Authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have executed at least 100 people in 2023, according to human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Four 1,900-year-old swords, complete with wooden and leather scabbards, have been discovered in a remote cave in an Israeli desert, leading archaeologists to believe they were the booty of Jews who rose up against Roman rule.

Iranian authorities yesterday arrested an uncle of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody sparking months of protests, just ahead of the first anniversary of her death, reports said yesterday.

Two female Iranian journalists will spend around a month behind bars as part of a three-year partly suspended prison sentence for “conspiracy” and “collusion”, local media reported yesterday.

More than 100 people were injured in violent clashes in Tel Aviv between Eritrean government supporters celebrating an Eritrea Day event and opponents of President Isaias Afwerki.

Iraq’s prime minister yesterday inaugurated construction work on what is slated to become the first railway line connecting the country to neighbouring Iran, a major political and economic partner.

An almost three millennia-old network of hewn-rock ducts unearthed in Jerusalem has baffled archaeologists, given the lack of comparable biblical finds, or obvious links to an ancient Jewish temple and palace that once stood nearby.

Nine Syrian soldiers and three jihadist fighters were killed yesterday, a war monitor said, in the second significant rebel attack on government positions in northwest Syria in a week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday thanked authorities in Saudi Arabia -- with which his country has no formal ties -- for their “warm attitude” following an emergency aircraft landing in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia has sentenced to death a government critic who denounced alleged corruption and human rights abuses on social media, his brother and others familiar with the case told AFP yesterday.

Authorities in Iran have begun legal proceedings against a prominent pop singer over his latest song urging women to take off their mandatory headscarves, the judiciary said yesterday.

The UAE's Ministry of Economy hasimposed administrative penalties on 225 companies with value of about 76.9 million dirhams (Tk 229.57 crore) this year to combat money laundering and terror financing, reports the UAE-based Khaleej Times

Iran yesterday unveiled its latest domestically built drone that can fly at a higher altitude and for a longer duration with enhanced weapons capabilities, state media reported.

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian teenager near the West Bank city of Jenin yesterday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as violence surged in the occupied territory.

Saudi border guards fired “like rain” on Ethiopian migrants trying to cross through Yemen into the Gulf kingdom, killing hundreds since last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report yesterday.

More than four million Yemenis will receive less food assistance as a result of funding shortages, compounding one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the UN’s food agency warned yesterday.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian preached unity and dialogue during a visit to Saudi Arabia yesterday, his first since the two Middle East rivals announced a surprise rapprochement in March.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian gunman during a raid that set off clashes in the flashpoint town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, medical officials and militant groups said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has decreed a 100-percent pay rise for civil servants and pensioners while fuel subsidies were lifted in a country ravaged by 12 years of war.

Islamic State jihadists killed three fighters loyal to the Damascus government in an attack in the Syrian desert yesterday, a war monitor said, the latest such deadly assault.