Middle East

Jordan’s King Abdullah issued a royal decree to hold parliamentary elections, with the date to be set within the next 10 days by an independent election commission, state media said. Parliament ended its four-year term last May and the king had the option to either extend its term or dissolve...

The Philippines has taken a big step towards tapping nuclear power, its energy minister said on Wednesday, after President Rodrigo Duterte created an inter-agency panel to study the adoption of a national nuclear energy policy. As power demand soars in what has for years been among the world’s fastest-growing economies,...

A life-size diorama playing on the Biblical last supper appeared in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Wednesday – with only Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the table. The work includes a life-size replica of Netanyahu at a long table crammed with lavish food and bottles of champagne and candelabrum....

The American University of Beirut’s (AUB) medical centre says it has laid hundreds of staff, as even hospitals buckle under the weight of Lebanon’s economic collapse, the hospital’s management said on Friday. A nurse, Zawqan Abdelkhalek, who has worked at the hospital since 2012, was distraught. “I have a baby daughter,...

Iranian security forces fired tear gas on Thursday to disperse demonstrators gathered in the south western city of Behbahan, witnesses told Reuters and there was a heavy presence of forces in other cities. Videos posted on social media from inside Iran showed protesters chanting, “Fear not, fear not, we are...

The Saudi-led coalition on Monday said it had intercepted and destroyed four missiles and seven bomb-laden drones launched by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels toward the kingdom. Coalition spokesman, Turki al-Malki, said that the missiles and drones were launched from Yemen’s capital Sana’a and directed at civilian targets, in a statement...

The finance ministry approved the disbursal this week following a June 1 request from the manpower authority, which said the payments were “to preserve the national employment gains in the private sector and enhance job security for this segment”. Kuwait’s finances have been squeezed by the twin shock of the...

Converting Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia monument from a museum to a mosque would be “unacceptable”, a senior official in the Russian Orthodox Church said on Saturday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has proposed restoring the mosque status of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, a sixth century building at the heart of both...

A fire broke out at a power station in southwestern Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, the latest of several recent fires and explosions some of which have hit sensitive sites. The blaze, which affected a transformer in the power station in the city of Ahvaz, was put out by...

An “incident” has occurred at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility but no damage was caused and the site is operating as usual, the national Atomic Energy Organisation said on Thursday. The Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP), covering 100,000 square meters and built eight meters underground, is one of several Iranian facilities...

Abu Dhabi will allow people to enter the emirate if they have tested negative for COVID-19 in the previous 48 hours, the local government media office said on Monday. Abu Dhabi, the largest and wealthiest member of the United Arab Emirates federation, has had a ban on people entering since...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that his country is experiencing its toughest year because of U.S. sanctions coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus crisis has exacerbated economic problems that worsened after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 from Iran’s nuclear deal with major powers and re-imposed...

Iran launched a campaign on Saturday to motivate a reluctant public to use face masks as the country faces a sharp increase in infections and deaths from the coronavirus. Iran was one of the worst hit countries early in the pandemic, and since restrictions to stem its spread were gradually...

Hundreds of billions of desert locusts were seen swarming through the Yemeni Houthi-held capital Sanaa on Wednesday, invading crops and leaving farmers of the war-torn Arab country in despair. The destructive insects eat vegetation and destroy farms, exacerbating the food crisis as the ongoing war has already hampered relevant precautions. According...

Turkish security forces on Monday disrupted peaceful protest march by a pro-Kurdish party in various parts of the country, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said. The democracy march started in South-Eastern Hakkari province and Western Edirne, and to culminate on Saturday in the capital Ankara. Two HDP lawmakers, Leyla Guven and...

Protests between Lebanese security forces and protesters against deteriorating economic and living conditions continued overnight on Friday, as Lebanese President Michel Aoun spoke of a plan to bolster the national currency. Protesters threw stones and fireworks at police, and security forces responded with tear gas in an effort to disperse...

Four persons including a prayer leader were killed and eight others injured as a bomb blast ripped through a mosque in PD 3 of Kabul city on Friday, Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said. The deadly bombing took place while the faithful Afghans were gathered inside the mosque to offer...