Israel’s veteran ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday secured a mandate to form a new government, paving the way for his comeback at the helm of what is expected to be the most right-wing administration in the country’s history.

Iranian security forces have killed at least 326 people in a crackdown on nationwide protests since Mahsa Amini’s death in custody, Iran Human Rights (IHR) said in an updated toll yesterday.

A rare inscription that sheds new light on the use of Canaanite language some 3,700 years ago has been discovered on an ivory comb in southern Israel, archaeologists said.

At least 19 people were killed and six injured yesterday when the minibus they were travelling in overturned in northern Egypt’s Nile Delta, the health ministry said.

An Iranian who got stuck for 18 years in a Paris airport, inspiring a Steven Spielberg movie starring Tom Hanks, died yesterday at the terminal, an airport official said.

US President Joe Biden addressed the COP27 climate conference in Egypt yesterday, saying the global climate crisis posed an existential threat to the planet and promising that the United States was doing its part to combat it.

Fossil fuel lobbyists have flooded UN climate talks in Egypt, a report by watchdog groups said yesterday, as calls grow at the summit for a windfall tax on oil majors’ bumper profits.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has forced a short-term scramble for fossil fuels but the rise of solar, wind and other clean energies is “unstoppable”, the head of International Renewable Energy Agency told AFP.

An Iranian general claimed yesterday that the Islamic republic had developed a hypersonic missile capable of penetrating all defence systems, raising concerns from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Countries scrambling this year to source more natural gas to replace supplies from Russia are risking years of emissions that could thwart climate goals, the research collaboration Climate Action Tracker said yesterday.

Two Palestinians including a teenager were killed in unrest in the occupied West Bank yesterday, one of them in clashes during a visit by right-wing Israeli politicians to a sensitive religious site.

Leaders from poor countries criticized wealthy governments and oil companies for driving global warming, using their speeches yesterday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt to demand that they pay up for damages being inflicting on their economies.

Delegates at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt agreed after late-night talks to put the delicate issue of whether rich nations should compensate poor countries most vulnerable to climate change on the formal agenda for the first time.

Jailed Egyptian dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah has stopped drinking water, his family said yesterday, escalating his hunger strike as world leaders arrive in the country for the COP27 climate summit.

Veteran hawk Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday launched negotiations with his ultra-Orthodox and far-right allies on forming what could be the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, raising concerns at home and abroad.

Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday congratulated Benjamin Netanyahu on his election win as final results confirmed the former premier's triumphant comeback at the head of a solidly right-wing alliance.

Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem yesterday, the Palestinian health ministry said, including an Islamic Jihad militant and a man accused by police of stabbing an officer.

Iranians yesterday staged new protest actions in defiance of a crackdown by the authorities as a rights group said an 18-year-old became the latest teen killed

The Palestinian health ministry identified the dead man as Habas Rayan, 54.

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to return to power in one of the most right-wing coalitions in Israel’s history, causing jitters