Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | AFP | The Middle East’s poetry equivalent of “Pop Idol” is helping to keep alive an age-old tradition using bedouin dialect, which is barely understood outside the Arabian Gulf. Apart from the glory, a Kuwaiti student took home five million dirhams ($1.36 million), the …

As close to a guarantee of trophies as it gets? The task Jose Mourinho could face at #mufc: https://t.co/5cKjjFE0Nw pic.twitter.com/OIsm0avQMU — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 23, 2016 London, United Kingdom | AFP | Jose Mourinho was widely reported to be close to joining Manchester United on Monday as The Times …

Jerusalem, Undefined | AFP | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday chided a cabinet colleague who failed to give him public praise for pushing through a long-sought offshore gas deal. After ministers approved revisions to the agreement with a US-led consortium designed to overcome a court challenge, Energy Minister …

ANALYSIS Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Kenya’s plan to close the world’s largest refugee camp could be a bid to trigger more international aid as well as a “cynical” political move ahead of presidential elections, according to analysts and NGOs. The sprawling Dadaab camp, located on the Kenya-Somalia border, hosts …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Louis Van Gaal’s time as manager of Manchester United appeared to be nearing its end on Monday, amid reports that agreement on a severance package was all that stood in the way of his exit from Old Trafford. Both Van Gaal and leading employment …

Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The Zika virus strain linked to surging cases of neurological disorders and birth defects in Latin America has for the first time been found in Africa, the World Health Organization said Friday. The UN health agency announced that the Zika virus strain circulating in Cape …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | SATURDAY Wreckage including seats and luggage from EgyptAir Flight 804 were spotted in the eastern Mediterranean Friday as investigators tried to unravel why the plane turned sharply and plunged into the sea. While Egypt’s aviation minister has pointed to terrorism as more likely than technical …

Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | A second Chibok schoolgirl has been rescued, Nigeria’s army said Thursday, after President Muhammadu Buhari met the first student to be found and voiced fresh hope for the recovery of the more than 200 others still being held. Army spokesman Colonel Sani Usman said the …

Cairo, Egypt | AFP | FRIDAY Air-sea search intensifies for missing EgyptAir plane A massive search was under way for an EgyptAir plane that disappeared over the Mediterranean with 66 people on board, with suspicions swiftly focusing on a terrorist motive. Egypt’s aviation minister said that while it was too …

Paris, France | AFP | Searches were under way in the eastern Mediterranean on Thursday after an EgyptAir flight vanished from radar screens, with a Greek aviation source saying it had crashed south of Karpathos island. The flight, which had 66 people on board, was headed to Cairo after taking …