DUBAI: Seif Al-Adel, a former Egyptian special forces officer and a high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda with a $10 million US bounty on his head, is now the “uncontested” leader of the militant group, according to a new UN report on the organization.

Al-Qaeda has not formally named a successor for Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who was believed to have been killed in a US missile strike in Kabul last year, dealing a blow to the organization since its founder Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011.

QAMISHLI, SYRIA: More than a week after twin earthquakes devastated parts of southeastern Turkiye and northwestern Syria, the death toll continues to rise by the hour. As of Tuesday, the total reported dead in the two countries stood at over 41,000, with tens of thousands more people injured.

Although the number of confirmed fatalities is lower in Syria — about 5,814 compared with 35,418 in Turkiye — more than a decade of civil war has left the country wholly unprepared to cope with a disaster of this magnitude.

WASHINGTON: The US government is providing vital assistance to earthquake victims in Turkiye and Syria, according to Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, the commander of US Transportation Command.

Speaking during a press briefing about her recent visit to the Gulf region, she said the US military and the US Agency for International Development have sent search and rescue teams and specially trained rescue dogs to assist with the humanitarian response to the disaster.

 DAMASCUS/ANKARA: No one knows what has become of the two boys whose photos are tied to a tree close to the block of flats where they lived in the earthquake-hit Turkish city of Kahramanmaras.

In one, a baby boy in an orange babygro smiles out from a turquoise armchair, in the other an older boy climbs into a swimming pool, looking proudly into the camera.

GAZA: Valentine’s Day is considered un-Islamic by many of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and business was slower than usual on Tuesday at those shops selling red roses, fluffy hearts and teddy bears.

Wasim Abdu, owner of the Safeer El-Hub (Ambassador of Love) flower shop in Gaza City, said sporadic clashes with Israeli troops and the devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria had cast a shadow over celebrations.