Spotlight
Air travel between Qatar and Saudi Arabia will resume on Monday, according to the countries' airlines, a major landmark as Doha's former rivals normalise ties under a landmark agreement.

The United States will designate Yemen's Huthi rebels as a terrorist group, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday, a late-term move that aid groups fear will worsen a humanitarian crisis.

Israel's health ministry said four people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus strain first detected in South Africa, with the new British variant already recorded.

Former Algerian premier Ahmed Ouyahia, on trial for corruption, has admitted to receiving gold bars from Gulf donors then selling them on the black market, the official APS news agency reported.

Encroaching sands have left little evidence that the Omani village of Wadi al-Murr ever existed, but former inhabitants and curious visitors are coming to rediscover the hamlet engulfed by the desert.

Qataris celebrated crossing their border with Saudi Arabia Sunday, calling the kingdom "our second country", as Doha readied its strict coronavirus measures for Saudis to enter following a Gulf diplomatic thaw.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia reopened their land border Saturday, Qatari sources told AFP, as they restore ties following a landmark deal to end a three and a half year rift.

Torrential rain in Morocco this week after a period of drought has caused at least one death in its economic capital Casablanca, as bad weather remains forecast for the coming days.
Authorities said one person was killed and four injured after the roof of a structure in the old city of Casablanca caved in on Thursday evening.

The U.S. Treasury slapped sanctions on the leader of Iraq's paramilitary Popular Mobilization Forces Friday, saying he was connected to "serious human rights abuse."

Languishing in a tent in northern Iraq, Nour yearns to return home but can't because she is accused of supporting jihadists -- an allegation she insists has been designed to obscure a land dispute.
