Lebanon and Israel have agreed to a framework for US-mediated talks aimed at ending a long-running dispute over a border that has been the frontline of several conflicts.

Kuwait’s new emir was sworn in at parliament yesterday as the country prepared to lay to rest late ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who helped steer the US-allied Gulf state through some of the Middle East’s most turbulent decades.

Saudi Arabia plans to cut spending by 7.5% in next year’s budget to 990 billion riyals ($263.94 billion) but expects the economy to return to growth as its management of the coronavirus crisis improves.

Staffers of the sample collection centre at the Dhaka North City Corporation market delivered a Covid-19 test report within just nine hours of sample collection of a Saudi-bound expatriate Bangladeshi worker.

Bangladesh has requested the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to increase flights between the two countries so that the expatriates stranded here can return to their workplaces smoothly.

The bodies of two Palestinian fishermen who Palestinian officials say were shot dead by Egyptian naval forces were returned to Gaza, the territory’s ruling Islamist group Hamas has said.

Biman and US-Bangla Airlines today decided to resume their flights to Muscat, Oman from October 2 and 1 respectively.

Thirty-two Bangladeshi expatriate workers have not been allowed by the immigration authority to go to Saudi Arabia as they got tested for Covid-19 at private hospitals instead of the government approved test centre at Dhaka’s Mohakhali.

A group of Saudi dissidents exiled in Britain, the US and elsewhere announced the launch of an opposition party on Wednesday, the first organised political resistance under King Salman’s rule.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz yesterday called for a comprehensive solution on Iran and disarming its affiliate Hezbollah in Lebanon, and expressed support for US efforts to start talks between Israel and the Palestinians during his first address to the United Nations General Assembly.

Bangladesh has requested the Saudi government to extend the tenure of ‘Iqama’ (valid work permit) and visa of Bangladeshi expatriates for three more months so that workers stuck here can return to the Gulf country.

Bahrain’s move to establish ties with Israel was not directed against any entity or power but aimed to bring about a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has said.

Kulsum died on August 9 this year while undergoing treatment at the King Faisal Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Her lifeless body arrived in the country on September 12. The family claimed that her employer and his son had beaten Kulsum, breaking her legs and arms, as well as injuring her waist. Her eye was also damaged. Merciless as they were, she was left on the street in this miserable condition. Later, Saudi police rescued her and took her to the hospital where she died in a few months.

Lebanon’s army has said it found 1.3 tonnes of fireworks during a search of Beirut port, which was devastated last month in a huge blast that was blamed on a large quantity of chemicals kept in poor condition.

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has said that five more countries are seriously considering striking a normalisation deal with Israel after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed accords.

A Kuwait court has rejected Laxmipur-2 lawmaker Shahid Islam Papul’s plea for release and decided to postpone the trial of the accused in the case until October 1 after the hearing of a case accusing him of human trafficking, money laundering, bribing and threatening the state security.

Two Palestinian travel bloggers are promoting local Palestinian tourism in the West Bank as an act of defiance against Israeli occupation.

Dubai’s DP World says it is partnering with an Israeli group to bid for one of Israel’s two main ports and to examine opening a direct shipping line between the two Middle East states.

Militants in Gaza launched rockets into Israel and Israeli aircraft hit targets in the Palestinian enclave in an explosive backdrop to the signing of pacts for formal ties between Israel and two Gulf Arab countries.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas says only an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories can bring peace to the Middle East, as the UAE and Bahrain signed normalisation accords with the Jewish state.