The United Nations has said that at least 733 Iraqis were killed during violence in January, even when leaving out casualties from an embattled western province of Anbar. 　　The figures issued on Saturday by the UN's mission to Iraq (UNAMI) show that 618 civilians and 115 members of the security... More

　　The United Nations has accused both sides to the Syria conflict of grave violations against children. 　　Children caught in the Syrian war are being recruited as child soldiers, used as human shields, and tortured, according to a new UN report. 　　The report, released on Tuesday, found that in the early... More

　　Wheeling himself out of the children's ward of Kabul's Emergency Surgical Centre for War Victims, Qasem appeared unmoved by the autumn sun and flowers he turned his wheelchair to face. 　　"I'll never get better," the seven-year-old from Ghazni province said as his left leg protruded from the red-and-black wheelchair he... More

　　Violence in Iraq's Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where armed groups fully control one city and parts of another, has displaced up to 300,000 people in six weeks, the United Nations has said. 　　The province has been hit by a surge in fighting between pro- and anti-government forces that began at the... More

　　Sara Atef was wearing her school uniform on the day she was arrested by riot police. 　　The 16-year-old had become a regular sight at anti-government rallies organized by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated groups in her hometown of 6 October city, a sprawling satellite development an hour's drive from central Cairo. 　　Sara, who... More

　　US policy on drone strikes has been questioned by a rights group who say a strike on a wedding procession killed civilians, not al-Qaeda fighters, as previously claimed by US officials. 　　Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a 28-page report on Thursday that said all the victims of a... More

　　Yousef sat on the navy couch with his arms wrapped tightly around his legs, and rocked back and forth. 　　It's a position he has become all too familiar with over the past year. He turned on his laptop and waited fitfully for Skype to load. 　　"Without Skype I wouldn't be... More

　　Egypt's deteriorating human rights situation in the past three years has had something of a boiled frog effect to it - things have gotten worse just gradually enough that the country's unfolding problems have been pushed to the margins. 　　But the severe abuses meted out to Egyptian citizens are crushing... More

　　For the past two months, Hamzah Abu Terr has slept on the floor of his home. He gave his bed to his three small children whose room he was forced to destroy earlier this year, to avoid large demolition fines issued by the Israeli municipality. 　　"I had no choice," said... More

　　The United Nations has warned that a looming drought in Syria could push millions more people into hunger and exacerbate a refugee crisis caused by the three-year conflict. 　　Syria's breadbasket northwestern region has received less than half of the average rainfall since September and, if it stays dry up to... More

　　Three years after fleeing their war-torn country, more than half a million Syrian refugees living in Jordan’s urban centres have become more vulnerable and destitute, a new study has revealed. 　　A household assessment released by CARE International on Thursday found that urban Syrian refugees are struggling to cope with inadequate... More

　　Jamil was only 16 years old when Israeli soldiers raided his Bir al-Basha home near Jenin late last year. It was a few hours before dawn when he was awakened by a hard nudge, blindfolded and handcuffed, then taken away in his pyjamas and house slippers. 　　His ordeal took place... More

　　Ibrahim Khattar and his fiancé Daouk were forced to flee Aleppo for Lebanon in late 2012. Months later, the young couple wed and Daouk became pregnant; after the upheaval of the war and a long engagement, they were finally starting a fresh life. 　　But it was not to be. The... More