Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has walked back on a decision to end a key military deal with the United States, his defence secretary said yesterday during a visit by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin.

Saudi Arabia will reopen its borders to tourists on Sunday for the first time in 18 months after imposing restrictions at the start of the pandemic to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Three people were found dead as a forest fire burned for a second day in southern Turkey yesterday, the country’s AFAD disaster agency and the agriculture minister said. 

Two rockets were fired early yesterday at Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone which houses the US embassy, without causing any casualties or damage, an Iraqi security source told AFP.

Israeli troops shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was riding in a car with his father in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said.

Nearly a year after the huge explosion that ripped through the port of Beirut in last August, a spokesperson for families of more than 200 people who died in the disaster is still trying to call to account those he says are responsible for allowing the accident to happen.

At least two rockets hit Baghdad's fortified Green Zone early on Thursday but caused no casualties, Iraqi security sources said.

Israeli troops shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who was riding in a car with his father in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Palestinian officials said.

A Saudi court handed a Sudanese journalist a four-year prison sentence on June 8 for social media posts critical of the kingdom, the group Human Rights Watch reported.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday said that the outgoing government’s experience of engaging with world powers including the United States shows that “trusting the West does not work”.

Lebanon’s new prime minister-designate Najib Mikati was due to start consultations with leading political parties yesterday with a view to forming a long-awaited government. 

At least 57 people drowned on Monday after a boat capsized off the Libyan coast near Khums, the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean where nearly 1,000 have perished this year, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.  

Saudi Arabia will impose a three-year travel ban on citizens travelling to countries on the kingdom's 'red list' under efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus and its new variants, state news agency SPA said on Tuesday.

A number of people demonstrated in the centre of the Iranian capital Tehran yesterday against power cuts, the state television website reported, with some demonstrators chanting “political” slogans.

Lebanese lawmakers yesterday tasked ex-premier and billionaire Najib Mikati with forming a government and ending one year of political deadlock that has crippled the economy.

Israel hit Gaza with air strikes late Sunday after incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian enclave caused fires in the Jewish state, with no reported injuries on either side.

Saudi Arabia today announced worldwide resumption of Umrah for pilgrims from 1st Muharram 1443, likely to fall on August 10 following a successful Hajj season.

Israeli carriers yesterday launched the first direct commercial flights between the Jewish state and Morocco since the countries normalised diplomatic relations in a US-brokered deal last year. 

Saudi Arabia’s Hima, a mountainous area that is home to a large collection of rock art images dating back thousands of years, has been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, the agency announced on Saturday.

A drone attack has been carried out on a military base in Iraqi Kurdistan that hosts American troops, without causing any casualties, the US-led coalition said yesterday.