Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the state human rights commission says, hailing a "major step forward" in the reform programme launched by the king and his powerful son.

A total of 312 Bangladeshis, including 13 cabin crew, returned to Dhaka from Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has reported its first coronavirus case in Hadhramaut Governorate, supreme national emergency committee tweets.

Saudi Arabia imposes a 24-hour curfew in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, extending measures to combat coronavirus, while other Gulf Arab states lock down districts with large migrant worker populations.

The Saudi-led military coalition on Monday carried out multiple air strikes on Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa in retaliation for missile strikes on Riyadh.

The Taliban have killed about two dozen Afghan police and pro-government fighters, officials said yesterday, in two attacks that come as the foes are supposed to be preparing for peace talks.

Bangladeshi expatriates in Qatar, whose identity cards have already expired or have been living there illegally due to other reasons during the coronavirus pandemic, can take free treatment at hospitals in the Gulf country.

All sides in Yemen’s long conflict yesterday offered support for the United Nations’ call for a ceasefire to protect civilians from the coronavirus pandemic.

Two rockets slammed into the Iraqi capital’s high-security Green Zone early yesterday, hours before US-led forces were set to pull out of a second base in the country.

Libya has reported its first case of the novel coronavirus, a particular source of concern in the North African country where civil war has badly degraded the public healthcare system.

Gunmen and suicide bombers raided a Sikh religious complex in the Afghan capital of Kabul yesterday, killing 25 people before security forces killed all of the attackers, the government said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah showed no sign of ending their bitter feud yesterday, even after it cost the impoverished nation $1 billion in US aid -- with yet more on the line.

The UN rights chief yesterday called for any sanctions imposed on countries like Iran facing the new coronavirus pandemic to be “urgently re-evaluated” to avoid pushing strained medical systems into collapse.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN refugee agency, airlifts more than four tonnes of medical aid items, including supplies to support the Covid-19 response in Iran.

Saudi Arabia imposes a nationwide curfew starting after reporting a jump of almost a quarter in coronavirus cases, while the United Arab Emirates will suspend all passenger and transit flights to and from the country.

Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rises by more than 100 to 1,556 and the total number of people infected now exceeds 20,000, a health ministry official says.

At least two dozen Afghan security forces were killed yesterday in an insider attack on their base in southern Afghanistan, officials told AFP, as fighting raged in the war-weary country while efforts to start talks with the Taliban stalled.

Qatar has temporarily suspended entry for people from Bangladesh and 13 other countries as a preventive measure due to the spread of coronavirus worldwide.

Saudi Arabia imposed a temporary lockdown on its eastern oil-producing province of Qatif, home to most of its 15 coronavirus infections, and suspended schools and universities nationwide.

UN Special Envoy Martin Griffiths calls for an immediate end to military action by Yemen’s warring parties as renewed violence between the Houthi movement and a Saudi-led coalition threatens peace efforts.