libya's seas with the authorities in Tripoli.
"This agreement threatens stability and security in the Mediterranean," Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said in Cairo, where he met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.
London-listed firm Energean on Sunday began testing pipes between Israel and the Karish offshore gas field, a key step towards production from the eastern Mediterranean site, a source of friction between neighbours Israel and Lebanon.
Israel has maintained that Karish falls entirely within its territory and is not a subject of negotiation at ongoing, US-mediated maritime border talks with Lebanon.
The two countries remain technically at war.
Hackers supporting Iran's wave of women-led protests interrupted a state TV news broadcast with an image of gun-sight crosshairs and flames over an image of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in footage widely shared online on Sunday.
In other anti-regime messages, activists have spray-painted "Death to Khamenei" and "The police are the murderers of the people" on billboards in Tehran.
With deluxe match packages selling for thousands of dollars and five-star hotels doing a brisk trade, a sheen of glamour coats Qatar's World Cup despite football's working-class roots.
A penchant for luxury in the energy-rich Gulf state, which has one of the world's highest GDPs per head, has rubbed off on an unusually high-end edition of a tournament for the masses.
If you're able to spring $4,950 for a VIP ticket to a group game, you can enjoy drinks, a six-course meal and entertainment at a lounge overlooking the halfway line at Lusail Stadium, north of Doha.
An Israeli soldier was shot and killed in an overnight attack at a checkpoint in east Jerusalem, the Israeli army said Sunday.
A police spokesperson had announced earlier that a manhunt was underway for an assailant who had "shot and severely injured two Israelis" at a checkpoint near Shuafat Palestinian refugee camp.
A third person, whose nationality was not specified, was hit by "shrapnel", according to Magen David Adom (MADA) -- the emergency medical services that are Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross.
