Lebanese celebrated the local dance troupe Mayyas on Thursday after it won the "America's Got Talent" TV contest, stoking joy and pride in a country battered by years of political and economic turmoil.
Many fans, across age groups and religious lines in the crisis-tested country and its large diaspora, tearfully cheered the all-women group for what judges and viewers hailed as a hypnotic and mesmerising performance.
For decades, Egyptians have dreamed of bringing back some of the glories of their ancient civilisation scattered across museums and private collections across the world.
Now as Cairo gears up to open "the largest archaeological museum in the world" at the foot of the pyramids of Giza in November, Egypt's former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass told AFP that he will soon demand the return of three of its greatest lost treasures:
- Rosetta Stone -
It's one of the 20th century's most iconic photos: British archaeologist Howard Carter inspecting the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun in 1922 as an Egyptian member of his team crouches nearby shrouded in shadow.
It is also an apt metaphor for two centuries of Egyptology, flush with tales of brilliant foreign explorers uncovering the secrets of the Pharaohs, with Egyptians relegated to the background.
"Egyptians have been written out of the historical narrative," leading archaeologist Monica Hanna told AFP.
When a Syrian prison guard tossed him into a dimly-lit room, the inmate Abdo was surprised to find himself standing ankle-deep in what appeared to be salt.
On that day in the winter of 2017, the terrified young man had already been locked up for two years in war-torn Syria's largest and most notorious prison, Sednaya.
Having been largely deprived of salt all that time in his meagre prison rations, he brought a handful of the coarse white crystals to his mouth with relish.
President Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday approved most military aid to Egypt for a second straight year despite concerns on human rights, pointing to limited progress, officials said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken finalized a package of $1.17 billion for Egypt, which has been one of the largest recipients of US assistance since it became the first Arab nation to normalize relations with Israel in 1979.
Blinken decided to direct a portion of aid, $130 million, away from Egypt after determining it did not meet rights standards.
Emergency crews racing against the clock to find survivors of a collapsed building in Jordan's capital pulled three more bodies from the rubble Wednesday, bringing the death toll to nine, authorities said.
Hundreds of rescuers have been scouring the site of the four-storey residential building in Jabal al-Weibdeh, one of Amman's oldest neighbourhoods, since it toppled over on Tuesday.
Rescue teams pulled three bodies from under the rubble on Wednesday evening, a police statement said, raising the overall death toll to nine.
The US Department of Justice announced an indictment Wednesday against three Iranian hackers who used ransomware to extort a battered women's shelter and a power company.
Authorities said the trio launched ransomware attacks at "hundreds" of victims, including inside Britain, Australia, Iran, Russia and the United States, saying they extorted money "largely" for their own accounts, and not for the Iranian government.
A majority of World Cup fans support FIFA compensating migrant workers for rights abuses during preparations for the 2022 tournament in Qatar, a poll commissioned by Amnesty International and released on Thursday showed.
Qatar has repeatedly faced criticism over conditions for migrant workers, but insists it has made major improvements in recent years.
The YouGov poll surveyed more than 17,000 adults from 15 countries -- mostly in Europe, but also the United States, Mexico, Argentina, Morocco and Kenya, Amnesty said in a statement.
A woman held up a Beirut bank Wednesday with a toy gun and walked out with thousands of dollars to pay for treatment for her ill sister, in a desperate heist cheered by many in crisis-hit Lebanon.
It was the latest in a series of heists in Lebanon, where the savings of depositors have been devalued and trapped in banks for almost three years amid a crippling economic crisis.
A Paris court on Wednesday convicted Yemen's national airline of involuntary homicide and injuries over a 2009 crash that killed nearly everyone onboard except a 12-year-old girl who miraculously survived.
Yemenia Airways was sentenced to the maximum fine of 225,000 euros ($225,000) and ordered to pay one million euros to two victims' associations for damages and costs.
Its executives did not attend the hearings, blaming the civil war raging in their country.
