seize

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, emboldened by US President Donald Trump's new approach to the region, have seized the chance to isolate Qatar, analysts said Monday. Gas-rich Doha, which has long exercised an independent streak in its foreign policy, last month denied comments which appeared on its official news agency questioning US hostility towards Iran. Qatar blamed hackers for a string of explosive remarks attributed to its Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani after Trump visited Saudi Arabia, its giant…

BEIRUT: Syria's army captured an airbase in eastern Aleppo from the Islamic State group on Saturday, after more than two months of fierce clashes, a military source and monitor said. The Jarrah airbase had been under IS control since January 2014, when the jihadists seized it from rebels who had captured it a year earlier. "Regime forces took control of the Jarrah military airport after heavy fighting," said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. "The majority of the…

PANAMA CITY: Panama on Tuesday seized a helicopter belonging to a wealthy former president, Ricardo Martinelli, whose family is under suspicion of accepting bribes from a Brazilian construction group. Prosecutors said in a statement they had taken "provisional possession" of the Airbus aircraft, registration N16261, after it was confiscated by authorities in Mexico. Although the prosecutors' statement did not name Martinelli as the owner, the former leader and his lawyers confirmed ownership. Martinelli, who went to…

MOGADISHU: Somali pirates have seized an Indian cargo ship and 11 crew members, the ship's owner said Monday, as a recent series of hijackings raises fears of a resurgence in piracy. The "Al Kausar" is the third vessel to be hijacked in less than a month off the coast of Somalia as experts warn that ships have lowered their guard in the five years since the height of the piracy crisis. The Indian cargo ship was carrying items such as wheat and sugar from Dubai via Yemen to Somalia's Bossaso port when it came under…

RIO DE JANEIRO: A Brazilian judge on Wednesday ordered that US Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and teammate James Feigen be prevented from leaving the country after doubts emerged over their claim to have been mugged at gunpoint.

DUBAI: Dubai police have seized 81 vehicles for alleged "reckless driving", the authorities said, in a crackdown on street racing among youths in the wealthy Gulf emirate.

DAMASCUS: Rebels seized a town in southern Syria from groups loyal to Islamic State just a day after fighters captured another town from the hardline militants in a separate insurgent assault in the north, a rebel source and a monitoring group said.

DAMASCUS: Syrian rebel forces on Thursday took over most of a town near the Turkish border that had been a stronghold of Islamic State, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel source said.

ADEN: Dozens of al Qaeda militants took control of the southern Yemeni town of Ahwar on Saturday, residents said, consolidating the group's control over much of the region.