BEIRUT: A drug used to treat cancer patients has been banned from sale in Lebanon following a World Health Organization alert on a contaminated batch of the product, which officials believe was smuggled into the country.

The WHO on Tuesday cited adverse effects in pediatric patients receiving the drug, and said that its product alert referred to a batch of substandard Methothrex (methotrexate), which had been identified in Yemen and Lebanon.

The drug, an immunosuppressant used to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases, is on the WHO model list of essential medicines.

JERUSALEM: Israel could attack Iranian nuclear sites in two or three years, its defense minister said on Wednesday, in unusually explicit comments about a possible timeline.
With international efforts to renew a 2015 nuclear deal having stalled, the Iranians have ramped up uranium enrichment, a process with civilian uses that can also eventually yield fuel for nuclear bombs — though they deny having any such design.

ALMATY: An Iranian chess player on Wednesday took part in an international tournament in Kazakhstan without a hijab for the second day running, according to a Reuters journalist present.
A Reuters witness at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, saw Sara Khadem competing without a headscarf, a violation of Iran’s laws governing female dress code.

ROME: Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani has summoned the Iranian ambassador to protest the “unacceptable” response to women-led protests in the Islamic republic, his office said Tuesday.
Ambassador designate Mohammad Reza Sabouri has been called in to a meeting on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said in a note to the media.
Tajani has previously condemned the situation in Iran as an “unacceptable shame,” saying Rome took a “hard line” in defense of women.

RAMALLAH: At least 11 people were injured on Tuesday in Jerusalem as Israeli forces clashed in the north of the city with protesters demanding the release of the bodies of Palestinians who died in custody at Qalandia checkpoint.

Soldiers fired bullets and used tear gas to disperse the crowd as dozens of Palestinians marched from Al-Amari refugee camp, south of Ramallah, toward the checkpoint.