AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni government officials and human rights groups have called for an independent international investigation into the deaths of 18 children with leukemia who were injected with expired drugs at a hospital in Houthi-held Sanaa.

Local media reports, independent organizations and family members said that health workers at Kuwait University Hospital administered doses of the chemotherapy drug methotrexate to about 50 cancer-hit children in late September, killing at least 18 of them and sending others to intensive care units.

BEIRUT: Amnesty International has urged Lebanese authorities to halt plans to return Syrian refugees to their country involuntarily.

The call follows Beirut’s announcement that it will start sending refugees back to Syria in batches this month.

Lebanon received around $5.83 billion in humanitarian aid between 2013 and 2018 specifically allocated for Syrian refugees.

LONDON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US envoy to Iran Robert Malley on Saturday held meetings with civil society groups and human rights activists to discuss the ongoing situation in the Islamic Republic.

“We continue to find ways to respond to the Iranian government’s state-sponsored violence against women and crackdown on its people,” Blinken said in a tweet.

“Today, I met with civil society partners to discuss what more the US can do to support the people of Iran, particularly its brave women and girls,” he added.

AMMAN: Palestinian political leaders, experts, and opinion makers have expressed a high degree of skepticism about the recently announced Palestinian reconciliation agreement.

Rival factions signed an agreement in Algiers on Thursday aimed at resolving 15 years of discord. It states that elections will be held within a year after months of talks mediated by Algeria.

DUBAI: Iranian filmmaker Mani Haghighi has been prevented from leaving Iran to attend the BFI London Film Festival, where his latest film “Subtraction” is being screened.

The movie made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, which Haghighi was able to attend. He then returned to Tehran, but when he tried to board a flight to London he was stopped by Iranian authorities without any “reasonable explanation,” he said in a video statement.