US set to free Israel spy Jonathan Pollard
Jonathan Pollard, an American convicted of spying for Israel, is set to be freed on parole from a US prison.
The former US Navy intelligence officer, now 61, was caught selling classified documents in 1985 and given a life sentence two years later.
Campaigners and successive Israeli governments have tried to secure Pollard's early release.
The case has been one of the most contentious issues between the two countries for the past 30 years.
Pollard has been serving his sentence at a prison in North Carolina. His parole terms bar him from leaving the US without permission for five years.
He has said he wants to move to Israel to be reunited with his second wife.
Last year it was reported that the US was considering freeing Pollard in exchange for concessions from Israel to the Palestinians amid faltering peace talks.
General Franco: Forty years after his death Spain is still coming to terms with the painful legacy of its civil war
Alistair Dawber wonders if the nation can ever achieve real unity
The flowers on Francisco Franco’s tombstone today, the 40th anniversary of his death, will be as fresh as on any other day.
Lying in state at the Valle de los Caídos, a huge basilica outside Madrid, Spain’s former fascist dictator has a grave that would befit any fallen king. The fact that 40,000 victims of the civil war that saw him swept to power are buried at the site only adds to the feeling that, although Franco is gone, he cannot be forgotten.
In Madrid alone, there are still more than 150 streets and squares named after his ministers and military officers and, although the country long ago came in from the cold and embraced democracy, his memory and his legacy are never far from the surface.Pakistani army chief's 'futile' US visit
When Pakistani leaders meet US officials, they express strong commitment to fighting Islamic extremism. Experts say it is usually a hollow exercise, and the Pakistani army chief's five-day US visit is a perfect example.
Pakistan's military chief, Raheel Sharif, who is touted by much of the Pakistani media as the "savior" of the Islamic country, is wrapping up his five-day visit to the United States. The military's supporters, including a number of journalists and analysts, claim Sharif's US trip is far more significant in terms of strategic and defense ties than Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to Washington in October.
Their claim is not entirely wrong: General Sharif (main picture) holds the real power in Pakistan, whereas PM Sharif, despite being the constitutional head of the government, has almost no say in matters related to foreign policy and defense.
The dichotomy of power in Pakistan has always put the US in a dilemma. On the one hand, it wants to strengthen civilian democracy in the country, on the other, it knows it has to deal with the powerful Pakistani army, if it wants to get the work done.
Aleppo's doctors and nurses face Syrian barrel bombs, detention and torture: report
November 20, 2015 - 6:03AMRuth Pollard
Middle East Correspondent
Beirut: They live in constant fear of the next attack, operating with little in the way of equipment or medication, often forced to turn out the lights at their hospital and work in darkness to avoid another bombing raid.
Aleppo's doctors and nurses – an ever-dwindling, life-saving workforce operating in harrowing conditions in a city under a years-long siege – don't work in shifts. Instead, they remain in their medical facilities full-time, working, eating and sleeping there.
That way, they can respond immediately when there is an attack.
And there is always another attack.
About 95 per cent of medical staff in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, have been killed, detained or have fled, a new report from Physicians for Human Rights has found, leaving an enormous workload for the 80-90 left behind.
Qatar slavery museum aims to address modern exploitation
The Bin Jelmood house is the first museum to focus on slavery in the Arab world amid concerns by rights groups that migrant workers are modern-day slaves.
DOHA, QATAR — Amid thatched ceilings and arched doorways in a traditional Qatari house in Doha, a projector beams a quote by Abraham Lincoln onto a wall: "If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong."
The Bin Jelmood house in Doha is the first museum to focus on slavery in the Arab world, and it opens as the gas-rich Gulf monarchy faces accusations by rights groups of modern-day slavery of migrant workers before the 2022 World Cup.
Qatar has denied exploiting or abusing workers and says it has implemented labor reforms. The museum itself is funded by the government and was inaugurated last month with a visit by Qatar's Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of the current emir.
Chinese police shoot dead 28 from 'terrorist group': authorities
By Benjamin Haas
Chinese police have killed 28 members of a "terrorist group" in the mainly Muslim Xinjiang region, authorities announced Friday, in the bloodiest such operation in months and as Beijing denounces Western "double standards" in the wake of the Paris attacks.
The killings took place over the course of a 56-day manhunt following an attack on a colliery in Aksu in September that left 16 people dead, said the Xinjiang regional government's Tianshan web portal. One "thug" surrendered, it added.
It was the first official confirmation of both the attack on the mine and its aftermath.
Xinjiang is the homeland of the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority, many of whom complain of discrimination and controls on their culture and religion, and is often hit by deadly unrest.
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