International

Saudi authorities have allowed conducting marriage contracts at Islam’s two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina as part of initiatives launched to enrich the experiences of pilgrims and visitors, according to a Saudi newspaper. The initiative was unveiled by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah allowing the well-organised conducting of nuptial contracts with comfort and ease at the Grand Mosque ...

Judge Donoghue says the court has decided that Israel must “take all measures within its its power” to prevent all acts within the scope of the genocide convention. She says it must ensure “with immediate effect” that its forces do not commit any of the acts covered by the convention, reports The Guardian. It must also take immediate measures to ...

Heavy Israeli bombardment of Gaza overnight killed at least 125 people, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said Wednesday, against the backdrop of talks in Cairo aimed at reaching a truce. As the fighting raged, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said Israeli forces had issued fresh evacuation orders for a section of Khan Yunis housing an estimated half a ...

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Sunday at least 25,105 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the war with Israel broke out on October 7. A ministry statement said some 62,681 people were also wounded in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, reports AFP.

Donald Trump swept to victory Monday in Iowa’s caucuses — the first vote in the US presidential race — cementing his status as the presumptive Republican standard-bearer to challenge President Joe Biden in November’s election. The former president has led polling for more than a year, but the Iowa contest was seen as the clearest insight yet into whether he ...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that no one would stop Israel from achieving victory in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “No one will stop us — not The Hague, not the Axis of Evil and no one else. It is possible and necessary to continue until victory and we will do it,” Netanyahu told a ...

American and British air strikes on targets in rebel-held Yemen killed five people and wounded six, the Iran-backed Huthi forces said on Friday. “The raids led to the death of five martyrs and the injury of six others from our armed forces,” Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X.

Bhutanese voters have elected Tshering Tobgay to become prime minister for a second time after his party won nearly two-thirds of seats, the election commission said in results released Wednesday. Tobgay, head of the liberal People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who served as prime minister of the Himalayan kingdom from 2013 to 2018, won 30 of 47 seats in Tuesday’s election, ...

A New Jersey imam has died after being shot outside a Newark mosque on Wednesday, and authorities have yet to identify a suspect or motive for the attack, local prosecutors said. There is no indication that the shooting was a bias-motivated crime or an act of domestic terrorism based on the evidence collected so far in the investigation, New Jersey ...

Fireworks illuminated skies over Paris, Rio and Sydney to celebrate the entry to 2024, while in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine, rockets and strikes marked the year’s earliest hours. Much of the world’s population — now more than eight billion — is hoping to shake off high living costs and global tumult in 2024, which will bring elections concerning half the ...