A hotel in the Saudi Arabian city of Makkah, where two million Muslims will perform the annual Haj pilgrimage, was evacuated Monday after a fire broke out, the civil defence service said.

Lebanese soldiers yesterday renewed fire on Islamic State group positions on the country’s eastern border with Syria after capturing a third of the territory held by the militants in the area.

The Iranian parliament yesterday voted to keep the oil and foreign ministers, two of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani’s key members of cabinet, in their posts.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told Israeli opposition lawmakers that he had proposed rolling back his month-old suspension of security coordination with Israel, but that it did not respond to the overture.

Iran's ex-president Mohammad Khatami on Sunday asked supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to intervene in the case of two reformist politicians under house arrest without trial for the past six years.

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed and one was critically wounded on Sunday when their armoured vehicle hit a landmine on the Lebanese-Syrian border, a security source said.

Four people were killed and 11 wounded in an explosion outside an international trade fair in the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday, an organizer told dpa.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Sunday his country had foiled Western designs to topple him but his army had not yet won the fight to end Syria's six-year-old insurgency.

The Iranian parliament voted on Sunday to keep the oil and foreign ministers, two of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani's key members of cabinet, in their posts.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced early Sunday the start of a battle to retake Tal Afar, a key Northern Iraqi bastion of the Islamic State (IS) group and one of their last remaining strongholds in the region.

Armed with just a spade, Chamseddine Marzoug is determined to give a dignified burial to migrants who drowned in waters off his Tunisian hometown trying to reach Europe.

Lebanese troops yesterday launched an offensive against the Islamic State group on the country’s eastern border with Syria, seeking to drive the militants from a long-time stronghold.