Sunni Islam's top cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, died on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia of a heart attack suffered while boarding a plane, Egyptian officials and state media said. Tantawi, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning -- was in Riyadh to attend the King Faisal awards ceremony, the official MENA news agency said. Tantawi ...

Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning -- died on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia of a heart attack, the official MENA news agency reported. Tantawi, 81, was in Riyadh to attend the King Faisal awards ceremony, it said. He died in the Saudi Arabian capital "after a sudden heart attack," MENA said.

Saudi security forces confiscated books of a well-known reformer and critic of the royal family from stalls at the kingdom's annual international book fair, a Saudi civil rights group said Saturday. The Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association said in a statement that Saudi security officers stormed a ...

Women's rights have improved in 15 of 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa over the past five years, although violence against women remains widespread throughout the region, a US study has found. Democracy watchdog group Freedom House pointed to "modest" economic, educational and political progress for women, despite a continued pushback from religious and cultural elites ...