Dozens of Kuwaiti women staged a protest Monday against the suspension of a women's yoga retreat deemed "indecent" by conservatives -- a move that sparked controversy in the small emirate.
Event organiser Eman al-Husseinan announced the suspension of the retreat last Thursday, stating she had not received a permit from the authorities, a day after MP Hamdan al-Azmi tweeted to denounce the retreat as "dangerous".
A Spanish aid worker who pled guilty to inadvertently funding an outlawed Palestinian militant group walked free Monday after 10 months in jail, the Israel Prison Service said.
Juana Rashmawi, 63, was sentenced in November to 13 months in prison after a military court convicted her of working with an organisation that it said was funding the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
The PFLP is a leftist militant group blamed for previous attacks on Israelis.
Three members of the United Arab Emirates' Federal National Council visited Israel's parliament Monday, becoming the first Emirati delegation there since the US-brokered normalisation of ties in 2020.
"When we talk about Abraham Accords agreements, we want you to look at the big picture," Ali Rashid al-Nuaimi, chairman of the council's defence, interior and foreign affairs committee, said at the Israeli foreign and defence committee.
Israel's domestic spying scandal widened Monday, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett vowing government action following new reports that police illegally used the Pegasus malware to hack phones of dozens of prominent figures.
The latest bombshell from business daily Calcalist alleged that Pegasus was used against a son of former premier Benjamin Netanyahu and his advisors, as well as activists, senior government officials, businessmen and others.
Iraq's parliament on Monday indefinitely postponed a scheduled vote for the republic's president after most major political blocs boycotted the session.
The sweeping no-show deepens a political crisis in the war-scarred country which, almost four months after a general election, still hasn't chosen a new prime minister.
The assembly vote had been set for noon for the head of state -- a post with a four-year mandate held by convention by a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, and currently occupied by Barham Saleh.
Scattered across Iraq lie more than 100 opulent palaces and villas built by former dictator Saddam Hussein -- some in use, many in ruins like much of the war-scarred country.
With their marble columns, ornate carvings and gaudy furniture, they reflected the megalomania and delusions of grandeur of Saddam, who visited some of them only once or twice.
In his Babylon residence, the feared strongman's profile is engraved in bas-relief like that of the Mesopotamian emperor he idolised, Chaldean dynasty king Nebuchadnezzar II.
When he raises his index finger and frowns, Iraq holds its breath. The mercurial Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr has yet again emerged as a powerful player in Iraqi politics, able to mobilise his loyalists.
Hundreds of them have, for three days, occupied the country's parliament with adherence to one guiding principle: obedience to Moqtada. He has urged other political factions to support the protest.
By daring to charge powerful figures in the case of the devastating 2020 Beirut port blast this week, Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar has crossed all red lines and openly challenged an entrenched ruling elite.
Bitar decided to resume his investigation after a slew of lawsuits, mostly from politicians charged in the case, forced him to stop work for 13 months.
The daring judge made Lebanese history Monday when he charged the country's public prosecutor.
One of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut on August 4, 2020, destroying swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.
Three years on, the probe into the traumatic disaster caused by a huge pile of poorly-stored fertiliser remains bogged down in legal and political wrangling, to the dismay of victims' families.
- The mega-blast -
A former ally of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen spent years eluding the clutches of Turkey's president, who accused him of masterminding a failed 2016 coup.
After nearly 25 years living away from Turkey, Gulen died in hospital overnight, Turkish public television said, citing groups close to the 83-year-old preacher.
The head of the influential Hizmet group became the sworn enemy of the president.
Erdogan's government accused him of heading a "terrorist" organisation as well as organising the 2016 bid to overthrow the president.
