Middle East

Dubai, May 30: The suspension of carriage of passengers on India-UAE flights has been extended, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) has announced. This came as India's official count of Covid-19 cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. The suspension of entry for travellers from

Riyadh, May 24: By royal order, Saudi Arabia has extended the visas and iqamas (residence permits) of all those who have been stranded abroad amid travel restrictions. The validity of these documents will be extended until June 2, 2021, the Saudi Press Agency reported citing a royal order. “The extension issued by the Minister of Finance, falls within the ongoing efforts taken by the government of

Al Fujairah, May 24: A couple of minor earthquakes were felt in UAE’s Fujairah early Monday morning, according to the National Seismic Network of the National Centre of Meteorology. A statement issued by NCM on social media said: '3.1 magnitude earthquake on Richter scale is recorded in Dibba Al Fujairah on May 24 at at 4:54am' The quake occurred at a depth at 5km, the statement added. A second

Dhaka/Jerusalem, May 24: Bangladesh on Sunday made it clear that it has dropped the phrase "all countries except Israel" from passport to maintain international standards of the document and there was no change in its decades-long policy of travel ban to the Jewish state. Bangladeshi passports earlier had a clause written on them that said "This Passport is valid for all countries of the world

Tel Aviv, May 21: Scores of Palestinians were injured when the Israeli occupation forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque squares wherein thousands of people had gathered after Juma prayers today. The storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli police was unexpected and reflects how fragile the ceasefire can be, said an observer. “The Israeli police says that some of the youth that were at the

Tel Aviv, May 21: A ceasefire came into force in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Friday morning after Egypt brokered an agreement between Israel and Hamas to halt 11 days of conflict. A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the security cabinet had “unanimously accepted the recommendations to accept an Egyptian initiative for an unconditional … ceasefire.”

Paris, May 20: Profits from Covid-19 jabs have helped at least nine people become billionaires, a campaign group said Thursday, calling for an end to pharmaceutical corporations' "monopoly control" on vaccine technology. "Between them, the nine new billionaires have a combined net wealth of $19.3 billion (15.8 billion euros), enough to fully vaccinate all people in low-income countries 1.3 times,"

Tel Aviv, May 20: Israeli fighter jets continued to pound the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding several more as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defied calls for a de-escalation. At least 227 Palestinians, including 64 children, have been killed in 11 days of violence. On the Israeli side, 12 people have been killed. Joe Biden, the president of the United

Tel Aviv, May 19: Israel bombarded Gaza with airstrikes and Palestinian militants kept up cross-border rocket fire, with no firm sign on Wednesday of any imminent ceasefire despite international calls to end more than a week of fighting. Israeli leaders said they were pressing on with an offensive against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but an Israeli military spokesman acknowledged that with an

Tehran, May 18: In a letter to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, a senior Hamas leader says Israel’s continued acts of aggression against the Palestinian people and their sanctities necessitated a firm response from the resistance movement in Gaza, calling on for joint global efforts to end the regime’s atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied