RAMALLAH: A far-right extremist government minister has taken over the administration of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, raising fears of a green light for a raft of illegal new outposts.

Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism party and a notorious religious bigot, now has enforcement powers over illegal construction, and authority over planning and construction for settlements and land allocation.

WASHINGTON: For two decades, the entire world was under threat from an insidious group, which at its peak claimed the lives of thousands through a series of bombings and attacks, including the events of Sept. 11, 2001, which to this day remains the deadliest terror attack in history.

Al-Qaeda, once among the top terror threats in the world, has largely faded from relevance in recent years, with the last attack for which it claimed responsibility being a 2019 shooting at a naval air station in Florida that killed three and injured eight.

BUDAPEST: Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that more talks between parliamentary groups were needed before lawmakers vote on the ratification of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids which they will begin debating next Wednesday.
Speaking on public radio, Orban said he had asked lawmakers of his nationalist Fidesz party to support their bid, adding however that some deputies were “not very enthusiastic” about the expansion and sought further discussions on the matter.

ANKARA: Turkiye has issued rebuilding regulations for a region devastated by earthquakes this month to enable companies or charities to help in the urgent task of building new homes for the millions who need rehousing after the devastating tremors.
More than 160,000 buildings, containing 520,000 apartments, collapsed or were severely damaged in Turkiye in the earthquakes.
The Turkish death toll from the tremors now stands at more than 43,500 people, while the toll in neighboring Syria, a nation already shattered by war, is close to 6,000.

BRUSSELS: The EU has condemned a death penalty imposed by an Iranian court on an Iranian German dual national and expressed concern about the increasing number of EU citizens in Iran’s jails.

Tehran’s Revolutionary Court convicted Jamshid Sharmahd, 67, on Tuesday on charges of playing a role in a deadly 2008 mosque bombing.

His family says he was kidnapped by the Iranian security services while in transit in Dubai and then taken to Iran for a show trial.