In Jordan, the teachers' union had concerns about the way the government was handling the coronavirus crisis. The government's response was to arrest leading members of the union, raid the union offices and shut the union down for the next two years.

Petra - For over two millennia the ancient city of Petra has towered majestically over the Jordanian desert. Today its famed rose-red temples hewn into the rockface lie empty and silent.

Sabha - Mobile phone in hand, student Abdelaziz al-Aswad bounds up the steps of an UNESCO-listed Roman theatre in southern Syria, elated that the heritage site has survived seven years of civil war.

Safut - US President Donald Trump's cut to funds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has sparked fears in Jordan's largest refugee camp, where tens of thousands depend on its aid for survival.

Ramtha - Hundreds of Syrian rebels and their relatives left the southern city of Daraa on Sunday under a deal to bring the "cradle" of the country's uprising back under government control.

Ramtha - Syrian rebels and their relatives began evacuating the southern city of Daraa on Sunday, an AFP correspondent and a monitor said, more than seven years after the country's ill-fated uprising erupted there.

Ramtha - Syria's army entered rebel-held parts of Daraa city on Thursday, state media said, raising the national flag in the cradle of the uprising that sparked the country's seven-year war.

Ramtha - Thousands of displaced Syrians were heading home Saturday after rebels and the government reached a ceasefire deal in the south following more than two weeks of deadly bombardment.

Ramtha - The Syrian regime on Friday reached a deal with rebels for the surrender of the remaining opposition-held cities and towns in the southern province of Daraa, the cradle of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad.

Ramtha - Waves of air strikes pounded rebel-held areas of southern Syria on Thursday as pro-regime forces launched their most intensive bombing campaign yet in a two-week-old offensive.

Ramtha - The Syrian government and its Russian ally pounded rebel-held areas of the southern province of Daraa on Thursday with the heaviest air strikes of a two-week-old offensive, an AFP correspondent and a monitor reported.

Ramtha - At the market in the Jordanian town of Ramtha hope is rising that the Syrian regime's territorial gains just across the border might help bring business back to life.

Sama - After fleeing regime bombardment on southern Syria, Ayman al-Homsi and his pregnant wife saw their escape come to an abrupt halt in a parched field near the closed Jordanian border.

Ramtha - More than a quarter of a million people have fled a Russian-backed government onslaught on southern Syria, the United Nations said Monday, in the latest civilian exodus in the seven-year war.

Sama - After fleeing regime bombardment on southern Syria, Ayman al-Homsi and his pregnant wife saw their escape come to an abrupt halt in a parched field near the closed Jordanian border.

Ramtha - Syrian rebels and local officials pursued talks with regime ally Russia on Sunday over the fate of a key southern region facing a government offensive, a Britain-based monitor said.

Ramtha - Deadly air strikes pounded rebel-held towns across southern Syria on Wednesday, as relief groups sounded the alarm over a Russian-backed push for the region and its main city Daraa.

Ramtha - Syria's army launched an assault on the flashpoint southern city of Daraa Tuesday, state media said, after a week of deadly bombardment on the nearby countryside caused mass displacement.

Ramtha - Syria's government ramped up its bombardment of the southern city of Daraa on Monday, forcing dozens of families to flee an expected assault on the cradle of a seven-year uprising.

Ramtha - "Your turn, Doctor." Seven years after scribbling the anti-Assad slogan that sparked Syria's war, activists-turned-rebels Moawiya and Samer Sayasina are bracing themselves for a regime assault on their hometown Daraa.