Saudi Arabia supports a “fair solution” for the Palestinian cause, King Salman has told Donald Trump in a phone call, as the US President praised the kingdom for opening its airspace to Israel-UAE flights.

A Saudi Arabian court has issued a final ruling in the case of the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, sentencing eight people to between seven and 20 years in prison.

National flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines will operate five special flights on the Dhaka-Beirut route in the next few weeks to bring back Bangladeshi nationals who are stranded in Lebanon.

Rescue workers in Beirut dig through rubble and probed a collapsed building with sensors after signs of life were detected under a mound of debris one month after a huge explosion shattered the capital.

The situation of about four lakh Bangladeshi expatriates, mainly migrant workers, in Qatar is set to improve as the Gulf country recently brought some major changes to its labour laws for workers’ protection.

A difference between English and Arabic versions of a trilateral statement after an historic flight from Israel to the UAE has been seized upon by Palestinians to suggest the Gulf state has overstated Israeli readiness to drop West Bank annexation plans.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani yesterday said that the government had met all of its commitments for peace talks with the Taliban, as a team left for Qatar to prepare for negotiations.

Flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates will be able to fly over Saudi Arabia after the kingdom has said all services to and from the UAE can cross its airspace.

Top aides to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have arrived in the United Arab Emirates on a historic flight from Tel Aviv to finalise a pact marking open relations between the Gulf power and Israel.

Lebanon’s prime minister-designate Mustapha Adib has called for the formation of a new government in record time and urged immediate reforms as a step towards securing an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.

Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany Mustapha Adib is poised to be designated prime minister after winning the support of major parties to form a new government facing a crippling financial crisis and the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion.

Qatar has announced changes to its labour laws, raising the minimum wage by 25 percent to 1,000 riyals ($275) a month and scrapping a requirement for workers to get permission from their employers to change jobs.

The death toll from the Beirut port blast has risen to 190 with more than 6,500 injured and three people missing, Lebanon’s caretaker government says in a report.

Families and rescue workers in Afghanistan yesterday searched for survivors of flash floods that killed more than 122 people and destroyed more than 1,500 houses north of the capital, Kabul, officials said.

Iran has agreed to allow the UN watchdog the access it has requested to two alleged nuclear sites, as the head of the agency ended his first visit to Tehran.

Israeli tanks and aircraft carried out new strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza overnight in response to the launch of so-called fire balloons across the border, the army said yesterday.

Qatar’s massive migrant workforce is still being exploited by employers who withhold wages, threaten expulsion, and deduct pay, leaving some staff unable to eat, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Sunday that “sabotage” was the cause of an explosion that damaged the Natanz nuclear facility last month.

Israeli planes launched raids against Gaza late Thursday in response to rocket fire, as mediators sought to broker an end to the latest flare-up.

Saudi Arabia has said it will not follow the United Arab Emirates in establishing diplomatic ties with Israel until the Jewish state has signed an internationally recognised peace accord with the Palestinians.