MIDDLE EAST

Afghan officials: 8 inmates dead after prison riot in Herat

Stampede kills 11 Afghans seeking visas to leave country

3:11 pm October 21, 2020

Kabul: At least 11 women were trampled to death when a stampede broke out Wednesday among thousands of Afghans waiting in a soccer stadium to get visas to leave the country, officials said. Attaullah Khogyani, the spokesman for the governor of the eastern Nangarhar province, said another 13 people, mostly women, were injured at the stadium, where they […]

UK festival curator accuses UAE minister of sexual assault

2:20 pm October 19, 2020

London: The chair of Britain’s Hay literary festival said Sunday the event will not return to Abu Dhabi after one of the festival’s curators alleged that she was sexually assaulted by the tolerance minister of the United Arab Emirates while working with him. Lawyers for the minister later denied her account. Caitlin McNamara alleged she […]

CMS holds Global Interfaith Convention to promote communal harmony

US, Israeli envoys fly to Bahrain to advance nascent ties

3:03 pm October 18, 2020

Jerusalem: A joint American-Israeli delegation headed on Sunday for Bahrain, where officials will be signing a number of bilateral agreements following an announcement last month to normalise relations. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, led the delegation that flew out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. […]

Internet disruption reported in southeast Iran amid unrest

UN arms embargoes on Iran expire despite US objections

2:59 pm October 18, 2020

Tehran: A decade-long U.N. arms embargo on Iran that barred it from purchasing foreign weapons like tanks and fighter jets expired Sunday as planned under its nuclear deal with world powers, despite objections from the United States. While insisting it planned no “buying spree,” Iran in theory can purchase weapons to upgrade military armament dating […]

Syria Kurds free hundreds of IS militants as part of amnesty

11:52 pm October 15, 2020

Beirut: Kurdish-led authorities released on Thursday hundreds of militants from the Islamic State group imprisoned in northern Syria, as part of a general amnesty in the region controlled by the U.S.-backed fighters. Amina Omar, the head of the Syrian National Council, told reporters that IS members who were released have “no blood on their hands” and have all […]