Arab World

Explosion on Board LNG Carrier Off Yemen, Fire Ongoing
Explosion on Board LNG Carrier Off Yemen, Fire Ongoing

A Cameroon-flagged LNG carrier issued a distress signal after an explosion on board off the coast of Yemen, British maritime security firm Ambrey and the EU naval mission Aspides said on Saturday. The incident occurred in the Gulf of Aden, about 60 nautical miles south of Ahwar on Yemen’s southern coast, according to Ambrey. The UK Maritime ...

Israel Returns 15 Palestinian Bodies to Gaza
Israel Returns 15 Palestinian Bodies to Gaza

Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Saturday, bringing the total number handed over to 135, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave said. Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned. Late on Friday, Hamas handed ...

Iran Says No Longer Bound by 'Restrictions' on Its Nuclear Program
Iran Says No Longer Bound by 'Restrictions' on Its Nuclear Program

Iran said on Saturday that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear program as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its "commitment to diplomacy." The 2015 deal, signed in Vienna by Iran, China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States, saw the lifting of international ...

China and US Agree to Fresh Trade Talks
China and US Agree to Fresh Trade Talks

China and the United States agreed Saturday to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world's two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 ...

Israel Identifies Dead Hostage Returned on Friday
Israel Identifies Dead Hostage Returned on Friday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday that the body of a deceased hostage Hamas returned overnight has been identified as 75-year-old Eliyahu Margalit. The Israeli military "informed the family of the abductee Eliyahu Margalit... that (the body of) their loved one has been returned to Israel and his identification ...

Valley of Christians: A Cradle of Faith in Syria
SpotlightValley of Christians: A Cradle of Faith in Syria

Scarred in September by several wildfires and a growing sense of insecurity, including a motorcycle shooting in early October that left three people dead, the Valley of Christians (Wadi al-Nasara) is now facing mounting threats. Located between the Mediterranean coast and the city of Homs, this rural region of Syria, known in Arabic as Wadi ...

Trump Suggests Too soon for Tomahawks in Talks with Zelensky 
Trump Suggests Too soon for Tomahawks in Talks with Zelensky 

US President Donald Trump suggested Friday it would be premature to give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying as he hosted Volodymyr Zelensky that he hoped to secure peace with Russia first. "Hopefully they won't need it. Hopefully we'll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks," Trump told journalists including an AFP ...

Trump Says Venezuela’s Maduro Offered ‘Everything’ To Ease Tensions
Trump Says Venezuela’s Maduro Offered ‘Everything’ To Ease Tensions

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro had offered major concessions to ease tensions with Washington and confirmed a new strike on a drug-smuggling vessel, which reportedly left survivors. Washington accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel and has deployed significant military assets -- including stealth ...

Hamas Says Committed to Gaza Truce and Returning Hostage Remains
Hamas Says Committed to Gaza Truce and Returning Hostage Remains

Hamas insisted it was committed to returning all the hostage remains still unaccounted for under Gaza's ruins, as a Turkish official said specialists dispatched to help find bodies were on Friday awaiting Israeli permission to enter. Responding to a call from Hamas for help locating the bodies of the 19 hostages, buried under the rubble alongside ...

Kabul Accuses Pakistan of Resuming Strikes on Afghan Soil
Kabul Accuses Pakistan of Resuming Strikes on Afghan Soil

Pakistan launched strikes on Afghan soil late Friday, breaking a ceasefire that had brought two days of calm to the border, a senior Taliban official told AFP, warning that Kabul would "retaliate." The 48-hour truce had paused nearly a week of bloody border clashes that killed dozens of troops and civilians on both sides. "Pakistan has broken ...

EU Eyes Helping Disarm Hamas Under Trump Plan
EU Eyes Helping Disarm Hamas Under Trump Plan

The EU is looking at providing funding and expertise to help disarm Hamas under US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, a document seen by AFP Friday said. The 27-nation bloc is discussing what role it can play after Europe was left on the sidelines as Trump sealed a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. The agreement has so far seen ...

Republicans Warn US Shutdown Could Force Layoffs of Nuke Workers
Republicans Warn US Shutdown Could Force Layoffs of Nuke Workers

The US government shutdown could force the layoffs of most of the employees handling the nation's nuclear weapons, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee warned Friday. "We were just informed last night (that) the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) -- the group that handles and manages our nuclear stockpile -- that the ...