The Taliban yesterday said they were ready to hold peace talks with the Afghan government after a contentious prisoner exchange, which authorities said would begin in the next two days.

Thousands of Afghans began a three-day gathering in Kabul yesterday to decide whether to release about 400 Taliban prisoners, including many involved in attacks that killed scores of Afghans and foreigners, a key obstacle to advance peace talks.

A former senior Saudi intelligence official said in a US lawsuit Thursday that the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tried to have him assassinated in 2018, just weeks after dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in Turkey.

Lebanese authorities have arrested 16 people in an investigation into the Beirut port warehouse explosion, state news agency NNA says, and a judicial source and local media say the port's general manager is among those being held.

This year’s downsized hajj may prove to be the safest ever despite the ever-present threat posed by the novel coronavirus.

An Egyptian court has sentenced five female social media influencers to two years in jail each on charges of violating public morals.

Syria’s ruling Baath party and its allies have won a majority in parliamentary elections held across government-held areas of the war-torn country, results announced yesterday showed. In a widely expected victory in a vote labelled a “farce” by the exiled opposition, President Bashar al-Assad’s party and allied candidates took 177 seats out of 250 in Sunday’s polls.

Thousands of Pakistanis, Syrians, and Iraqis were granted Kuwaiti visas in exchange for bribes, a report said yesterday. About 5,000 Pakistanis entered Kuwait on family and visit visas between 2014 and 2018, despite strict rules on issuing visas to people from five countries -- Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq -- since 2011, Al Qabas reported citing officials.

Kuwait’s Central Agency for Public Tenders has cancelled the extension of contract for cleaning services at Kuwait International Airport and its facilities, as the contract was concluded with the company of the Bangladeshi MP accused of money laundering and visa trading, the Arab Times reports.

Saudi Arabia opens hajj registration for foreign residents in the kingdom, saying they will make up 70 percent of the pilgrims after it scaled-back the annual ritual due to coronavirus.

Three members of a gang linked to the trafficking of 26 Bangladeshis killed in Libya on May 28 today confessed to a magistrate that they had trafficked a number of people including Md Rakib who had been missing since that date.

Qatar Airways temporarily closed its Dhaka office from today after seeing a huge rush of ticket-buyers. The office was closed to maintain social distancing, with the airlines requesting passengers to book tickets via phone or email.

Saudi Arabia has endorsed Bangladesh’s proposal to form a Covid-19 Response and Recovery Plan to save lives and livelihood in the member countries of the Organizaton of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

A total of 751 Bangladeshi workers returned home from Dubai by two special flights today.

A total of 677 Bangladeshi citizens, most of whom are migrant workers, have returned from Kuwait, UAE and Maldives by three separate special flights since Monday.

A father's brutal killing of his teenage daughter over her relationship with a man causes widespread anger in Iran, with President Hassan Rouhani urging lawmakers to work quickly on a bill to prevent violence against women.

Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the state human rights commission says, hailing a "major step forward" in the reform programme launched by the king and his powerful son.

A total of 312 Bangladeshis, including 13 cabin crew, returned to Dhaka from Saudi Arabia.

Yemen has reported its first coronavirus case in Hadhramaut Governorate, supreme national emergency committee tweets.

Saudi Arabia imposes a 24-hour curfew in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, extending measures to combat coronavirus, while other Gulf Arab states lock down districts with large migrant worker populations.