HEBRON: The Palestinian Authority is increasingly concerned about the proliferation of smuggled weapons in the West Bank that is apparently fueling conflict between families and various groupings.

Israel’s arms dealers are seemingly contributing to this menace and the situation is becoming a new challenge to the authority, which is already grappling with a deep financial crisis.

There are fears that some Palestinian groups will use these arms to destabilize the authority and attempt to control the West Bank.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament has failed for a third time to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun, stoking fears of a political vacuum after his mandate expires on Oct. 31.

Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri called for another vote on Monday in the hope of quelling long-running disagreements among political factions in the country.

The adjournment on Thursday came after MPs of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, and the Free Patriotic Movement exited the assembly hall while the media was broadcasting live.

LONDON: Following a month of nationwide protests, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s notorious morality police, there is growing belief that the militant clerical regime, in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is living on borrowed time.

Amini’s death on Sept. 16 ignited a tinderbox of pent-up frustrations in Iran over falling living standards and discrimination against women and ethnic minorities, leading to the biggest wave of mass protests since the Green Movement of 2009.

MAALE ADUMIM, Palestinian Territories: A Palestinian on the run after perpetrating a deadly attack against Israeli forces was killed Wednesday in the occupied West Bank after he shot at Israelis on the edge of a settlement, officials said.
The alleged attacker, identified by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid as Udai Tamimi, had been sought by Israeli security forces since the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Israeli soldier earlier this month at a checkpoint at the entrance to the Shuafat refugee camp in east Jerusalem.

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s army said on Wednesday a rebel group that has refused to sign a key peace deal had shelled a town in the southern state of West Kordofan, wounding two officers.

The reported artillery strikes in Lagawa, some 580 km southwest of the capital Khartoum, come after ethnic clashes last week in a land dispute near the town left several people dead.

“Forces belonging to the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North launched indiscriminate shellings,” the armed forces said in a statement.