A fire ripped through a packed wedding hall in northern Iraq late on Tuesday, killing more than 100 people in a Christian town that had survived Islamic State occupation as authorities announced an investigation into the blaze.

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a fighter of the Islamist Hamas group, during a raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank yesterday, emergency workers and Hamas said.

Authorities in Iran have neutralised 30 bombs meant to go off simultaneously in Tehran and detained 28 terrorists linked to Islamic State, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported yesterday, citing the intelligence ministry.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has said there could be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution, sending a warning as Saudi Arabia considers recognizing Israel.

Saudi Arabia and Israel voiced optimism Wednesday that they were moving closer to a historic normalization of ties as Iran -- their common foe -- accused the kingdom of betraying the Palestinians through the US-led effort.

Iranian women who flout the strict Islamic dress code mandating head coverings and modest clothing would face up to 10 years’ prison under a bill passed yesterday.

Officials in eastern Libya ordered journalists out of Derna yesterday, the morning after demonstrators staged a rally and torched the home of the ousted mayor in fury over the authorities’ failure to protect the city from floods.

A member of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was shot dead during events falling on the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death, state media reported yesterday.

Iran has warned the European Union that its decision to maintain sanctions on the Islamic republic beyond a deadline set in a landmark nuclear deal was “illegal”.

Thousands of Syrians protested yesterday in the southern city of Sweida, the largest in nearly a month of anti-government demonstrations that have intensified despite one incidence of violence, activists said.

Bodies were washing ashore in eastern Libya yesterday, swelling the death toll from a storm that swept whole neighbourhoods out to sea, with thousands already confirmed dead and many thousands more still missing.

At least 10,000 people were feared missing in Libya on Tuesday in floods caused by a huge storm, which burst dams, swept away buildings and wiped out as much as a quarter of the eastern city of Derna

The Indian PM held talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud in New Delhi

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager Saturday at a refugee camp in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest violence to rock the occupied territory.

Authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have executed at least 100 people in 2023, according to human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Four 1,900-year-old swords, complete with wooden and leather scabbards, have been discovered in a remote cave in an Israeli desert, leading archaeologists to believe they were the booty of Jews who rose up against Roman rule.

Iranian authorities yesterday arrested an uncle of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody sparking months of protests, just ahead of the first anniversary of her death, reports said yesterday.

Two female Iranian journalists will spend around a month behind bars as part of a three-year partly suspended prison sentence for “conspiracy” and “collusion”, local media reported yesterday.

More than 100 people were injured in violent clashes in Tel Aviv between Eritrean government supporters celebrating an Eritrea Day event and opponents of President Isaias Afwerki.

Iraq’s prime minister yesterday inaugurated construction work on what is slated to become the first railway line connecting the country to neighbouring Iran, a major political and economic partner.