JERUSALEM (AFP) – Nearly 200 Israeli pupils were ordered to begin a two-week quarantine from Sunday (Feb 23) after having come into contact with South Korean tourists who contracted the coronavirus, the education ministry said. South Korean members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus toured Israeli sites between Feb 8 and 15 and upon their […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Qatar has accused Saudi Arabia of allowing a protracted dispute to hinder Gulf Arab coordination over the coronavirus outbreak by denying the Qatari health minister timely access to a meeting of regional health ministers in Riyadh. Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a post on its official Twitter account that Saudi Arabia had […]

BERLIN (AFP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron told Russia’s Vladimir Putin they want to meet him and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan to defuse the crisis in Syria. In their phone call with the President Putin, Merkel and Macron expressed their “concern over the humanitarian catastrophe for residents of Syria’s Idlib […]

KHARTOUM (REUTERS) – As bakers in flour-stained clothes knead dough and slide trays of loaves into ovens in Sudan’s capital, a cluster of yellow-vested volunteers keep watch. The goal of the self-styled guardians of the uprising that toppled ruler Omar al-Bashir is to stem the smuggling of heavily subsidised flour and bread destined for citizens […]

Jordan has condemned a decision by Israel to advance a plan to build a railway line and station underneath the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City. The Israeli transport ministry said on Monday that a new route had been approved for an extension of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem high-speed railway. A 3km (2-mile) tunnel will lead to […]

DUBAI (REUTERS) – Iran has freed a German citizen sentenced to three years in jail, the Iranian judiciary said on Tuesday (Feb 18), a day after Teheran said a detained Iranian accused of violating US sanctions had returned home from Germany. “On Monday, a German citizen returned home. He was arrested while ago and was […]

BEIRUT (REUTERS) – The Syrian army said on Monday (Feb 17) it had taken full control of dozens of towns in Aleppo’s northwestern countryside and it would press on with its campaign to wipe out militant groups “wherever they are found”. The advances were made after President Bashar al-Assad’s forces drove insurgents from the M5 […]

A man has reportedly been killed in a rare confrontation in north-eastern Syria between US-led coalition forces and pro-government militia fighters. Syria’s state news agency, Sana, said a civilian died when US troops fired at a crowd stopping them pass through a checkpoint east of Qamishli city. A monitoring group said it was not clear […]

The UN human rights office has issued a long-awaited report on companies linked to Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The report names 112 business entities the office says it has reasonable grounds to conclude have been involved in activities related to settlements. They include Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia Group and Motorola Solutions. The Palestinians […]

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran’s government on Wednesday (Feb 12) rejected the United States’ allegations that the Islamic republic’s satellite programme has a military dimension, days after the failed launch of its latest satellite. “The subject of satellite launch vehicles and satellites is a civilian matter,” Defence Minister Amir Hatami was quoted as saying by state […]