SANAA (AFP) — Veteran Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces his first real electoral test in 28 years in power Wednesday when the Middle East’s poorest country goes to the polls amid persistent Islamist and tribal unrest.

HEBRON — Ibrahim Zedat is a chemistry teacher, but he has been sneaking into Israel to work on a building site since a strike by Palestinian government workers over unpaid wages closed many schools.

BAGHDAD — Shuhada Mosque in Baghdad’s Shiite district of Shaab is covered in banners singing the praises of cleric Moqtada Sadr’s Mehdi Army, in a building which intelligence reports claim is a centre of factional activities.