• 

  Turkey to start using China’s COVID-19 vaccine after strong results

  Agence France-Presse . Istanbul | Updated at 10:25am on December 25, 2020

  Turkey will receive its first shipment of China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine within days as preliminary domestic tests showed it was 91 per cent effective, health...

• 

  Syria intercepts Israeli strike: state media

  Agence France-Presse . Damascus | Updated at 10:21am on December 25, 2020

  Syrian air defences on Friday intercepted missiles fired by Israel on the western province of Hama, state news agency SANA said. ‘Our air defences intercepted...

• 

  Israel heads to polls again

  Agence France-Presse . Jerusalem | Updated at 11:11pm on December 23, 2020

  Israel faces new political turmoil and a fourth election in less than two years after veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fractured ruling coalition failed to...

• 

  Dubai launches COVID-19 vaccination with Pfizer

  Agence France-Presse  . Dubai | Updated at 07:56pm on December 23, 2020

  Dubai launched its COVID-19 vaccination programme Wednesday with a senior citizen and a nurse among the first to be inoculated using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the...

• 

  Turkey reports major gold discovery

  Agence France-Presse .Istanbul | Updated at 10:48am on December 23, 2020

  Turkey has discovered a major gold deposit holding an estimated 3.5 million ounces of the precious metal valued at around $6 billion, the Anadolu state...

• 

  Rockets explode near US embassy in Iraq

  Agence France-Presse . Baghdad | Updated at 10:22pm on December 21, 2020

  A volley of rockets exploded near the US embassy in Baghdad Sunday, as tensions mount ahead of the anniversary of the US killing top Iranian...

• 

  Saudi Arabia halts all international flights over virus variant

  Agence France-Presse .Riyadh | Updated at 11:04am on December 21, 2020

  Saudi Arabia on Sunday halted international flights and suspended entry through its land and sea ports for at least a week, after a new fast-spreading...

• 

  US to react if Iran seeks to avenge

  Agence France-Presse . Washington | Updated at 10:56am on December 21, 2020

  Washington is ‘prepared to react’ if Tehran launches an attack to mark the first anniversary of the killing of powerful Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, the...

• 

  Saudi Arabia, Russia express unity ahead of OPEC+ summit

  Agence France-Presse .Riyadh | Updated at 10:22am on December 20, 2020

  Saudi Arabia and Russia on Saturday said that they backed each other ahead of a key OPEC+ oil summit, following a tumultuous year of differences...

• 

  Iran expects US to resume commitments under nuclear deal

  Agence France-Presse . Tehran | Updated at 11:27pm on December 17, 2020

  Iranian president Hassan Rouhani on Thursday voiced confidence that president-elect Joe Biden will resume US commitments under the nuclear deal which Donald Trump pulled out...