DUBAI: Syria’s embattled President Bashar Assad received an invitation to attend the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai later this year, even as the yearslong war in his country over his rule grinds on.

Assad’s invite, late on Monday, to the climate talks comes as the Syrian president already is scheduled to attend the Arab League summit this Friday in Jeddah, years after being frozen out of regional politics. 

RIYADH: An ongoing Saudi program to clear landmines in Yemen saw 896 devices laid by the Iran-backed Houthis dismantled in the second week of May.

Overseen by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, special teams destroyed 11 anti-personnel mines, 156 anti-tank mines, 728 unexploded ordnance, and one explosive device.

The KSrelief project, known as Masam, is one of several initiatives undertaken by Saudi Arabia on the orders of King Salman to help the Yemeni people.

The project has cleared routes for the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid.

BEIRUT: A French investigative judge on Tuesday issued an international arrest warrant for Riad Salameh, Lebanon’s central bank governor, after he failed to appear for questioning on corruption charges.
Salameh was supposed to appear before French prosecutors as part of an ongoing European probe, and Judge Aud Bourizi issued the warrant in Paris.

TUNIS: A Tunisian judge on Monday sentenced opposition leader Rached Ghannouchi, a critic of President Kais Saied, to a year in absentia on charges of incitement, his lawyer Monia Bouali said.
Ghannouchi, 81, has been in prison since last April, after police arrested him from his home on suspicion of plotting against state security.
Ennahda party leader Ghannouchi decided this month to refuse to appear before the judiciary, rejecting what he said were fabricated political trials.

DUBAI: Flights between Bahrain and Qatar will resume as of May 25, Bahrain News Agency reported on Monday.

The resumption of flights between Bahrain and Qatar “comes within the framework of the brotherly relations between the two brotherly countries and peoples, and in a manner that achieves” their common aspirations,” BNA said.