DUBAI: A UN food agency staff member has been killed in an attack in Taiz province in southern Yemen, the organization and the health minister of the internationally recognized government said Friday.
Health minister Qasem Buhaibeh had tweeted his condolences to the World Food Programme staffer’s family, calling for security forces to “arrest the criminals” responsible for the killing.
A WFP spokesperson later confirmed the death to AFP, saying: “WFP is deeply saddened that a dedicated staff member was killed in Yemen today by unknown gunmen.

ANKARA: Ties between Ankara and Riyadh are improving as the bilateral relationship continues to warm following the signing of a significant defense export deal, analysts say.

During his official tour of the Gulf this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed a number of agreements with Saudi Arabia late on Monday, which many experts viewed as sending a signal about the future of defense cooperation between the two countries.

AMMAN: Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s minister of foreign affairs, and Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, met on Thursday to discuss the funding crisis the agency is facing.

They reviewed targeted strategies to ensure the necessary regional and international financial support for the agency and plug the gap in its finances so that it can continue to provide vital assistance to more than 5.7 million Palestinian refugees in the five areas in which it operates, the Jordan News Agency reported.

BRUSSELS: The EU said on Thursday it had established a “new framework for restrictive measures” in view of Iran’s military support of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and of Syria’s regime.

This new framework prohibits the export from the EU to Iran of components used in the construction and production of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs, the EU said in a statement.

WAD MADANI, Sudan: Air strikes, street battles and artillery fire shook Sudan’s capital Khartoum and the major southern city of El-Obeid on Thursday, witnesses said.

“Artillery fire targeted paramilitary bases of the Rapid Support Forces,” said a resident of El-Obeid, 350 km southwest of Khartoum.

Fighting between the RSF and the regular army, led by feuding generals, has killed at least 3,000 people and displaced more than 3.3 million since April 15.