RAMALLAH: Shops, offices, and schools closed across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on Thursday as Palestinians went on strike in protest at blockades and the killing of a man who killed a female Israeli soldier in a checkpoint attack.

Uday Al-Tamimi, 22, was shot dead by security guards from the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, which is built on Palestinian lands east of the towns of Abu Dis and Al-Azariya.

ANKARA: Turkey and Saudi Arabia are gearing up to further their ongoing normalization of relations with the latest talks between the members of inter-parliamentary friendship groups taking place in Riyadh on Wednesday. 

The Turkish delegation is planning another visit to Jeddah on Thursday evening to meet officials and businesspeople.  

The visit is a significant step toward institutionalizing ties between the two countries, which are set to expand their cooperation avenues. 

HEBRON: The Palestinian Authority is increasingly concerned about the proliferation of smuggled weapons in the West Bank that is apparently fueling conflict between families and various groupings.

Israel’s arms dealers are seemingly contributing to this menace and the situation is becoming a new challenge to the authority, which is already grappling with a deep financial crisis.

There are fears that some Palestinian groups will use these arms to destabilize the authority and attempt to control the West Bank.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament has failed for a third time to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun, stoking fears of a political vacuum after his mandate expires on Oct. 31.

Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri called for another vote on Monday in the hope of quelling long-running disagreements among political factions in the country.

The adjournment on Thursday came after MPs of Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, and the Free Patriotic Movement exited the assembly hall while the media was broadcasting live.

LONDON: Following a month of nationwide protests, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of Iran’s notorious morality police, there is growing belief that the militant clerical regime, in place since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, is living on borrowed time.

Amini’s death on Sept. 16 ignited a tinderbox of pent-up frustrations in Iran over falling living standards and discrimination against women and ethnic minorities, leading to the biggest wave of mass protests since the Green Movement of 2009.