Mila Valdez, 40, lives near the central bus station in Tel Aviv. It is thousands of miles from where she was born, in the Philippines. She and her 7-year-old son live a cramped existence in three small rooms plus kitchen and bathroom — plus eight...

After two weeks of mounting tension and sporadic clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters, a showdown is expected when Friday prayers are called at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s old city. Thousands of Israeli...

In the two years since it seized power here, the militant Hamas movement has undercut the influence of the Gaza Strip’s major clans, brought competing paramilitary groups under its control, put down an uprising by a rival Islamist group, weathered...

Iranians have begun to cast their votes in the country’s closely fought presidential election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is battling to retain his job in the face of a spirited challenge from former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mohsen...

The annual Arab League summit opens in Damascus today amid deep divisions over the crisis in Lebanon and unhappiness at growing Iranian influence in the Middle East. Syria, which is hosting the event for the first time, has adopted a defiant tone in...