BEIRUT: The leader of Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah movement said Monday his group could send Israel “back to the stone age,” in tit-for-tat threats following similar Israeli remarks as border tensions brew.
During a tour of the Lebanese-Israeli border last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had threatened to send Lebanon “back to the stone age” should Hezbollah escalate tensions at the border.

BAGHDAD: A pair of Siberian tigers pant incessantly beside a pond at their zoo enclosure in the scorching summer heat of the Iraqi capital.
Temperatures on Monday breached 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in Baghdad for the second day in a row — making life outdoors unbearable for both humans and animals.
The orange, striped felines from far-eastern Russia are more suited to living “where temperatures drop to as low as minus 20 degrees” than in one of the hottest cities in the world, said Wassim Sarih, the veterinarian at Baghdad’s only zoo.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s military and security services have increased their readiness to react and protect citizens amid a number of security developments, caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said on Monday.

The Central Security Council held a meeting on Monday attended by military, security and judicial officials after a truck belonging to Hezbollah overturned in Kahale last week.

WAD MADANI, Sudan: In a rare televised speech on Monday, the head of Sudan’s military accused the rival paramilitary force of committing war crimes as all-out civil war threatens to engulf the northeast African country.

Sudan was plunged into chaos in April when months of simmering tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, exploded into open fighting in Khartoum and elsewhere.

TRIPOLI: Clashes broke out in the Libyan capital Tripoli late on Monday, residents said, after the reported seizure of a powerful armed faction commander by a rival force.
“We have heard gunfire for almost two hours now and we do not know what will happen. We fear for our safety,” said one of the residents in Furnaj district.
Mahmoud Hamza, head of the 444 brigade that controls much of Tripoli, was detained at Mitiga airport by the Special Deterrence Force, local media and a source in the 444 brigade said.