Yemen has been devastated by a war between Saudi-backed pro-government forces and the rebel Houthi movement.
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BBC News Middle East
US court to rule in rare Saudi child custody case
The five-year-old girl's mother, who fled to the US with the child, could be told to send her back.
Top Stories
US court to rule in rare Saudi child custody case
The five-year-old girl's mother, who fled to the US with the child, could be told to send her back.
Israel to have record number of openly gay MPs
A sixth MP from the LGBTQ community will take his seat following a number of resignations.
New US sanctions target Syria's foreign backers
There are fears the measures will make the plight of ordinary Syrians even more desperate.
France jails Assad's uncle for money laundering
Rifaat al-Assad is sentenced to four years in prison for laundering money to build a property empire.
UN experts condemn Israel's W Bank annexation plan
The rights experts say the plan amounts to a "vision of a 21st Century apartheid".
WTO ruling could affect Newcastle deal
Newcastle United's Saudi Arabian-led takeover could be complicated by a ruling that the country helped breach international piracy laws.
UN takes Saudi coalition off child 'list of shame'
Human rights groups accuse the secretary general of ignoring evidence of grave violations in Yemen.
Featured Contents
US court to rule in rare Saudi child custody case
The five-year-old girl's mother, who fled to the US with the child, could be told to send her back.
Israel to have record number of openly gay MPs
A sixth MP from the LGBTQ community will take his seat following a number of resignations.
New US sanctions target Syria's foreign backers
There are fears the measures will make the plight of ordinary Syrians even more desperate.
France jails Assad's uncle for money laundering
Rifaat al-Assad is sentenced to four years in prison for laundering money to build a property empire.
UN experts condemn Israel's W Bank annexation plan
The rights experts say the plan amounts to a "vision of a 21st Century apartheid".
WTO ruling could affect Newcastle deal
Newcastle United's Saudi Arabian-led takeover could be complicated by a ruling that the country helped breach international piracy laws.
UN takes Saudi coalition off child 'list of shame'
Human rights groups accuse the secretary general of ignoring evidence of grave violations in Yemen.
Israel to have record number of openly gay MPs
A sixth MP from the LGBTQ community will take his seat following a number of resignations.
New US sanctions target Syria's foreign backers
There are fears the measures will make the plight of ordinary Syrians even more desperate.
France jails Assad's uncle for money laundering
Rifaat al-Assad is sentenced to four years in prison for laundering money to build a property empire.
Latest Updates
Ukraine sailors home after three years in Libya jail
BBC Monitoring
The world through its media
Fourteen Ukrainian sailors who had spent more than three years in Libyan custody landed at Kyiv's Boryspil airport on 19 June, the presidential website reports.
"It is our mission to return Ukrainian citizens home," the report quoted President Volodymyr Zelensky as commenting.
He added that he was happy for the sailors and their families.
The crew of the Odesa-registered oil tanker Ruta were detained in Libya in 2017 on charges of smuggling petrochemicals.
"Thanks to co-ordinated operations of the Ukrainian government agencies involved, a result was achieved in the negotiations with Libya and our citizens were returned home," the report reads.
Saudi Arabia denies abuse claims by embassy workers
Jose Tembe
BBC News, Maputo
Saudi Arabia's embassy in Maputo has denied forcing staff to work every weekend without overtime pay and discriminating against Mozambican staff.
"Everything mentioned in the paper is not true and consists of unfounded allegations," it said, referring to anonymous workers' claims published in the Carta de Mocambique newspaper.
Working hours at the embassy are from 09:00 to 15:00, the embassy added, "and nobody is obliged to do extra tasks".
On the issue of pay, the anonymous sources also said workers at the Saudi embassy had not received a pay rise since 2018. In response, the embassy has publicly stated details about salaries and contracts.
Monthly wages vary from $646 (£513) for a gardener to $1,460 for a translator, it said. All local staff have work contracts including an overtime allowance, a transport allowance, and provision for 30 days paid holiday a year.
The embassy however admitted it did ban workers’ relatives from bringing them food unless it was tinned, but called it a coronavirus precaution. The embassy has denied doing less to protect Mozambican staff from the virus, stating "it is obvious that the virus does not discriminate between one functionary and another".
Instances of forced labour in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are well documented. But the Saudi embassy in Mozambique has rejected the use of the term by anonymous workers describing their conditions.
Slavery "contradicts the principles of Islam and the social values of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia", it said.
There has not been any comment from Mozambique's Foreign Ministry or Labour Ministry on the workers' accusations.
Meanwhile in Damascus
After nine long years of civil war in Syria, President Assad has regained large swathes of the country through a ruthless military campaign supported by Russia and Iran. The war has come at enormous cost both in lives lost and infrastructure destroyed. With Russia and Iran looking to cash in on rebuilding the country, the BBC’s Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen examines who will hold real power in a post-war Syria. Already serious cracks are appearing at the very top. An unusually public dispute between President Assad and his first cousin, Rami Makhlouf, is causing alarm in Damascus. Makhlouf is Syria’s richest man, said by the US and the EU to have bankrolled the war for the regime. Russia is said to be getting impatient with President Assad over his reluctance to engage with a plan for post-war reconstruction. As the military campaign enters its final stages in the north of the country, can President Assad afford to fall out with the key people who support him? Producer: Jim Frank
Dan Roan
BBC sports editor
The government is urged to block the Saudi Arabia-led takeover of Newcastle United until it investigates TV piracy in the country.
Read moreTunisian doctors strike over coronavirus
BBC World Service
Thousands of health workers have held a strike in public hospitals across Tunisia demanding improvements in the health system in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Doctors, nurses and technicians gathered outside the health ministry in the capital, Tunis, to call for better working conditions as they continue to tackle the outbreak.
Tunisia has suffered a relatively low level of infections that have resulted in 50 deaths.
This week, it lifted most of the restrictions put in place to combat the spread of the virus.
A sixth MP from the LGBTQ community will take his seat following a number of resignations.
Read more
There are fears the measures will make the plight of ordinary Syrians even more desperate.
Read more
Rifaat al-Assad is sentenced to four years in prison for laundering money to build a property empire.
Read moreScientists invent 'reusable self-cleaning mask'
Israeli researchers say they have created a reusable face mask which can kill coronavirus with heat. The mask has a USB port which connects to a power source and heats its inner layer of carbon fibres up to 70C (158F) - a temperature high enough to destroy the virus. Users are advised not to wear the mask during the disinfection process, which takes roughly 30 minutes, Yair Ein-Eli told Reuters news agency. Mr Ein-Eli led the research at Israel's Technion University, which was spurred by widening disparities between global supply and demand for masks The researchers have filed a patent for the mask in the US, and plan to sell it commercially.
