Lebanese politician Saad al-Hariri abandoned his months-long effort to form a new government on Thursday, dimming the chances of a cabinet being agreed any time soon that could start rescuing the country from financial meltdown.  

Archaeologists said Wednesday that the recent discovery of two stretches of stone bulwark from the Iron Age “unequivocally” prove a huge wall once protected the entire eastern flank of ancient Jerusalem.

Shelling by Syrian regime forces yesterday killed nine civilians, including three children, in the Idlib region in the country’s northwest, a war monitor reported.

Iran is not prepared to resume negotiations on coming back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal until Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi’s administration has begun, a diplomatic source said on Wednesday.

The Israeli army yesterday said it had arrested between 20 and 30 Palestinian students in the occupied West Bank it accused of being “terror operatives” of Islamist group Hamas.  

The Taliban have offered a three-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of 7,000 insurgent prisoners, an Afghan government negotiator said yesterday, as Pakistan confirmed the militant group had control of a key border crossing.

Days after the Taliban captured a remote district in Afghanistan’s north, they issued their first orders in the form of a letter to the local imam. 

The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday become the first Gulf state to open an embassy in Israel, as its envoy hailed the trade and investment opportunities that closer ties would bring at a flag-raising ceremony also attended by Israel's president.

The Taliban do not want to battle government forces inside Afghanistan’s cities and would rather see them surrender, a senior insurgent leader said Tuesday, as the militants also warned Turkey against extending its troop presence. 

The death toll from a fire that tore through a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq rose to 92, health officials said yesterday, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor who works there. 

The death toll from a fire that tore through a coronavirus hospital in southern Iraq rose to 92, health officials said on Tuesday, as authorities faced accusations of negligence from grieving relatives and a doctor who works there.

At least 44 people were killed and over 67 injured in a fire likely caused by an oxygen tank explosion at a coronavirus hospital in Iraq's southern city of Nassiriya, health officials and police said on Monday.

Israel said yesterday it had expanded the fishing zone off Gaza and would allow additional imports into the blockaded Palestinian territory following “recent security calm”.

A Jordanian court yesterday sentenced two former officials to 15 years in jail after finding them guilty of a coup plot that sparked a rare crisis in a kingdom seen as a pillar of stability in the region.

Steep bread and diesel price hikes went into force in government-held parts of war-torn Syria yesterday, bringing more pain for civilians in a long-running economic crisis.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has issued a decree giving hundreds of thousands of civil servants and military members a 50% salary increase amid a harsh economic and financial crisis and price increases for vital products.

Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (July 20), as the crescent of Dul Hijjah was not sighted on Friday evening, Arab News reports.

An agreement on Ethiopia’s controversial Nile River dam is possible, the UN said Thursday, urging “trust, transparency and open engagement” as Egypt accused Addis Ababa of threatening its existence. 

The Taliban yesterday claimed to be in control of 85 percent of Afghanistan after seizing key border crossings with Iran and Turkmenistan following a sweeping offensive launched as US troops pulled out of the war-torn nation. 

Israeli settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank amount to a war crime, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Friday, calling on countries to inflict a cost on Israel for its "illegal occupation".