Teenage attacker shot dead after Jerusalem stabbing: police

JERUSALEM: An Israeli police officer shot dead a Palestinian teenager who stabbed and wounded a civilian at a light rail station in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, Israeli police and medics said.
It is the latest incident among surging violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“A suspect armed with a knife committed a terrorist attack near Shivtei Israel light rail station in Jerusalem,” Israeli police said in a statement.
“The suspect was neutralized on the spot,” it said.


Conservative judge seeks presidency of Israel’s high court in new challenge to embattled judiciary

JERUSALEM: A junior conservative justice on Wednesday launched a bid to become president of Israel’s Supreme Court, an unprecedented move that legal scholars said is yet another challenge to the tribunal’s independence as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government advances with its plan to overhaul the judiciary.


Does Israeli PM Netanyahu care as Palestinians in the West Bank reel from Jewish settler violence?

DUBAI: Anti-Palestinian violence committed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank has skyrocketed in the past year, with more than 100 incidents reported by the UN this month alone and more than 400 people driven from their homes since the start of the year.

As properties are destroyed and young men fall victim to armed settler attacks, the question on the lips of many Palestinians and their international supporters is this: Does Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu care?



US, Iranian envoys in Lebanon as UNIFIL renewal vote falters

BEIRUT: Lebanon is committed to maintaining internal security, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told US energy security envoy Amos Hochstein on Wednesday, hours before a UN vote on peacekeeping missions in the south of the country was delayed.
Berri highlighted “the depth of the relationship with UNIFIL since 1978, and Lebanon’s keenness to maintain stability and its sovereignty over all of Lebanese territory.”


Officials from Jordan and Oman discuss enhanced economic ties

AMMAN: Hamdi Tabbaa, head of the Jordanian Businessmen Association, and Yaqoub Ruqaishi, the charge d’affaires at the Omani Embassy in Jordan, met to discuss ways in which bilateral economic relations might be enhanced, the Jordan News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The historical and cultural ties between the two countries help support efforts to strengthen the economic relationship, Tabbaa said, particularly in fields such as joint investments, information technology, tourism and education.