Category: 2. Middle East

Manga Arabia, a subsidiary of the Saudi Research and Media Group (SRMG), has launched a selection of Korean webtoons in Arabic through its Manga Arabia Youth app—marking the first time the format has been officially offered in Arabic.

The project, announced on Tuesday, is a partnership with Korean publishers Kidari Studio and V-Bros and reflects Manga Arabia’s strategy to combat piracy and deliver licensed digital content to Arab audiences. Among the titles…

At least eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including an attack targeting a school sheltering displaced civilians north of the enclave, local media said, Anadolu Agency reports.

Israeli fighter jets hit the UN-run Al-Ayubia School in the Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza, leaving six people dead and several others injured, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported.

Two more people lost their lives…

Saudi Arabia can produce racing drivers capable of competing at the top, but the country must ensure karting is accessible to all, according to four-time Formula One world champion, Sebastian Vettel, Reuters reports.

The German told Reuters there had been positive steps since he started a ‘Race 4 Women’ grassroots event in Jeddah in 2021, when the country made its debut on the F1 calendar.

The Kingdom ended its ban on women driving in 2018 and the Grand Prix…

Russia, on Thursday, suspended its ban on the Taliban, which it had designated for more than two decades as a terrorist organisation, in a move that paves the way for Moscow to normalise ties with the leadership of Afghanistan, Reuters reports.

No country currently recognises the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021, as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But Russia has been gradually building…

Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, welcomed a Turkish invitation on Thursday to visit Ankara to attend a meeting of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council in May,  Anadolu Agency reports.

A statement by Al-Sudani’s office said the Premier met with Turkish Ambassador, Anil Bora Inan, who delivered an invitation from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to attend the meeting.

The Prime Minister said Iraq is keen “on maintaining the momentum of…

Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has reaffirmed that Israel will continue to block the entry of critical humanitarian supplies such as food, medicine, fuel and cooking oil into Gaza, despite mounting international criticism from medical aid groups.

“Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza,” Katz said in a statement yesterday. “And blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with…

Hamas accused Israel on Thursday of using starvation as a “weapon of war” after Defence Minister, Israel Katz, acknowledged that Tel Aviv was blocking food and aid into the enclave to pressure the Resistance group, Anadolu Agency reports.

On Wednesday, Katz said that Israel’s policy is to prevent the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza as “one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population.”

“Katz’s…

Clashes between Sudanese paramilitaries and the army have killed at least 57 civilians in the besieged Darfur city of El-Fasher, medical and activist sources said Thursday, with civilians fearing a looming bloodbath as fighters close in.

The local resistance committee, a grassroots aid group, said the civilians were killed on Wednesday in clashes following an artillery attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at war with the army since April 2023.

The violence came just days…

Already worn down by years of political turmoil and economic hardships, Libyans are now facing a sharp deterioration in their purchasing power after a sudden devaluation of the Libyan dinar.

Experts have said the national currency’s exchange rate decline came as a consequence of ballooning public expenditures by the country’s rival governments in recent years.

Libya has Africa’s most abundant hydrocarbon reserves, but it is struggling to recover from years of conflict after the 2011…