BEIRUT: The discovery of a newborn girl in a black plastic trash bag being carried by a stray dog near the municipality building in Tripoli on Wednesday morning caused shock across Lebanon.

A passerby reportedly saw the dog carrying the bag and heard a baby’s cries. He managed to take the bag from the dog and found the child inside. The infant, who had bruises all over her body, was taken to the Islamic Charity Hospital, then transferred to the Tripoli Governmental Hospital after security services and judicial authorities were informed.

JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Israeli reservists marched in Tel Aviv on Wednesday threatening to refuse their volunteer service if the government presses ahead with its controversial plan to curb the power of the Supreme Court.
The drive by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nationalist-religious coalition to strip the court of some of its review powers has triggered mass protests across Israel and stirred deep concern among allies, including the United States.

CAIRO: Egypt is targeting a resumption of liquefied natural gas exports by October at the start of autumn, petroleum minister Tarek El Molla told reporters on Wednesday.
Most of Egypt’s production is consumed domestically in the summer when temperatures are high, but there are excess quantities available for export during winter, the minister said.
El Molla added that summer exports increased last year because the government switched from using natural gas in power stations to mazut fuel oil in order to bank on the higher natural gas prices.

BASRA: For three centuries, the Al-Siraji Mosque, with its minaret fashioned from weathered bricks and its pinnacle inlaid with blue ceramic tiles, was a distinctive feature of the city of Basra in southern Iraq.
In recent years, it was one of the few tourist attractions in the oil-rich but neglected city, although locals complained that the minaret jutted out into the street, snarling traffic.

DUBAI: Arab youth’s confidence in government is on the slide with less than half (46 percent) saying their voice matters to leadership — a substantial decrease from 2022 (67 percent).

Sunil John, founder and president of ASDA’A BCW, told Arab News: “Over the past five years there has been a significant drop in the percentage of Arab youth who feel their voice matters.”