Middle East News Headlines

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish media say a car bomb has exploded near a crossing point along Syria's border, killing at least five people.

BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.N. envoy to Iraq says the Shiite-led government can do more to address demands by the country's restive Sunni minority.

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian opposition fighters captured the country's largest dam on Monday after days of intense clashes, dealing a major blow on the battlefield to President Bashar Assad's troops nearly two years after the uprising against his rule erupted.

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli official says the government has given final approval for construction of 90 new homes in a West Bank settlement, a move that could cause tensions with the U.S. ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to the region.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — An agreement is imminent on a new national unity government for Tunisia to resolve the simmering political crisis brought on by the assassination of an opposition politician, the leader of the powerful Islamist party told the Associated Press Monday.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Palestinian election commission has started to update voter registers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to pave the way for new elections — and reconciliation between the rival Fatah and Hamas factions.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian opposition website says authorities in Tehran have detained the daughters of reformist leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest for nearly two years.

BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say Syrian opposition fighters are battling troops loyal to President Bashar Assad for control of the country's largest dam.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Under heavy security, a Muslim football player whose signing with a Jerusalem club sparked a violent uprising by a hardcore group of racist fans made his much anticipated debut Sunday to a rousing ovation.

BEIRUT (AP) — Opposition forces targeted Damascus with mortars, a roadside bomb and a suicide attack on Sunday as they pressed ahead in their quest for the seat of President Bashar Assad's power.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops detained an Associated Press photographer during West Bank unrest over the weekend, handcuffing him and forcing him to sit on the ground without food or water or access to a bathroom for roughly five hours, according to eyewitness accounts.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia's political crisis entered a new phase Sunday with an announcement that Cabinet ministers of the president's own party are quitting the governing coalition, which could force the ruling Islamists to compromise with the opposition.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Gunmen killed four people in three attacks on Sunday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, officials said.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — There was nothing essentially new in the message to Washington from Iran's president on Sunday: Repeating last week's statement by the Iranian supreme leader that direct talks cannot happen as long as sanctions remain.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Rabbi David Hartman, one of the world's leading Jewish philosophers who promoted both Jewish pluralism and interfaith dialogue, has died. He was 81.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say gunmen have killed four people and wounded three in attacks in the northern city of Mosul.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Acclaimed Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina said Sunday he would accept a prestigious Israeli literary award despite calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish state.

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — After nearly two years of nonstop unrest, opposing factions in Bahrain began talks on Sunday to ease an Arab Spring conflict that has run longer than Syria's rebellion and is playing out on the doorstep of the U.S. military's main naval base in the Persian Gulf.