BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Parliament on Thursday failed to elect a successor to President Michel Aoun for a second time in less than a month.

Some MPs boycotted the vote, meaning a quorum was not reached, while others described the events surrounding the failed meeting as a farce.

Although 88 MPs were present at the parliamentary headquarters, only 71 attended the voting session.

The required quorum is 86 MPs, or two-thirds of the total number of 128 MPs.

ALGIERS/GAZA: Rival Palestinian factions signed an agreement in Algiers on Thursday aimed at resolving 15 years of discord by holding elections within a year after months of talks mediated by Algeria.
The deal aims to end a rift between President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and Hamas that has split Palestinian governance in the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and hindered Palestinian ambitions of statehood.

UNITED NATIONS: UN officials on Thursday urged the warring parties in Yemen to renew their truce after seven years of devastating war between the Yemeni government and the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The truce, in effect since April 2 and extended on an emergency basis twice, expired on October 2 without the Yemeni government and Houthis reaching an agreement to roll it over for another six months.

AL-MUKALLA: Government officials and human rights activists in Yemen have accused Iran-backed Houthis of torturing and executing a prisoner of war a year after capturing him in the central province of Marib.
Muammar Al-Eryani, Yemen’s minister of information, culture and tourism, said Houthi captors tortured Abdul Wahab Al-SHajjae, a Yemeni government soldier, and denied him lifesaving medication, which resulted in his death in prison, and that they refused to return his body to his family.

LONDON: Iran has begun arresting teenage schoolgirls and students who have taken part in anti-regime protests following the death of Mahsa Amini, according to The Times.

Students who have been protesting the compulsory wearing of the hijab have been arrested and taken to “psychological correctional facilities” for “reform,” said the Iranian education minister.