ANKARA: Sweden’s bid for NATO membership is facing a dead end, according to analysts.

A protest by Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist leader Rasmus Paludan in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm has further strained relations.

Following the demonstration, in which Paludan burnt a copy of the Holy Qur’an, eyes are now focused on potential steps Ankara might take to torpedo NATO’s expansion to Nordic countries.

RIYADH: Houthi allegations of shelling on the Saadah districts of Shada and Munabbih are “baseless,” the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen said on Sunday.

“What is being circulated comes within the context of ongoing Houthi allegations in areas under its control that represent hotspots for disputes,” the coalition said.

The statement also said that crime was rife in areas managed by the Houthis.

CAIRO: The sugarcane harvesting season has begun in Egypt, with the governorate of Upper Egypt in the country’s south a key cultivation site.

“The target is to receive approximately 7.7 million tons of sugarcane during the current harvest season to produce about 850,000 tons of sugar,” Maj. Gen. Essam El-Din El-Budaiwi, head of the Sugar and Integrated Industries Co., told Arab News.

He added that the company has eight factories in five governorates across Egypt — Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Sohag, Minya — to produce sugar from cane and beets.

AL-MUKALLA: Two Yemenis kidnapped by the Houthis died after being brutally tortured inside militia prisons, Yemeni human rights advocates and local media said on Saturday. 

The deaths have sparked outrage, with demands for an inquiry to bring the killers to justice, and an acceleration of prisoner-exchange negotiations.

One of the victims, Munaser Al-Rasas, a Yemeni expatriate working in Saudi Arabia, is believed to have been abducted while returning to his family home in the central province of Al-Bayda to celebrate Eid Al-Adha last July.

TEHRAN: Iran’s judiciary is to rule by Friday on whether to release celebrated filmmaker Jafar Panahi on bail after his conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court, his lawyer said on Saturday.
Panahi, 62, who has won a string of awards at European film festivals, was arrested on July 11 and had been due to serve a six-year sentence handed down in 2010 after his conviction for “propaganda against the system.”
But on Oct. 15, the Supreme Court quashed the conviction and ordered a retrial.