ALEXANDRIA, United States: An American woman who joined Daesh in Syria, leading an all-female military battalion, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a US court Tuesday.

Allison Fluke-Ekren, 42, who grew up on a farm in Kansas, was sentenced in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, after pleading guilty to providing material support to a terrorist organization.

AMMAN: The 21st edition of the Jordanian Economic Forum conference kicked off Tuesday under the theme “International Investment and Fintech,” the Jordan News Agency reported.

The forum is an economic platform that continuously monitors the major macroeconomic and microeconomic indicators that affect Jordan’s competitiveness and economic growth in a collaborative environment between the public and private sectors. 

KUWAIT: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has launched the first architectural design competition for Kuwaiti students to help create a refugee shelter in Bangladesh.

The competition has been launched with the College of Architecture at Kuwait University, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, and the Arab Engineering Consultants Office, the Kuwait News Agency reported.

Nisreen Rebeyan, UNHCR’s representative in Kuwait, said that the initiative is an opportunity to raise awareness of humanitarian needs.

RAMALLAH: Israeli security authorities oversaw a complete closure of West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings on the eve of parliamentary elections, fearing Palestinian armed attacks against Israeli targets during voting day, either inside Israel or in the West Bank.

All of the West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings with Israel will remain shut between midnight on Oct. 31 until midnight on Nov. 1 in view of Tuesday’s election.

More than 130,000 Palestinian workers will be unable to enter Israel, and the import and export of goods will be halted.

BEIRUT: A rights group accused Syrian regime forces on Monday of burning bodies inside pits in an effort to make the corpses unidentifiable — the latest in a slew of accusations of crimes by Damascus.

“This may reflect a broader practice of the Syrian regimes to destroy evidence of their crimes and deny the families of their victims their right to know the fates of their loved ones or receive their remains,” the Washington-based Syrian Center for Justice and Accountability said in a report.