UAE

SINIYAH ISLAND, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An ancient Christian monastery possibly dating as far back as the years before Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, officials announced Thursday.

DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Videos on social media showing Iranian security forces severely beating protesters have gone viral as anger grows at a widening crackdown with arrests of prominent figures from rappers to economists and lawyers aimed at ending seven weeks of unrest.

Protests ignited by the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini on Sept. 16 after her arrest for inappropriate attire have shaken Iran's clerical establishment with people from all layers of society demanding wholesale political change.

DUBAI, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Iranian university students pressed ahead with sit-down strikes on Tuesday in support of some of the biggest protests since the 1979 revolution, ignoring harsh warnings by elite security forces and a bloody crackdown.

The Islamic Republic has faced sustained anti-government demonstrations since Iranian-Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police seven weeks ago after she was arrested for wearing clothes deemed "inappropriate".

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates defended on Monday a decision by OPEC and its allies to cut oil production, even as an American envoy warned of “economic uncertainty” ahead for the world.

DUBAI, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards warned protesters that Saturday would be their last day of taking to the streets, in the clearest sign that security forces may intensify their already fierce crackdown on widespread unrest.

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police last month, posing one of the boldest challenges to the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

DUBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Weeks of protest in Iran entered a more violent phase on Sunday as students defied an ultimatum by the Revolutionary Guards and were met with tear gas, beatings and gunfire from riot police and militia, social media videos showed.

The confrontations at dozens of universities prompted a threat of a tougher crackdown in the seventh week of demonstrations since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died after she was arrested by the morality police for attire deemed inappropriate.

Iranians from all walks of life have been protesting since Amini's death.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard issued a new warning on Saturday to antigovernment protesters, even as demonstrations continued in cities and university campuses across the country for the sixth straight week.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar summoned the German ambassador on Friday over remarks by Germany’s interior minister, who appeared to criticize the decision to award the World Cup to the Gulf Arab nation because of its human rights record.

It was the first time Qatar has summoned an ambassador following years of heavy international scrutiny of its treatment of migrant workers and criminalization of homosexual relations, and comes as authorities there appear increasingly fed up with such criticism.

DUBAI, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme Leader vowed on Thursday to retaliate against those threatening the country's security after the massacre of Shi'ite pilgrims, an assault claimed by Islamic State which threatens to inflame tensions amid widespread anti-government protests.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the assailants "will surely be punished" and called on Iranians to unite. "We all have a duty to deal with the enemy and its traitorous or ignorant agents," he said in a statement read on state television a day after the attack killed 15 people.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader and its president tried Thursday to link the nationwide protests roiling the country to an Islamic State-claimed gun attack on a famous mosque that killed 15 people.

The comments come as Iran’s theocracy has been unable to contain the demonstrations, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her detention by the country’s morality police.