Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat in Damascus on Tuesday, state media reported, ending more than a decade of diplomatic deep-freeze between the two countries. “President Bashar al-Assad meets Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan,” Syria’s official news agency SANA reported. The Saudi prince arrived in Damascus on Tuesday afternoon on مزید پڑھیں

Israeli forces shot and wounded seven people in a raid on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said as the Israeli army confirmed an operation was underway. The ministry reported “six minor injuries from live fire” reached a governmental hospital in Jenin, while another person shot had been admitted to a مزید پڑھیں

The death toll in a fire that ripped through a hospital in China’s capital Beijing has risen to 29, a city official said Wednesday. The fire at the Beijing Changfeng Hospital in the Fengtai District broke out at around 1pm (5am GMT) on Tuesday and was extinguished about half an hour later. Li Zongrong, deputy مزید پڑھیں

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has accused the Pentagon of spying on his government following leaks in US media, and said he would begin classifying information from the armed forces to protect national security. His comments came on Tuesday, several days after the Washington Post reported on apparent tensions between Mexico’s Navy and the مزید پڑھیں

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are in the process of restoring diplomatic ties and reopening embassies, two officials said, more than two years after Arab states ended a boycott of Doha that had shattered the Western-allied Gulf Arab bloc. “At present, the activation of diplomatic ties, which will include the reopening of embassies, مزید پڑھیں

China’s foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks, state media Xinhua reported Tuesday. The separate phone calls between Foreign Minister Qin Gang and the Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats come amid recent moves by Beijing to position itself as a regional mediator. Qin encouraged “steps مزید پڑھیں

At least 185 people have been killed and a further 1,800 injured in three days of fighting between rival factions in Sudan, according to the United Nations special representative for Sudan, as the Group of Seven joined calls for an immediate to end to hostilities. “It’s a very fluid situation so it’s very difficult to مزید پڑھیں

Signalling a thaw in years of hostility with Saudi Arabia, Iran has sent an official invite to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Monday. “Iranian President (Ebrahim Raisi) has sent an invitation to the Saudi king in return for an invitation by Riyadh for him,” Nasser Kanaani said during مزید پڑھیں

Outspoken Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza was jailed for a quarter of a century by a Moscow court on Monday, the harshest sentence of its kind since Russia invaded Ukraine, after being found guilty of treason and other offences he denied. Kara-Murza, 41, a father of three and an opposition politician who holds Russian and British مزید پڑھیں

To mark the Buddhist New Year, the Myanmar military junta released more than 3,000 prisoners on Monday, according to a statement by the military government. The amnesty is a “celebration of Myanmar’s New Year to bring joy for the people and address humanitarian concerns,” Lieutenant General Aung Lin Dwe, a state secretary of the junta, مزید پڑھیں