ISTANBUL (AA) – A wildfire in a forest in eastern Afghanistan continued to rage for a fourth day on Wednesday as officials said strong winds were hindering operations. The fire erupted in Sham Dara forest in Nurgram district of Nuristan province over the weekend, according to the state-run Bakhtar News Agency. Attempts by the provincial [&hell...
ANKARA (AA) – For the first time in the country’s history, Australia’s Cabinet will feature two Muslim members, local media reported. Anne Aly and Ed Husic, both Muslim members of parliament, were sworn into the Cabinet on Wednesday, SBS News reported. Husic will be minister for industry and science while Aly will serve as minister […]...
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA) – A UN official said Tuesday that the situation in Somalia is extremely dire as 7.1 million people are going to be affected by drought before the end of the year unless there is a massive humanitarian effort. Some 6.1 million Somalis have been affected by the drought emergency as of May, […]
KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Seven African countries have cumulatively reported nearly 1,400 monkeypox cases so far this year, with 1,392 suspected and 44 confirmed cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday as the number of infections worldwide continues to climb following the latest outbreak. The cases have been reported in Cameroon, C...
Fnideq, Morocco – (AFP): Spain opened the borders of its North African enclaves Ceuta and Melilla to Moroccan workers on Tuesday, two years after their closure and following the resolution of a drawn-out diplomatic crisis. The European Union’s only borders on African soil had been shuttered in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus ...
Dubai, United Arab Emirates – (AFP): Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalization of diplomatic relations in 2020. Two-way trade between Israel and the UAE last year totaled some $900 million dollars, according to Israeli figures. UAE...
Tehran, Iran – (AFP): Iran said Tuesday a report by the UN nuclear watchdog on undeclared nuclear material found at three sites was “not fair”. The latest report came as talks to revive a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers remain deadlocked after stalling in March. In it, the IAEA said it […]
WASHINGTON (AA) – The State Department denied Tuesday that it has halted plans to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem, which had served as the US’ de facto Embassy to the Palestinians until it was shuttered by former President Donald Trump. The Times of Israel recently reported that the Biden administration is freezing plans to reope...
ISTANBUL (AA) – Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended a dinner reception in his honor Tuesday hosted by the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkey (TOBB) in the Turkish capital Ankara. Sharif arrived in Türkey on a three-day official visit on Tuesday. M. Rifat Hisarciklioglu, the head of the TOBB, welcomed Sharif and [&...
BEIRUT – Veteran politician Nabih Berri has been re-elected Lebanon’s parliament speaker for the seventh time in a row, holding onto his record as the longest-serving head of a legislative assembly in the Arab world. Berri has maintained the position thanks to the 1989 Taif Agreement, which established a power-sharing deal among the country’s ...