Muscat, Oman (AFP): Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visited Oman on Monday, his first official trip to the Gulf country in more than a decade of civil war at home, the Omani foreign ministry said. The one-day trip to meet with Sultan Haitham bin Tareq came two weeks after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey and […]
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Palestinian groups have hailed the expulsion of an Israeli official from the African Union (AU) summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. “The expulsion is consistent with the AU support for our people and their legitimate rights,” the Fatah movement said in a statement. The group, led by Palestinian President [&...
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – Several international human rights organizations have expressed concern about the World Food Program’s (WFP) plan to reduce food aid to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The world food assistance provider under the United Nations this week declared that it would cut food rations to Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar...
Al-Hammam Crossing , Syria (AFP): Doctors Without Borders called Sunday for the “urgent scaling up” of earthquake aid to northwest Syria as it delivered a convoy laden with emergency assistance. Aid has been slow to reach Syria’s rebel-held areas since the February 6 quake killed a combined total of more than 44,000 people ac...
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) – Afghanistan’s interim government has decided to convert the bases of the US-led foreign forces across the country into special economic zones. The decision was taken during a meeting of the country’s Economic Commission with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, the deputy premier for economic affairs, in th...
ATHENS (AA) – Eighteen migrants — young men of Afghan nationality, with the exception of one boy — were found dead in a truck near the Bulgarian capital Sofia on Friday, local media reported. The victims apparently suffocated in the truck, reported state-run news agency BTA. It added that 34 survivors, also Afghans, were found [&he...
Istanbul, Turkiye (AFP): The death toll from the earthquake that has devastated parts of Turkiye and Syria has exceeded 41,000 as the United Nations appealed for $1 billion to address a growing humanitarian crisis. Eleven days after the quake — now one of the 10 deadliest in the past 100 years — Turkish rescuers pulled […]
Banda Aceh, Indonesia (AFP): At least 69 Rohingya refugees, many of them women and children, landed on Indonesia’s west coast Thursday in a wooden boat, an official with the United Nations refugee agency said. The vessel came ashore at a beach in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh, according to UNHCR official Oktina Hafanti, ...
Damascus, Syria (AFP): Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has thanked his “Arab brothers” for aid supplied following last week’s deadly earthquake, that saw countries in the region break with years of diplomatic silence. The 7.8-magnitude quake hit Turkiye and Syria on February 6, leaving a combined death toll of nearly 40,000 ...
ISTANBUL (AA) – The UAE has dispatched 60 planes loaded with medical and food supplies so far to help those affected by earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria. The relief was part of The Gallant Knight 2 Operation launched since the devastating earthquakes jolted both countries on February 6. According to the agency: “The United Arab […]
