Tag Archives: Middle East

NEW YORK (AP) — Three dozen leaders at news organizations around the world have signed a letter expressing solidarity with journalists in Gaza, calling for their safety and freedom to report in the war zone. The letter, released Thursday, was spearheaded by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which said at least 89 journalists and media workers have been killed in …

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. special envoy for Syria issued formal invitations to the Syrian government and opposition groups on Tuesday to meet in Geneva in late April to resume negotiations on revising the country’s constitution, despite opposition from Damascus’ key ally Russia. Moscow insists the Swiss city is not a neutral venue because Switzeland’s government supports Ukraine. Geir …

PARIS (AP) — The emir of Qatar spoke Tuesday of “a race against time” to secure hostage releases as part of the diplomatic push for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in which his country is playing a key role. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was speaking on a state visit to France, at a dinner in …

VIENNA (AP) — Iran has further increased its total stockpile of uranium, according to a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog seen by The Associated Press on Monday, and it continues to bar the agency’s most seasoned inspectors from monitoring its nuclear program, The International Atomic Energy Agency also said in a second confidential report, distributed to member states, that …

CAIRO (AP) — A ferry carrying day laborers sank in the Nile just outside the Egyptian capital, killing at least 10 of the 15 people on board, authorities said Monday. The five who survived were transported to a hospital and later discharged, the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement. The cause of the sinking was not made immediately clear. …

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s foreign minister said Monday that Brazil’s president would not be welcome in Israel until he apologizes for comments he made comparing Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust, accusing him of a “very serious antisemitic attack.” On Sunday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels that damaged a Belize-flagged ship traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden has forced the crew to abandon the vessel, authorities said Monday. Another ship reportedly came twice under attack in the Gulf of Aden. The Iran-backed Houthis …

MUNICH (AP) — A Republican opponent of new U.S. funding for Ukraine argued at an international security conference Sunday that the package stuck in Congress wouldn’t “fundamentally change the reality” on the ground and that Russia has an incentive to negotiate peace. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and others have advocated passage of the $60 billion …

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait’s emir on Thursday dissolved parliament after a lawmaker reportedly insulted the ruler, the latest dissolution to strike the oil-rich nation’s legislature amid years of political gridlock. The state-run KUNA news agency announced the decree from the country’s ruling emir, Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmad Al Jaber. It blamed “offensive and uncontrolled” utterances by lawmakers …

Israeli airstrikes hit the central Gaza Strip and the southern city of Rafah on the border with Egypt overnight into Friday, killing nearly two dozen people including women and children, witnesses and hospital officials said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday he has ordered the military to draw up plans to evacuate the population of Rafah before an expected …