Lebanese judge charges PM, ex-ministers over Beirut port blast: sources

Lebanon’s investigating judge charged caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers with negligence over the Beirut port blast that killed 200 people and ravaged the capital in August, a judicial source and an official source have said.
10 December 2020

Iran says ‘smart satellite-controlled machine gun’ killed top nuclear scientist

The killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was carried out remotely with artificial intelligence and a machine gun equipped with a “satellite-controlled smart system”, Tasnim news agency has quoted a senior commander as saying.
7 December 2020

Kuwaitis go to polls as economy poses challenge for new emir

Kuwaitis voted in legislative polls today with the Gulf state mired in its worst economic crisis in decades, which poses a challenge for the government’s often stormy relationship with a parliament blamed for blocking reforms.
5 December 2020

Bahrain open to imports from Israeli settlements, Palestinians fume

Bahrain’s imports from Israel will not be subject to distinctions between products made within Israel and those from settlements in occupied territory, the Bahraini trade minister has said, drawing a rebuke from the Palestinians.
3 December 2020

Iran watchdog passes law on hardening nuclear stance, halting UN inspections

Iran’s Guardian Council watchdog body approved a law on Wednesday that obliges the government to halt UN inspections of its nuclear sites and step up uranium enrichment beyond the limit set under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal if sanctions are not eased in two months.
3 December 2020

5 Bangladeshis held by Houthi rebels to return home soon

Five Bangladeshi sailors, who were being held by Houthi rebels in Yemen capital Sana’a since February this year, will return home through India soon.
2 December 2020

Take urgent steps so expats can return to work: Dhaka urges Doha

Dhaka has urged Doha to take urgent measures so that the stranded Bangladeshi expatriates can return to work in Qatar.
1 December 2020

Iran’s parliament advances bill to stop nuclear inspections

Iran’s parliament Tuesday advanced a bill that would end UN inspections of its nuclear facilities and require the government to boost its uranium enrichment if European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal do not provide relief from oil and banking sanctions.
1 December 2020

Trump senior aide Kushner and team heading to Saudi Arabia, Qatar

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his team are headed to Saudi Arabia and Qatar for talks in a region simmering with tension after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.
29 November 2020

At least 1 Bangladeshi among seamen held captive by Houthi rebels in Yemen

At least one Bangladeshi citizen is among a crew of 20 seamen, most of them Indian nationals, who have been detained by Houthi rebels in Yemen capital Sana’a since February this year.
29 November 2020

Iran mulls response as it prepares to bury killed nuclear scientist

Iran was weighing its response Sunday to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, which it blames on arch-foe Israel, as his body was taken to Shiite shrines ahead of being buried.
29 November 2020

Palestinian rocket fire draws Israeli air strikes in Gaza

Palestinian militants fired a rocket into Israel, drawing Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military has said.
22 November 2020

Mother-of-five steers new course as Gaza’s first woman taxi driver

For Naela Abu Jibba, a mother of five who lives and works in the Gaza Strip, taking the road less travelled has become a way of life.
19 November 2020

Israel strikes widely in Syria, sending signal of aggressive post-Trump posture

Israel has launched air raids against what it called a wide range of Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria, sending a signal that it will pursue its policy of striking across the border despite US President Donald Trump’s election defeat.
18 November 2020

Iran says US move against it would face ‘crushing’ response

Any US attack on Iran would face a “crushing” response, an Iranian government spokesman has said, following reports US President Donald Trump asked for options for a strike on Iran’s main nuclear site but decided against doing so.
17 November 2020

Kuwait won’t renew work, residency permits for expats aged 60 years and above

Decision to take effect from January 1, 2020 with maximum 3 months’ deadline for departure
14 November 2020

Death toll nears 100

A shipwreck off the Libyan coast has killed 20 people, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said, just hours after news of a separate incident in which at least 74 migrants died.
13 November 2020

Islamic State claims responsibility for Jeddah attack

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah which wounded several people, without providing any evidence.
12 November 2020

Bahrain PM, world's longest-serving, dies at 84

Bahrain's Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, the world's longest-serving prime minister who had held the post since independence in 1971, died today at the age of 84, state media announced.
11 November 2020

Coronavirus: Cemeteries in Iran overwhelmed by virus deaths

For over half a century, a massive graveyard on the edge of Iran’s capital has provided a final resting place for this country’s war dead, its celebrities and artists, its thinkers and leaders and all those in between.
11 November 2020