In recent interviews and press conferences, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Yemen, the Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheik Ahmed, has explained the U.N.-brokered plan to bring Yemen’s warrying parties to the negotiating table. It involves a step-by-step diplomatic process with various rounds of separate preparatory meetings to take place in Muscat and Riyadh. Only then will Yemen’s internationally recognized government and the leadership of the northern Houthi rebels meet face to face in Geneva. Technicalities aside (although quite important…

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s election authority said Friday that the turnout in election runoffs held in half of the country’s provinces earlier this week was just under 22 percent. Almost half of the parliament’s 596 seats were up for grabs in first round, which took place in 14 provinces, including Cairo’s twin city of Giza and the port city of Alexandria. The High Elections Committee said that the “For the Love of Egypt” pro-government candidates won all 60 seats designated…

BAGHDAD — A barrage of rockets slammed late Thursday into a former military base near the Baghdad International Airport that houses an Iranian refugee group, killing three Iraqi soldiers, officials said. The Iranian exiles said at least 20 of their people died in the attack. Iraqi police said 16 rockets hit Camp Liberty, a former U.S. base that now houses the exiled Iranian opposition group known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq. They said at least 16 soldiers guarding the camp were also…