Middle East

Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian teenagers during Gaza border protests on Friday, Palestinian health officials said. Israel’s military said it had opened fire in response to explosives and rocks hurled at the border fence. Palestinians have been staging weekly protests since last March at the border of Gaza, an …

Morocco has suspended its participation in the Saudi Arabia-led military coalition’s fight against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, government officials have said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly about the diplomatic tensions, two officials told the Associated Press news agency on Thursday that Rabat had …

The murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was “planned and perpetrated by Saudi officials”, the UN special rapporteur leading an independent human rights inquiry into the killing has said. Agnes Callamard is writing a report to be presented to the Human Rights Council about the incident and has visited …

The European Commission is planning to name Saudi Arabia in a list of countries that have failed to fight against terrorist financing and money laundering, a report says. Brussels is in the final stages of adopting the list, which will include 23 countries and jurisdictions who failed to combat “dirty …

  A draft of constitutional amendments proposed by Egyptian lawmakers shows the changes would allow President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to stay in power for up to 12 years beyond his current term. Sisi came to power in June 2014, one year after he led the military to oust the first …

A non-governmental rights group says Bahraini officials have revoked the citizenship of hundreds of people after convicting them of alleged terror charges as the Al Khalifah regime presses ahead with its crackdown on political dissent in the Persian Gulf kingdom. Javad Firooz, the chairman of the Salam for Democracy and …

Secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement has strongly dismissed latest allegations by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the movement is in control of the Lebanese government, stressing the new administration belongs to all political factions participating in it. The Israeli premier is “provoking the United States, European countries …

As Bahraini people gear up to mark the eighth anniversary of their uprising against the ruling Al Khalifah regime on February 14, the country’s main opposition group, the al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, has reaffirmed its determination to continue peaceful rallies until its demands for political reforms are met. Al-Wefaq, which …

Australian Defense Force officials admit that a 2017 airstrike by the country’s jet fighters on the northern Iraqi city of Mosul has claimed the lives of six to 18 civilians. The defense minister, Christopher Pyne, described the deaths as “deeply regrettable” but said a 12-month investigation into the airstrike on …

  ABU DHABI|Pope Francis will become the first pontiff to visit the Arabian Peninsula on Sunday, just hours after issuing his strongest condemnation yet of the war in Yemen, where his host the United Arab Emirates has a leading military role. The pope said in his regular Sunday address in …

Transparency International says the Emirati city of Dubai has turned into “a money laundering paradise,” where criminals can easily purchase luxurious property with their dirty cash. In its Corruption Perceptions Index 2018 released recently, the leading anti-graft NGO said Dubai “has become an active global hub for money laundering.” Citing …

Lebanese politicians on Thursday agreed to a new government which is set to include three Hizbullah ministers, eight months after the country’s election. Hizbollah is expected to receive three portfolios including the ministry of health. The ministry has the fourth-biggest budget in the state apparatus. Jamil Jabak, a doctor, was …

Almoez Ali scored with a spectacular overhead kick for a record ninth goal of the Asian Cup to set Qatar on their way to a first continental title with a stunning 3-1 win over four-times champions Japan. Ali’s early goal took him past Ali Daei’s 1996 tally and, combined with …

Members of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have evacuated dozens of people from the last pocket of land held by the Daesh Takfiri terrorists on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River in Syria, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday. Militants from the Western-backed and …

Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that it had concluded a crackdown on high-level corruption that began 15 months ago with the detention of hundreds of prominent businessmen and former officials at the Ritz-Carlton in the capital. The purge helped confirm the unrivaled authority of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince …

  The Saudi-led coalition waging war on Yemen has threatened to use “force” to push the country’s Houthi Ansarullah movement to withdraw from the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Hudaydah under a UN-brokered ceasefire in the flashpoint area. The United Arab Emirates’ Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar …

Twelve people have been killed in floods after heavy rain lashed northern parts of Saudi Arabia this week, the civil defense agency said on Wednesday. Ten died in the northwestern city of Tabuk and one each in the holy city of Medina and in northern border areas, the agency said …

Khouki 22, Ali 37, Al-Haydos 80, Ismaeil 90+3 scored the goals. The 2022 World Cup hosts will face four-time champions Japan in Friday’s final

Several Tunisian activists speculated that the pro-polygamy protests could be an attempt to distort the image of the Ennahda Movement, a Muslim democratic political party, ahead of the upcoming elections in the country. With polygamy outlawed in Tunisia, a group of local women took to social media to call for …

  Bahrain’s supreme court, whose verdicts are final, on Monday upheld a life term for Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman for spying for Gulf rival Qatar, a judicial source said. Salman, who headed the Al-Wefaq group, was convicted in November of “communicating with Qatari officials… to overthrow constitutional order,” …