The Iraqi government yesterday said it was suspending the popular Telegram messaging application across the country on “national security” grounds, drawing criticism on channels close to pro-Iran factions.

At least one man is in a serious condition after a shooting attack on a central street in Tel Aviv yesterday, Israeli police said.

Saudi Arabia called on its citizens to quickly leave Lebanese territory and to avoid approaching areas where there have been armed clashes, the Saudi embassy in Lebanon said in a statement posted late on Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Saudi Arabia is hosting talks on the Ukraine war yesterday in the latest flexing of its diplomatic muscle, a session that Kyiv acknowledged would “not be easy” given the wide range of countries represented.

Iran yesterday declared a two-day holiday for government workers and banks nationwide as searing temperatures sweep across the country, state media reported.

Clashes in south Lebanon’s Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp killed at least two people yesterday, medics told AFP, bringing the death toll to eight since fighting erupted over the weekend.

A key party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government will not agree to any concessions to the Palestinians as part of a deal on normalising relations with Saudi Arabia, one of its cabinet ministers said yesterday.

At least six people were killed yesterday in clashes in south Lebanon’s restive Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement and a source at the camp.

A bomb killed six people and wounded scores on Thursday when it exploded near the Sayeda Zeinab mausoleum in Damascus, Syria’s most visited Shiite pilgrimage site, the authorities said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday minimised his hard-right government’s judicial reform package in interviews with US media, calling it a “minor correction” while dismissing international and domestic criticism.

Israel’s Supreme Court said yesterday it would hear an appeal against a new law that curbs some of its own powers, pitting it against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government that is seeking an overhaul of the judicial system.

Israeli troops killed three Palestinians in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the Palestinian health ministry said, the latest deaths in a surge of violence in the territory since early last year.

Israel braced for fresh strikes and protests yesterday following a divisive parliamentary vote on a controversial judicial reform which has split the nation and drawn criticism from allies abroad.

Israel’s parliament yesterday ratified the first bill of a judicial overhaul sought by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after last-gasp compromise efforts collapsed and failed to ease a constitutional crisis convulsing the country for months.

At least 12 people were killed and up to 40 more are missing following a flash flood caused by torrential rain in central Afghanistan, a government spokesman said Sunday

Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said yesterday, in what the army described as a “car ramming attempt” near Nablus.

Iranian authorities have shuttered an educational centre accused of “inciting riots” during last year’s mass demonstrations triggered by the death in custody of a young woman, state media reported yesterday.

Iranian police yesterday relaunched patrols to catch the increasing number of women leaving their hair uncovered in public in defiance of a strict dress code, state media reported.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in an unexpected move, said yesterday the European Union should open the way for Ankara’s accession to the bloc before Turkey’s parliament approves Sweden’s bid to join the Nato military alliance.

Sudan’s government yesterday refused to participate in a regional meeting to resolve the crisis in the conflict-wracked nation, accusing Kenya, which chaired the talks, of favouring rival forces.