An Iranian court has sentenced influential sociology professor Saeed Madani Ghahfarokhi to eight years in prison, his lawyer told AFP yesterday.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg told Turkey yesterday it was time to finally ratify Sweden and Finland’s bids to join the Western defence alliance.

The young Iraqi woman using that pseudonym was sentenced early this month to half a year behind bars for the light-hearted video clips that show her in tight-fitting clothes.

Archaeologists in southern Iraq have uncovered the remains of a tavern dating back nearly 5,000 years they hope will illuminate the lives of ordinary people in the world’s first cities.

Turkey said it would demolish buildings heavily damaged by a huge earthquake last week and swiftly start a mammoth reconstruction effort, with thousands of families struggling to survive amid the rubble and freezing conditions.

An Israeli firm sought to influence more than 30 elections around the world for clients by hacking, sabotage and spreading disinformation, according to an undercover media investigation published yesterday.

More than seven million children have been affected by the massive earthquake and a major aftershock that devastated Turkey and Syria last week, the United Nations said yesterday, voicing fear that “many thousands” more had died.

A life-long bachelor mayor in the Philippines has declared to give single staff extra pay yesterday for Valentine’s Day, to show gratitude for the extra hours they work and show that “someone loves them”.

The phase of the rescue after the major earthquake struck Turkey and Syria a week ago is “coming to a close” with urgency now switching to shelter, food, schooling and psychosocial care, the UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said during a visit to Syria yesterday.

Rescuers pulled more survivors from the rubble a week after an earthquake struck Turkey and Syria leaving more than 35,000 dead, as the UN warned the toll was set to rise far higher.

Israel struck a Hamas base in Gaza on Monday in response to a rocket fired from the enclave, while one Palestinian died during what the army called a West Bank raid targeting suspects

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday promised a stronger Israeli response in dealing with a spate of Palestinian attacks in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, as pressure swelled within his right-wing government to employ more severe tactics.

As Syria’s earthquake rescue efforts near the one week mark, an unsettling silence blankets the area as a search dog sniffs around a flattened home in the coastal town of Jableh.

The UN yesterday denounced a failure to get desperately needed aid to war-torn regions of Syria, while warning that the death toll of nearly 30,000 from an earthquake that also devastated Turkey could at least double.

Israeli troops yesterday killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy during a raid on a flashpoint town in the occupied West Bank that led to clashes with gunmen, medical officials and witnesses said.

At least 11 people, mostly civilians, were killed in a central Syria attack blamed on the Islamic State group, a war monitor said yesterday.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will head to China within days for a three-day visit aimed at strengthening economic cooperation, state media reported yesterday.

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria is likely to “more than double”, said the UN yesterday, five days after the natural disaster struck the region, leaving more than 25,000 dead.

Tens of thousands of Iranians yesterday rallied in Tehran and other major cities to mark the 44th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, as their president said months-long protests had been defeated.

A Jewish settler fatally shot a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank yesterday, Palestinian officials said.