JERUSALEM (BLOOMBERG) – Israel will allow Palestinians to build 1,000 homes in areas of the West Bank that are under full Israeli control, Ynet reported, citing unidentified Palestinians familiar with the decision, the first such decision in years. The news site said Israeli settlement leaders and the Palestinian Authority are engaged in an ongoing struggle over […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid departed for Morocco on Wednesday (Aug 11) in what will be the first visit by Israel’s top diplomat since the two countries upgraded ties last year. Israel and Morocco agreed in December to resume diplomatic relations and re-launch direct flights under a deal brokered by former US […]

KABUL (REUTERS) – Suspected Taleban fighters killed an Afghan radio station manager in Kabul and kidnapped a journalist in southern Helmand province, local government officials said on Monday (Aug 9), reporting the latest in a long line of attacks targeting media workers. Gunmen shot Toofan Omar, the station manager of Paktia Ghag radio and an […]

TEHERAN (AFP) – Iran’s foreign ministry on Thursday (Aug 5) warned arch-foe Israel not to take military action against the Islamic republic after it threatened Teheran over a deadly tanker attack. “In another brazen violation of Int’l law, Israeli regime now blatantly threatens Iran with military action,” ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Twitter. The […]

MILAS, TURKEY (REUTERS) – Turkey is battling the worst wildfires in its history, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday (Aug 4), as fires spread to a power station in the country’s south-west after reducing swathes of coastal forest to ashes. Fanned by high temperatures and a strong, dry wind, the fires have forced thousands of […]

BEIRUT (AFP) – Lebanon on Wednesday (Aug 4) marked a year since a cataclysmic explosion ravaged Beirut, with a mix of grief over lost lives and rage at the impunity for its worst peacetime disaster at a time when its economy was already in tatters. Shortly after 6pm on Aug 4, 2020, a stock of […]

KABUL (AFP) – The Taleban now control around half of Afghanistan’s districts after lightning offensives in the months since foreign troops began their final withdrawal from the country. But analysts and officials said their military victory is far from guaranteed, pointing to the ability and resources of the Afghan defence forces, who remain in control […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will on Thursday (Aug 5) lift a ban on transit flights including from India and Pakistan, the National Emergency and Crisis Management Authority (Ncema) said on Tuesday. India and Pakistan are important markets for Emirates, Etihad Airways and other UAE carriers flydubai and Air Arabia. The Gulf […]

BAGHDAD (REUTERS) – The United States is returning more than 17,000 ancient artifacts looted and smuggled out of Iraq after the US invasion in 2003, including a 3,500-year-old clay tablet bearing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Iraq said on Tuesday (Aug 3). Tens of thousands of antiquities disappeared from Iraq after the 2003 invasion […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – The US Navy is assisting an Israeli-managed petroleum products tanker attacked off Oman with two crew members killed, the US military said on Saturday (July 31), adding the ship was most likely hit by a drone strike. Mercer Street, a Liberian-flagged, Japanese-owned vessel that was attacked on Thursday, is being escorted by […]