Hundreds of high profile figures from the global cinema industry called Wednesday for Iran to release actor Taraneh Alidoosti, who was jailed over her support for the country's three-month-old protest movement.
Actors Emma Thompson, Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen and directors Ken Loach and Mike Leigh were among a host of luminaries to sign an open letter demanding the star of "The Salesman" be freed.
Qatar fought a "culture war", corruption claims and accusations over rights abuses in hosting the World Cup but experts say the Gulf state has reinforced its image everywhere except parts of Europe.
The emirate went into the tournament under scrutiny for its treatment of foreign workers and LGBTQ people but one of the final images to emerge from the event was Qatar's emir putting a traditional Arab cloak over the shoulders of Argentina star Lionel Messi.
About 7,000 children of suspected foreign jihadists housed in overcrowded detention camps in northeast Syria are at risk of attack and must be repatriated, an aid organisation warned Wednesday.
Since the Islamic State group's 2019 territorial defeat in Syria, around 56,000 relatives of defeated jihadists have been detained in the Kurdish-controlled Al-Hol and Roj camps.
"These children are trapped in desperate conditions and put at risk on a daily basis," said Matt Sugrue from Save the Children, a charity working in the camps. "There is no time to waste".
Veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had formed a new Israeli government on Wednesday, returning to power as the head of the most right-wing coalition in Israel's history.
Following his November 1 election win, Netanyahu secured a mandate to form a government backed by ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and an extreme-right bloc.
That result left him poised to end Israel's unprecedented era of political gridlock that forced five elections in less than four years, and replace the ideologically disparate coalition that ousted him in 2021.
Morocco is hoping its unprecedented World Cup exploits can help it win friends and influence people, especially among an Arab public opposed to its 2020 rapprochement with Israel.
Support for the Atlas Lions surged as they battled their way to the semi-final of the football World Cup in Qatar -- the first Arab or African team ever to get so far.
Their popularity on the Arab street was helped by players and supporters brandishing Palestinian flags following Moroccan victories, to be seen by millions of live TV viewers worldwide.
Kneeling in front of a turbanned judge in a tiny room at the Ghazni Court of Appeal in eastern Afghanistan, an old man sentenced to death for murder pleads for his life.
The 75-year-old admits to having shot dead a relative -- out of revenge, he says, because of rumours he had sexual relations with his daughter-in-law.
Under eye-for-eye sharia punishments, officially ordered by the Taliban's supreme leader for the first time last month, he faces public execution -- with the sentence to be carried out by a relative of his victim.
US President Joe Biden said last month that the multi-state deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program was "dead," but he would not announce that publicly, according to a video that surfaced Tuesday.
The video, which appears genuine and was apparently taken on November 3 during Biden's visit to California, shows him being asked by a woman to announce that the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is no longer in effect.
Watching Sunday's World Cup final, Ahmed al-Salem was more emotional than most football fans when Qatar's emir placed a black and gold cloak over the shoulders of Argentina's victorious captain Lionel Messi.
The garment Messi wore as he lifted the football trophy was a $2,200 'bisht', a traditional gown worn by men for weddings, graduations and official events -- and it was made by Salem's family company.
The gesture has sparked international debate on social media over whether it was appropriate.
The United States plans a meeting early in 2023 between Israel and Arab nations that recognize it as it pushes the incoming right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint, a US official said Tuesday.
Netanyahu is set to take office with the most right-wing government in Israel's history including figures from the extreme fringes who staunchly back expanding settlements in Palestinian areas.
A senior US official said the United States plans a meeting "probably in the first quarter" of 2023 of foreign ministers from the so-called Negev summit in March.
The United Nations on Tuesday named three women to lead a rights investigation into Iran's violent crackdown on women-led protests that have rocked the Islamic republic for more than three months.
Bangladesh Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain, Pakistani law professor Shaheen Sardar Ali and rights activist Viviana Krsticevic from Argentina will be the independent members of the fact-finding mission, UN Human Rights Council head Federico Villegas announced.
Hossain, a long-time human rights activist, will chair the investigation, the council presidency added.
