Rescue teams working through the night pulled 45 people from collapsed buildings, Turkey's disaster authority said on Sunday, as the death toll from a powerful earthquake in the country's east rose to 35.

Security forces shot live rounds to clear protest hotspots in Baghdad and southern Iraq for a second day Sunday, sparking skirmishes with demonstrators determined to keep up their movement.

Kurdish authorities said they transferred 21 orphans from a squalid displacement camp in northeast Syria yesterday, including two French children who are set to be repatriated.

Hundreds of people hit the streets of the Lebanese capital yesterday to mark 100 days of anti-government demonstrations and denounce a new cabinet line-up.

Iraqi security forces fired bullets and tear gas yesterday in raids on protest camps in Baghdad and southern cities, killing four people and wounding dozens more, police and medical sources said.

A Moroccan court has sentenced a cleaner to 15 years in prison for the theft of dozens of luxury watches belonging to King Mohammed VI, her lawyer said.

Iraqi security forces raided Baghdad's main protest site on Saturday and tried to eject protesters in southern cities, firing tear gas and bullets killing four people and wounding dozens more, police and medical sources said.

The new finance minister of debt-saddled Lebanon said he would meet with a senior official from the International Monetary Fund on Saturday for a ‘courtesy visit’ and not bailout talks.

Rescue workers raced against time Saturday to find survivors under the rubble after a powerful earthquake claimed 22 lives and left more than 1,200 injured in eastern Turkey.

The heir to the British throne expressed sadness yesterday over the suffering and hardship faced by Palestinians and called for “a just and lasting peace” in the Middle East on the third day of his visit to the Holy Land.

Lebanon and Japan have about 40 days to decide whether ousted Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn will be extradited to Japan or stand trial in Lebanon,

Thousands of supporters of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr amassed in Baghdad on Friday demanding the ouster of US troops