Middle East

Saudi-backed coalition intercepts drone targeting Abha airport in Yemen

Editorial Bureau February 13, 2021

DUBAI (UAE) – Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported on Saturday that the Riyadh-led coalition fighting in Yemen intercepted a drone carrying explosives launched by Iran-backed Houthis towards Abha airport. The report cited the spokesperson of the coalition.

Middle East

France, Germany, UK slam Iran’s decision of producing uranium metal

Ren Leen February 12, 2021

PARIS (FRANCE) – The ‘E3’ group of leading European powers – France, Germany and the United Kingdom – on Friday slammed Iran’s decision to produce uranium metal. They said it was breaching commitments made by Iran to the international community. The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog had said earlier this week that Iran had gone

Middle East

US envoy attends memorial service of slain activist in Hezbollah stronghold

Editorial Bureau February 11, 2021

BEIRUT (LEBANON) – In what is seen as a rare event, the US ambassador to Lebanon visited a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut on Thursday to take part in the memorial service for slain political researcher and activist Lokman Slim. He was shot dead and found in his car last Thursday in south Lebanon – the […]

Middle East

UAE’s Hope Probe makes its way into orbit in first Arab Mars mission

Editorial Bureau February 10, 2021

DUBAI (UAE) – The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars reached the red planet and entered orbit on Tuesday after a seven-month, 494 million-km (307 million-mile) journey, allowing it to start sending data about the Martian atmosphere and climate. The Mars programme is part of the UAE’s efforts to develop its scientific and technological […]

Middle East

Get a taste of real social distancing at Dubai’s RoboCafe

Editorial Bureau February 10, 2021

DUBAI (UAE) – Dubai residents who wish to get a taste of social distancing visit RoboCafe, where robots have replaced their human masters. German-manufactured robots take customers’ orders, prepare it and deliver it to their tables. “It’s a good idea, especially right now,” said Jamal Ali Hassan, an Emirati who had ordered a piping hot […]

Middle East

Rafah crossing opened with Gaza by Egypt until further notice- sources

Editorial Bureau February 9, 2021

CAIRO/GAZA (EGYPT) – Egypt on Tuesday opened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza strip until further notice, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said, a move described as an incentive for reconciliation between the main Palestinian factions, meeting in Cairo. Leaders of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, which controls the West Bank, and of

Middle East

Iran flags off inoculation drive, awaits more vaccine shipments

Editorial Bureau February 9, 2021

DUBAI (UAE) – The Iranian government initiated an inoculation drive against COVID-19 on Tuesday. At first, the focus will be on hospital intensive care personnel in the country which is the hardest hit in the Middle East. State television beamed footage of Health Minister Saeed Namaki’s son Parsa Namaki receiving the first dose of the […]

Middle East

After seven years, Yazidi survivor lays father slain by Islamic State, to burial

Editorial Bureau February 8, 2021

KOJO (IRAQ) – Thikran Kamiran Yousif was 15 when Islamic State fighters surrounded his village in northern Iraq, rounded up residents and slaughtered several hundred of them, including his father, brother, grandfather and aunt.     Nearly seven years later, Yousif has returned to the village of Kojo in Sinjar district for the reburial of his […]

Middle East

Anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel assumes the colour of pink

Editorial Bureau February 7, 2021

JERUSALEM (ISRAEL) – It’s Saturday night in Jerusalem and a group of protesters dressed in fluorescent pink are preparing to join a weekly demonstration outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official residence demanding he quit. They call themselves “The Pink Front”, and participate in anti-Netanyahu protests that are held across

Middle East

Turkey arrests four pending trial over university protests: prosecutor

Editorial Bureau February 7, 2021

ISTANBUL (TURKEY) – Four people were formally arrested as part of an investigation into protests against President Tayyip Erdogan’s appointment of a rector at one of the country’s top universities, an Istanbul prosecutor’s office said on Sunday. The protests began last month over Erdogan’s appointment of Melih Bulu, an academic and former