BenArmani

The United States rebuffed an Iraqi request on Friday to prepare to pull out its troops, amid heightened US-Iranian tensions following the US killing of Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani. Seeking to tighten pressure on its rival, the US, meanwhile, imposed more sanctions on Iran, responding to an attack on US troops in Iraq launched by Tehran in retaliation for the assassination of Soleimani. Iraq looks set to...

Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said died on Saturday after more than four decades as the country's ruler, though a murky succession process means that the identity of the next sultan may not be known for days. The late sultan was born on November 18, 1940, in Salalah, the capital of Oman's southern province of Dhofar. Qaboos is a direct descendant of...

Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex and wife of Prince Harry, has returned to Canada, Buckingham Palace said yesterday amid fierce media criticism of the couple’s plans to step back from their royal duties. Meghan, 38, and Harry, 35, announced on Wednesday that they will seek a lower profile, build financial independence and divide their time between Britain and North America...

Large swarms of desert locusts are spreading through Kenya, after wreaking havoc in Somalia and Ethiopia, posing a significant threat to food security, the agriculture minister said yesterday. The locusts — part of the grasshopper family — have led to what the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has termed the “worst situation in 25 years” in the Horn of Africa. Swarms...

Thai opposition party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit has been charged over an anti-government rally he staged last month, he said yesterday after meeting with police. The December 15 rally that Thanathorn called was the largest since a 2014 coup when then-army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha seized power from a civilian government. Thanathorn, who founded the progressive Future Forward Party, said he and seven others...

Taiwan’s presidential rivals held mass rallies yesterday in a final push to convince voters ahead of a closely watched election that looks set to infuriate China and send ripples far beyond its borders. Some 19mn people are eligible to vote today to choose between two leaders with very different visions for Taiwan’s future – in particular how close the self-ruled...

Gale-force winds in Australia merged two enormous fires into a megablaze spanning an area four times the size of Greater London yesterday, while tens of thousands rallied to again demand action on climate change. “The conditions are difficult today,” said Shane Fitzsimmons, rural fire service commissioner for New South Wales state, after days of relative calm. “It’s the hot, dry...

Negotiations yesterday between the French government and trade unions failed to break the deadlock over pension reform as both sides stood firm ahead of a fifth day of nationwide protests. With a public transport strike into its 37th day, President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist government defied unions yesterday with a draft pension reform bill that included a contested clause on raising...

The United States threw its support behind negotiations in Venezuela, saying talks could establish a transitional government, lead to fresh elections and bring an end to the country’s long-running political crisis. The statement came as opposition leader Juan Guaido, who this week survived attempts to remove him as head of the National Assembly, called new protests in hopes of rekindling...

Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered the overhaul of the country’s public diplomacy and information policy for effective projection of the national narrative abroad, by improving the skill set and orientation of ambassadors and their subordinate diplomatic and media staff at all the missions abroad. As part of the initiative, the prime minister has ordered the creation of a fully-empowered...

A suicide bomber targeted a mosque in southwestern Pakistan during evening prayers yesterday, killing at least 15 people and wounding 19 others, officials said. The blast took place in a satellite town of Quetta, Baluchistan’s main city. Debris and shattered glass littered the scene. Fida Mohamed, who was attending evening prayers, said that about 60 people were present at the time of...

Israel has announced the release of two prisoners - one of whom was convicted of spying for Syria - as part of a swap deal brokered by Russia. Sidqi al-Maqt, from the Druze community in the occupied Golan Heights, was jailed in 2015 for 11 years on charges of "treason and espionage, support for terrorism and contact with a hostile organisation". More: Israel says it intercepted...

Singapore - Did a missile, or even missiles, bring down Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 in a Tehran suburb earlier this week, killing all 176 people on board, a few hours after Iranian forces launched attacks against military bases hosting United States forces in Iraq? Western officials seem to be raising the possibility that a missile strike - whether intentional or not - did cause the tragedy. Iran has...

Kauda, Sudan - For nearly nine years, people in rebel-held Kauda in Sudan's South Kordofan state have been monitoring the skies for the planes coming from capital Khartoum. The residents in Kauda watched the movement of aircraft to warn others of either the government's surveillance or dropping of bombs in the conflict-ridden area. More: Sudan approves new law 'dismantling' Omar al-Bashir's regime Sudan's ex-president al-Bashir 'received $90m...