TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament voted Sunday to fire the country’s industries minister over alleged mismanagement amid widespread dissatisfaction with the government.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said 162 of 272 lawmakers present voted in favor of dismissing Reza Fatemi Amin. The chamber has 290 seats. Fatemi Amin survived a previous impeachment in 2022. The decision came following discussion among lawmakers and government officials who questioned the minister.

CAIRO: Customs officers at Hurghada International Airport have thwarted an attempt to smuggle tramadol tablets into the country in breach of Egyptian anti-narcotics laws.

Fifteen strips of 100 ml pills were found among clothes in the luggage of a female passenger arriving from Slovakia. Her case has been referred for prosecution.

Separately, several bids were made to sneak jewelry and gold bars into Egypt through other airports.

MOSCOW: Saudi Arabia has evacuated several dozen Russian citizens from Sudan, it was announced on Sunday.

The press-attache of the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Jeddah, Ruslan Usmanov, confirmed the evacuation in an interview with state news agency TASS.

“Russians are not evacuating on their own, they are being taken out by Saudi Arabian warships,” the diplomat said. “They took over the issue, they are taken out of the port of Sudan, then they are brought to the port of Jeddah to the naval base, we meet them there,” he added.

ISTANBUL: Turkish defense firm Baykar aims to begin production of its new unmanned combat aerial vehicle or UCAV next year which is already attracting international interest, its chairman Selcuk Bayraktar said.
Baykar has come to prominence internationally in recent years because of the company’s light drone TB-2, which has been used in Ukraine, Azerbaijan and North Africa and has been a huge export success, catapulting the firm to becoming one of the largest Turkish defense exporters.

AL-MUKALLA: A second group of Yemenis rescued from Sudan arrived in Jeddah on a Saudi ship on Saturday, as hundreds of their compatriots stranded in the country pleaded for immediate evacuation.

Yemen’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that the second group was transported from Port Sudan to Jeddah on the Saudi-flagged passenger vessel Amanah.

The ministry gave no details on the number of evacuees, but added that many Yemenis traveled by road from Sudanese cities to Port Sudan on the Red Sea to await rescue.