KHARTOUM: Sudan’s main paramilitary group said it had seized the presidential palace, the army chief’s residence and Khartoum international airport on Saturday in an apparent coup attempt but the military said it was fighting back.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which accused the army of attacking them first, also said they had taken over the airports in the northern city of Merowe and in El-Obeid in the west.

SANAA: Scores of prisoners of war, including Saudis, were freed on Saturday as part of a cross-border exchange between the Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
The flights connecting Saudi Arabia and Houthi-held territory in Yemen were part of a multi-day transfer involving nearly 900 detainees that comes amid peace talks which have raised hopes for an end to Yemen’s eight-year-old war.

RAMALLAH: Israeli police have been criticized for heavy-handed tactics after hundreds of Orthodox Christians were blocked from celebrating Holy Saturday in a church in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Several Coptic Orthodox priests were assaulted in front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, according to videos circulating on news websites.
Israeli forces blocked the celebrations with roadblocks and barriers at the gates of the Old City, allowing only small numbers of Christians and those with entry permits to enter.

BAGHDAD: Influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada Al-Sadr announced Friday that he would suspend the movement he leads for one year, citing “corruption” among some of his followers.
A group within the Sadrists, dubbing itself the “Owners of the Cause,” believes that Al-Sadr is Imam Mahdi, a Shiite religious leader said to have vanished more than 1,000 years ago, who is expected to return leading an army of the faithful to defeat evil in the world.

TOKYO: The UAE’s Special Envoy to Japan, Sultan Al-Jaber, who is also the UAE minister of industry and advanced technology, met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Friday.

Al-Jaber is visiting Japan to participate in the G7 Ministers’ Meeting on Climate, Energy and the Environment in Sapporo and is also the COP28 president-designate.

The climate conference will take place in Dubai in late November and early December.