WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that a staff mission will visit Lebanon next week to discuss ways to “speed up” implementation of agreed reforms required for an IMF loan program amid deteriorating living conditions in the country.
“We are looking to support Lebanon as strongly as we can. It’s a difficult situation,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice told a regular news briefing. “There’s been slow progress in implementing some of the critical actions that we think are required to move forward with a program.”

AL-MUKALLA: Yemeni forces say they have driven Al-Qaeda militants from a key mountain stronghold in the province of Abyan, in the latest victory against the terrorist group.

Military units commanded by the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council on Thursday pushed deep into Omaran valley to strike a blow against the group’s decade-long occupation, Mohammed Al-Naqeeb, the STC’s spokesman, told Arab News.

STRASBOURG, France: Negotiations to bring Iran and the US back into the nuclear deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting sanctions are in “stalemate,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday.

“I am afraid that with the political situation in the US, and so many directions without being conclusive, now we are going to stay in a kind of stalemate,” Borrell said.

DOHA: Qatar University announced on Wednesday that it has joined the Francophone University Agency, also known as the AUF, the Qatar News Agency reported

The university said that membership of the AUF, a global network of French-language higher education and research institutions, forms part of its global efforts to enhance its scientific and research relationships and partnerships.

JERUSALEM: From his home in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, Palestinian Farid Salman enjoys a clear, unobstructed view of the city, but new residential tower blocs for Jewish settlers could box him in.

Salman lives in the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa where Israeli authorities recently granted pre-approval for 700 settler homes in the proposed Givat Shaked development, including four 24-story buildings.