CAIRO: Nine were killed, including four military personnel, after a civilian plane crashed in Port Sudan airport due to a technical failure, the Sudanese army said on Sunday.

The army added in a statement that a female child survived the crash.

The Antonov plane malfunctioned as it was taking off before crashing, it added.

AMMAN: A new forum to combat drug smuggling from war-ravaged Syria through Jordan to the wealthy Gulf states held its first meeting in Amman on Sunday, the Jordanian foreign ministry said.
The forum was agreed during talks between Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus earlier this month as regional concern mounts over an influx of the banned stimulant captagon from Syria.

WAD MADANI, Sudan: In a war-devastated district of Sudan’s capital, Abbas Mohammed Babiker says he and his family have only been able to eat once a day. Now even that is in doubt, but on Sunday a citizens’ support group issued an urgent appeal for donations to help people like him.

“We only have enough for two more days,” Babiker said from Khartoum North, where residents said at least one person, a local musician, has already died from hunger.

JEDDAH: The fifth consultative meeting between the Islamic Committee of the International Crescent and the National Societies of the Red Crescent and Red Cross in the OIC member states started on Sunday in Jeddah.

The event, hosted by the Saudi Red Crescent Authority under the patronage of Makkah Gov. Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, will run until July 26.

LONDON: The EU has allocated €1 million ($1.1 million) to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to better protect Palestinian refugees affected by war and forced displacement in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Adam Bouloukos, director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank, expressed his appreciation to the EU for its support, “particularly at a time when the protection environment continues to deteriorate.”