Leila Fadel

A video from the so-called Islamic State purports to show a mass beheading of Coptic Christians from Egypt. The 21 Egyptians were kidnapped in Libya in December and January.

Mohamed Fahmy, one of the Al-Jazeera journalists just freed from Egyptian custody, recounts what he calls the nightmare of the last 14 months and talks about what comes next.

An Egyptian court released Al-Jazeera journalists Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy on bail, but their case hasn't been dismissed. For more details, David Greene speaks with NPR's Leila Fadel in Cairo.

It's been four years since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak resigned during the Arab Spring. Since then, the new government has cracked down on dissent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin brought a present to Cairo for the Egyptian president — a Kalashnikov rifle. The two leaders also signed a deal for a Russian nuclear plant.

At a recent protest, Libyans in the eastern city of Bayda chanted: "There's no gas, there's no electricity, you've brought us nothing, Thinni."

The protesters were referring to Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni, the head of one of Libya's two rival governments. His government is relegated to Bayda, a city of ...

Australian journalist Peter Greste has been freed by Egyptian authorities. The Al-Jazeera reporter had been imprisoned for months accused of aiding the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Religious and government authorities in the Middle East seem to be trying to tamp down any outrage over the publication of another cartoon of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed in France's Charlie Hebdo magazine.

The suicide last year of a well-known Egyptian activist shocked Cairo and highlighted the hopelessness of many amid the country's turmoil and stagnation.

A craftsman in the old Medina neighborhood of Tunis tries to keep alive the art of making the traditional oud — a guitar-like instrument. An oud is basically a Middle Eastern lute.

Preservationists are struggling to renew the ancient Medina in Tunis — one of the oldest Arab Muslim cities and a warren of elegant doorways, fountains and faded palaces mansions.

Egypt's high court has canceled the jail sentences of three Al-Jazeera journalists and ordered a retrial. The journalists say they were jailed for doing their jobs.

Egypt and Qatar are trying to repair relations ahead of the appeals by the Doha-based Al Jazeera journalists. The 3 were arrested and convicted on terrorism charges, causing an international outcry.

Tunisian voters chose a figure from the regime of the ousted dictator for president - opting for slow change rather than risking the chaos that has occurred after uprisings in other countries.

Tunisians voted Sunday for a new president in a contentious race. The election marks another important milestone in the one country where the Arab Spring has been mostly peaceful.

Tunisia launched the Arab uprisings four years ago when it ousted a dictator. Sunday's presidential election heralds the country's steady, but not-yet-guaranteed progress.

In the Kurdish city of Halabja, young men have been disappearing to join ISIS. It's a trend the authorities don't really want to discuss. But they are clamping down to try to make it stop.

Many of the 5,000 Yazidi hostages in Iraq are women who are being raped. Those who return to their deeply conservative community face new trauma: shame, invasive "virginity tests," possible pregnancy.

On Saturday, a judge dismissed the charges against the former Egyptian President, who had been accused of being complicit in the murder of demonstrators during the uprising that led to his ousting.