ANKARA (AA) – Iran has summoned the French charge d’affaires in Tehran over Paris’ hardline and offensive stance on ongoing protests over the death of an Iranian woman in police custody. A Foreign Ministry statement said the envoy was summoned in the absence of the French ambassador, whose term ended, to protest French statements regardi...
ANKARA (AA) – Meeting in the capital Beirut, Lebanon’s parliament has failed to elect a new president, threatening to deepen the country’s continuing crises. Candidate Michel Mouawad, backed by the Lebanese Forces Party, failed to get the necessary votes to win the post, and pushed to hold another voting session, according to local media. Curr...
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AA) – The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Wednesday that one of its soldiers was wounded when the Armenian military opened fire on Azerbaijani positions in the western Kalbajar border region. It said in a statement that Azerbaijan’s military positions in the direction of the southwestern part of the Kalbajar pro...
BAGHDAD (AA) – Scores were injured Wednesday in clashes between Iraqi security forces and protesters in the capital Baghdad, according to local authorities. In a statement, the Cabinet’s Security Media Cell said 122 soldiers and 11 protesters were hurt in the violence. The statement called on all Iraqis “to abide by the directives of the...
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Senator Ishaq Dar took oath as Pakistan’s finance minister on Wednesday to fix the country’s struggling economy. President Arif Alvi administered the oath to the new finance minister at the President’s Office in the capital Islamabad, state-run Pakistan Television reported. Dar, who returned from Lond...
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (AFP): With the cost of living surging, free hot bread distribution for the poor has been introduced in Dubai, a rich Gulf emirate where Arab millionaires rub shoulders with impoverished hard-working migrants. The city of skyscrapers soaring above the desert, which imports almost all of its food, has been impacted b...
Tadif, Syria (AFP): In a frontline town divided by regime and rebel forces in northwest Syria, students have returned to classrooms in a bombed-out building with no glass in the windows, no doors, desks, chairs or electricity. Girls carrying pink backpacks play alongside boys with blue ones in the courtyard of their school in Tadif, […]
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Palestinians staged a rally in Gaza City on Wednesday to protest Israeli settler intrusions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem. “We reject all Israeli raids and measures in Al-Aqsa Mosque,” Ahmad Hamad, a spokesman of Hamas’ student wing, which organized the rally, told Anadolu Agency. Tensio...
TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – The daughter of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been arrested for allegedly “inciting riots” in the wake of the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody. A report by the semi-official Tasnim news agency said Faezeh Hashemi was arrested by a security agency for “instigating...
ISTANBUL (AA) – Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has issued a royal decree appointing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as prime minister as part of a cabinet reshuffle. The decree published by the official Saudi Press Agency said that cabinet meetings will continue to be chaired by the king. Khalid bin Salman was appointed defense minister, [&...
