Lebanon is grappling with a deep economic crisis after successive governments piled up debt following the 1975-1990 civil war with little to show for their spending binge.

Robots began handing out bottles of sacred water in Makkah this week in preparation for a socially distanced Hajj pilgrimage in Islam's holiest city, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Israel mounted air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the first since the end of 11 days of cross-border fighting last month, in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian territory.

Veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday handed over power in Israel to new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett but remained defiant as the patchwork government faced tensions with Palestinians over a planned Jewish nationalist march.

The first Israeli government in 12 years not led by Benjamin Netanyahu got down to business on Monday, with the former prime minister shying away from a handover ceremony with successor Naftali Bennett.

Naftali Bennett, who was sworn in Sunday as Israel’s new prime minister, embodies many of the contradictions that define the 73-year-old nation.

Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year run as Israel's prime minister ended on Sunday with parliament approving a new "government of change" led by nationalist Naftali Bennett.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s record 12-year run as Israel’s prime minister ended yesterday with parliament approving a new “government of change” led by nationalist Naftali Bennett, an improbable scenario few Israelis could have imagined.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year hold on power was set to end on Sunday when parliament votes on a new government, ushering in an administration that has pledged to heal a nation bitterly divided over the departure of the country's longest serving leader.

At least seven people were killed and several wounded in two separate artillery attacks on the northern Syrian town of Afrin on Saturday, civil defense sources said.

An Israeli security guard shot and killed a knife-wielding Palestinian woman at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, police said.

More food is making its way to Yemenis most in need after donors heeded United Nations warnings about impending famine, but aid groups said the world's largest humanitarian operation still does not have enough cash to see out 2021.

At least 10 people were killed in Syrian army artillery attacks and Russian air raids this week in a spike in bombardments in the last major area of the country still in rebel hands, witnesses and civil defence officials said.

The UN nuclear watchdog’s head said yesterday it was “becoming increasingly difficult” to extend a temporary inspections arrangement with Iran, as Tehran and world powers try to salvage a nuclear deal.

After a two-month gap due to Covid-19 restrictions and domestic issues in Lebanon, undocumented Bangladeshi migrant workers there have started returning home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday a newly formed Israeli coalition that is poised to unseat him was the result of "the greatest election fraud" in the history of democracy.

Israeli border police forcefully detained a veteran correspondent for the Al Jazeera satellite channel while she was reporting from an embattled Jerusalem neighborhood where dozens of Palestinian families are slated for eviction by Jewish settlers.

The head of Israel’s domestic security service issued a rare warning of possible violence during one of the most politically charged periods in decades, with the country on the verge of unseating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, its longest serving leader.

An explosion near a petrol station in the Yemeni city of Marib killed at least 12 people on Saturday, a medical source said.

Three civilians were killed yesterday in a Turkish drone attack on a refugee camp in northern Iraq in an area Turkish President recently threatened to “clean up”, a Kurdish lawmaker said.