JERUSALEM: Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on Tuesday for an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of female guards by prisoners at a maximum security prison with the encouragement of their superiors.

“Hearing the testimonies of the female prison wardens in recent days, I am filled with shock and pain, and I feel sick,” Herzog said in a statement. “We must investigate these cases in depth, so that everyone responsible is held accountable with the fullest severity. That is our obligation.”

BEIRUT: The celebration of the 77th Lebanese Army Day on Monday witnessed over 40 female officers graduating from the Lebanese Army Military Academy.

Female officer Lt. Angie Khoury was the top cadet in this year’s graduating class. She read out the oath and all graduates repeated it after her.

The gender split reflects “the progress of Lebanese society and the change in the stereotypical picture of women,” said the National Commission for Lebanese Women in a statement.

TEHRAN: Iran’s ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi plans to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly next month despite US sanctions against him, the government’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

“The preliminary planning has been done for the president’s attendance at the UN General Assembly session,” Ali Bahadori-Jahromi told a weekly press briefing.

GENEVA: UN experts on Tuesday condemned Israel’s “harassment” of human rights defenders and humanitarian workers in the occupied West Bank’s Masafer Yatta villages, where Israel has a military zone.
The special rapporteurs insisted such harassment must stop, and said residents continue to be threatened by the risk of forcible transfer, including mass forced evictions and arbitrary displacement.

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Monday confirmed that a US drone strike in Afghanistan this weekend killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, declaring “justice has been delivered.”
“This terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in an evening speech from the White House.
Biden said US intelligence officials tracked Al-Zawahiri to a home in downtown Kabul where he was hiding out with his family. The president approved the operation last week and it was carried out on Sunday.