AMMAN: A drone carrying crystal meth that was flying into Jordan from Syria on Sunday was shot down by the Jordanian military, Petra news agency reported.

The state agency said in a statement the drone was “taken control of and downed,” citing a source within the Jordanian armed forces.

The source added that the seized items were transferred to the “competent authorities.”

War-torn Syria has become a hub for a multi-billion-dollar drugs trade, with Jordan a main transit route for a Syrian-made amphetamine known as Captagon.

AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni teachers have gone on strike in Houthi-controlled areas as outrage grows over the militia’s failure to pay public employees.

In a rare public protest, teachers in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and other major cities skipped classes to pressure the Houthis to pay their salaries, which they have not received for seven years.

ABU DHABI: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani discussed bilateral relations and ways to expand them in a phone call on Saturday, the Emirates News Agency reported. 

The two leaders reviewed existing areas of cooperation between the UAE and Iraq as well as opportunities for further collaboration.

They also exchanged views on a number of regional and international developments and reaffirmed their mutual interest in promoting stability in the region.
 

DUBAI: The news that the threat of a massive oil spill in the Red Sea has receded with the transfer of more than a million barrels of oil from the FSO Safer, a dilapidated storage vessel lying off the coast of Yemen, has come as a huge relief for nearby countries, UN officials and environmentalists.

After months of on-site preparatory work, the $143 million operation got underway at the end of July, with the goal of defusing what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had described as “the world’s largest ticking time bomb.”

BEIRUT: The Lebanese army arrested 134 migrants near the northern border with Syria on Saturday after foiling their attempt to take a boat to Europe, it said in a statement.
The group of would-be migrants — made up of 130 Syrians and four Lebanese nationals — were taken into custody in the coastal town of Sheikh Zennad, in Akkar province, the army statement said.
The army said it also detained “the mastermind behind the operation” who was a Lebanese national.