NEW YORK CITY: The armed hostilities between July 30 and Aug. 3 at Ein El-Hilweh, a camp for Palestinian refugees in southern Lebanon, and their aftermath have once again shone a spotlight on the dire circumstances in which the camp residents are living.

Dorothy Klaus, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, on Thursday described the effects of the violence on the people in the camps as “profound” as she called for an urgent and sustained aid effort.

CAIRO: When war in Sudan’s capital forced Sarah Al-Sharif and her family to flee, the 19-year-old information technology student left her books and computer behind.

Now in Sennar, 30km southeast of Khartoum, she lacks a stable internet connection or passport to travel abroad and like many others sees no way of continuing her studies while fighting between rival military factions rages.

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court has overturned the death sentence handed down over the 2020 killing of prominent academic Hisham Al-Hashemi and sent the case back to investigators.

Ahmed Hamdawi Oueid was sentenced to death by a Baghdad criminal court in May after being found guilty of killing Al-Hashemi, an internationally recognized expert in Sunni Muslim extremism.

Al-Hashemi, who was also a security adviser to the Iraqi government, was shot dead on July 6, 2020 by men on motorcycles in front of his home.

AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: A Yemeni military commander at the forefront of the fight against terror groups in Yemen for more than a decade was killed in a blast from an explosive device planted by Al-Qaeda in southern Yemen on Thursday.

Brig. Abdul Latif Al-Sayed, commander of the Security Belt forces in Abyan province, was the highest-ranking official to die in the campaign against Al-Qaeda in more than a year. 

Al-Sayed and three of his troops were killed when their vehicle was destroyed by an IED planted by Al-Qaeda in the Omaran valley.

RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fired most of the governors in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, responding to long-standing demands for a political shake-up as frustration grows with the semi-autonomous Palestinian Authority.