At least 45 migrants and refugees perished off Libya this week in the deadliest shipwreck there so far this year, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

A female activist was killed and three others wounded when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their car in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, security and health sources say.

Twenty-nine Bangladeshi expatriates, who were stranded since arrival at Abu Dhabi airport, have been all permitted entry after a day.

Six members of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s honour guard were wounded yesterday when a rocket struck his palace compound, two officials told AFP.

A recently discovered transcript of an interview with a British intelligence officer who played a leading role in the 1953 coup that restored powers to the shah of Iran claims that Britain was the driving force behind the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh.

Israel would oppose any US F-35 warplane sales to the United Arab Emirates despite forging relations with the Gulf power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, citing a need to maintain Israeli military superiority in the region.

The UAE’s decision to normalise ties with Israel could propel Saudi Arabia to deepen its furtive relations with the Jewish state as Riyadh seeks to entice investments to fund an ambitious economic transformation, analysts say.

Israeli security guards have shot and wounded a deaf Palestinian who was not able to hear the orders to stop at an occupied West Bank checkpoint.

Afghan authorities and the Taliban have hit an impasse over the planned release of hundreds of insurgents after opposition from some foreign governments, officials said yesterday, apparently stalling peace talks.

Israel attacked targets of Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and halted fuel supplies to the enclave yesterday in the latest retaliation against fire bombs suspended from balloons that have been released from the Palestinian territory.

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.

Lebanon’s prime minister was set to announce the resignation of his government yesterday, the health minister said, after a devastating explosion in Beirut that has stirred public outrage and spurred a string of ministers to step down.

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.