SAO PAULO: At least eight people died after a hot-air balloon with an estimated 22 people crashed in Brazil’s southern state of Santa Catarina, the state governor Jorginho Mello said on Saturday morning in a post on X. — More to follow
ANKARA: At least 55,908 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023, the Health Ministry said on Saturday. Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported a ministry statement said that 202 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 48 hours, while 1,037 people were injured, taking the number of injuries to 131,138 in the…
BERLIN: Germany has temporarily relocated the staff of its embassy in Tehran abroad due to the current threat situation, a foreign ministry official said on Saturday. The embassy remains operational and can be contacted via phone by Germans who are still in Iran, the official said, adding it would continue to advise on possible options…
WASHINGTON: Hundreds of American citizens have departed Iran using land routes over the past week since an aerial war between the Islamic Republic and Israel broke out, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters on Friday. While many left without problem, “numerous” citizens had faced “delays and harassment” while trying to exit,…
ANKARA: The United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will open an office in Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, urging Muslim countries to give the agency more support after Israel banned it. Israel last year banned UNRWA, saying it had employed members of Palestinian militant group Hamas who took part in the October 2023…
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Ukraine’s Western partners to allocate 0.25% of their GDP to helping Kyiv ramp-up weapons production and said the country plans to sign agreements this summer to start exporting weapon production technologies. In remarks released for publication by his office on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukraine was in talks with…
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that France and its European partners would ramp up talks with Iran following more than a week of hostilities between the Islamic republic and Israel. On Friday, British, French, German and EU top diplomats held talks in Geneva with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi a week after…
MOSCOW: Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko met with U.S. special envoy Keith Kellogg, Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on Saturday. Lukashenko discussed with Kellogg the political situation in the world and the bilateral relations between Belarus and the United States, Belta reported. Earlier this week, sources in Washington told Reuters of Kellogg’s plan to visit…
CAIRO: Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors have expressed concerns to U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi about the safety of nuclear facilities close to their countries amid the Israeli-Iranian crisis, Qatar state news agency reported on Saturday. The ambassadors warned Grossi during a meeting in Vienna about the “dangerous repercussions” of targeting nuclear facilities. The warning…
SYRIA’S security forces have detained Wassim al-Assad, a cousin of toppled leader Bashar al-Assad, state news agency SANA said on Saturday. Wassim al-Assad was sanctioned by the United States in 2023 for leading a paramilitary force backing Assad’s army and for trafficking drugs including the amphetamine-like drug captagon. Bashar al-Assad was toppled by an Islamist-led…
