The king has ruled since 2015 and is custodian of Islam’s holiest sites. His son Mohammed bin Salman is next in line. Saudi Arabia’s 84-year-old ruler, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, has been admitted to hospital in the capital Riyadh, suffering from inflammation of the gall bladder, state news agency SPA said on Monday. The king, […]

JERUSALEM (REUTERS) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s graft trial resumed on Sunday (July 19) after a two-month break amid mounting protests over his alleged corruption and handling of the coronavirus crisis. Mr Netanyahu, the first serving Israeli prime minister to go on trial, did not attend what a spokesman for the prosecution said would […]

TEHERAN (REUTERS) – Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday (July 18) that 25 million Iranians have been infected with the coronavirus and that another 35 million are at risk of acquiring it. The figures, which Mr Rouhani said were based on a new Health Ministry report, are far higher than Iran’s official toll of […]

Demonstrators want gov’t to invest more in marginalised region hit by high unemployment and failing infrastructure. Demonstrators have shut a major oil pumping station in southern Tunisia, escalating weeks of protests for jobs and economic development in the deprived region. Hundreds of protesters on Thursday forced their way into the remote El-Kamour production site, located […]

ADDIS ABABA (REUTERS) – Ethiopian mother Alemtsehay Nasir went to Lebanon dreaming that her maid’s job would let her earn money to make a better life for her young son. But she was fired when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and her employers dumped her on the streets. The 32-year-old was left on the curb outside […]

No casualties reported in what appears to be the latest in a series of fires and explosions in Iran. A fire that broke at an Iranian shipyard in the southwestern port of Bushehr has damaged at least seven ships without causing any casualties, local media reported. Wednesday’s incident appears to be the latest in a […]

ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN (AFP) – Turkmenistan has ordered passenger trains halted from Thursday (July 16) amid reports of coronavirus in the isolated Central Asian country that has yet to declare any cases. A statement on the state-run railway’s website this week said that local passenger train travel would be suspended for a week from July 16 […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Yemeni Houthi forces hit a large oil facility in the southern Saudi Arabian city of Jizan in drone and missile attacks overnight, a Houthi military spokesman said on Monday (July 13). The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said earlier that it had intercepted and destroyed four missiles and six explosive drones fired […]

UN rapporteur discusses armed drones, the illegality of Soleimani’s killing, and the myth of ‘surgical strikes’. The United Nations’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings presented a new report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.  Agnes Callamard’s investigation focused on the legality of armed drones including one that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani […]

Iranian authorities say the main reason for the January incident that killed 176 was human error in aligning the radar. Iran has said the misalignment of an air defence unit’s radar system was the key “human error” that led to the accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in January. “A failure occurred due to […]