News Wire | Middle East & North Africa Archive

Bahrain Prison Inmates on Hunger Strike in Latest Sign of Simmering Unrest in Island Kingdom

By John Gambrell | Associated Press

Bahrain prison inmates are taking part in a hunger strike over conditions there, activists and authorities said Wednesday, the latest sign of simmering unrest in the island kingdom a decade after the Arab Spring.

Far-right Finance Minister Freezes Funds for Israeli Arab Cities, East Jerusalem Students

By Nati Tucker and Nir Hasson | Haaretz

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is persisting in his refusal to allocate funding to Arab municipalities and educational programs in East Jerusalem, defying stark warnings from the Shin Bet security service and the education ministry, who see a direct connection between funding the programs in East Jerusalem and a decrease in terrorism.

More from WPR: Netanyahu’s Far-Right Government Is Tearing Israel Apart

Israel Kills 3 Suspected Palestinian Militants as West Bank Violence Shows No Signs of Slowing

Associated Press

Israeli troops on Sunday killed three alleged Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank, further escalating a wave of violence in which two other people, including a young Palestinian man believed to have been gunned down by extremist Jewish settlers, were killed over the weekend.

More from WPR: The West Bank Is a Powder Keg. Israel’s Raids Could Set It Off

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Invited to Iran Amid Tensions Over Gas Field

Reuters

Iran's foreign minister has invited his Kuwaiti counterpart to Tehran, Kuwait said on Thursday, as tensions simmer over the offshore Durra gas field. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait claim exclusive joint rights to the field while Iran also claims a stake and says a Saudi-Kuwaiti agreement to develop it, signed last year, is illegal.