Iran president has rare meeting with supreme leader
- 09-Aug-2026
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently met with supreme leader Ayatollah Syed Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since assuming the post early in the Iran war, Khamenei’s office said Sunday. “Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian met Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and spoke with him at the start of his third year in the presidency,” the supreme […]
WHO chief says warehouse hit in Ukraine
- 09-Aug-2026
A World Health Organization (WHO) warehouse stocking medical supplies in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has been destroyed, the WHO chief said Sunday. “Last Friday, the WHO humanitarian warehouse in Dnipro, Ukraine, was struck and destroyed. At this time, no casualties have been reported,” the UN health agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. […]
Netanyahu rejects US Gaza plan, vows no pullout until Hamas disarms
- 09-Aug-2026
JERUSALEM, UNDEFINED: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a Gaza plan hailed by US President Donald Trump, vowing no military pullout until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed. After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, Netanyahu explicitly opposed it as he faced pushback from his right-wing base ahead of elections. […]
Yemen's Houthis say struck refinery on Saudi Red Sea coast
- 09-Aug-2026
SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Sunday they had struck an oil facility on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast after the Gulf kingdom said it had extinguished a fire at the site. The group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Houthis had “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, and […]
Ukraine denies targeting Bulgaria as drone explodes near pipeline
- 09-Aug-2026
SOFIA, Bulgaria: Ukraine on Saturday denied targeting Bulgaria after a drone exploded close to the strategic Trans-Balkan gas pipeline linking Turkey to Ukraine near the Romanian border. Bulgaria’s defence ministry said the drone was of a type “widely used by the Ukrainian military”, and the foreign minister summoned the Ukrainian ambassador for a meeting on […]
Afghanistan's gold rush upends lives and landscapes
- 09-Aug-2026
In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed. Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide. Some residents in the area […]
Turkey says expects Egypt to join defence pact
- 09-Aug-2026
ANKARA: Turkey’s foreign minister said Saturday he expected Egypt to join a joint defence agreement with regional partners designed to stabilise the region that is grappling with the Middle East war. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the agreement on Friday against the backdrop of war between the United States and Iran, which has drawn […]
Spain deploys 275 firefighters to tackle Andalusia forest blaze
- 08-Aug-2026
More than 275 firefighters were on Saturday battling a challenging wildfire in Spain’s southern Andalusia region, though authorities said no residential zone was currently at threat. The blaze, happening north of the town of Niebla, halfway between Seville and the Portuguese border, was active in an area of around 4,000 hectares (9,900 acres), an adviser […]
Exodus: West Bank hardships drive out Palestinian Christians
- 08-Aug-2026
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian Christians call themselves “living stones” and say they have lived continuously in the Holy Land for the last 2,000 years. Maybe not for much longer, believes Reverend Mitri Raheb. “If the current conditions continue, there will not be a single Palestinian Christian left by 2050,” said Raheb, founder and president of […]
Lebanon says Israeli troops built earth barrier in Lebanese army-held village
- 08-Aug-2026
Israeli troops infiltrated a Lebanese village placed under the control of Lebanon’s army as part of a June agreement and built an earthen barrier overnight Friday, Lebanese state media and the local mayor said. “An Israeli occupation army force advanced into the village of Zawtar al-Gharbiya shortly after midnight… and erected a new earthen barrier […]