BEIRUT: The Kurdish-led authorities in northeastern Syria on Friday called on the US-led coalition to make clear where it stands regarding Turkish drone strikes that have killed and wounded dozens of Syrian Kurdish fighters over the past months.
The appeal by the local authorities — known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria — came a day after a Turkish drone hit a car, killing four members of the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and wounding two.

MANAMA: Bahrain has recorded unprecedented electricity consumption, authorities said, as scorching summer temperatures and high humidity force increased reliance on energy-intensive air-conditioning systems.
Manama’s Electricity and Water Authority said Bahrain “recorded its highest-ever electricity consumption rate” on Thursday at 3,798 MW.
Beating last year’s record of 3,708 MW, the latest figure came as temperatures on Thursday reached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), compounded by 85-percent humidity.

PARIS: Turkiye has said it cannot host a major UN biodiversity meeting in 2024 as it reels from a series of devastating earthquakes this year, according to the UN body that oversees the talks.

The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity said the Turkish government had decided to withdraw from presiding over the COP16 meeting “due to a force majeure situation created by the three destructive earthquakes that occurred in February 2023.”

IRBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: Shortly after midnight on Aug. 3, 2014, heavily armed Daesh extremists swept into the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar in northwestern Iraq, rounding up the civilian population to slaughter them or take them into captivity.

Daesh deliberately targeted the Yazidi community, one of Iraq’s oldest ethnoreligious minorities, because it considered them apostates for their religious traditions. Nine years later, the survivors are still coming to terms with what happened.

RIYADH: The secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council stressed the importance of the strategic partnership between the bloc and the US in enhancing maritime security in the region and securing freedom of maritime navigation on Thursday.