AL-MUKALLA, Yemen: A group of Chinese diplomats is visiting Yemen’s southern city of Aden for the first time in eight years, the latest in a series of foreign visits to the country’s temporary capital and seat of the internationally recognized government. 

The Chinese delegation, led by Chu Ch’ing, the acting Chinese ambassador to Yemen, met with Prime Minister Maeen Abdul Malik Saeed and other government officials, and also visited the Chinese Consulate in Aden. 

SANTIAGO: Chile plans to open an embassy in the Palestinian territories, President Gabriel Boric said late on Wednesday, which could make the Andean country one of only a handful to have an embassy-level office in the territories that are contested with Israel.
Chilean Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola confirmed the plan on Thursday but said there was no timeline in place yet and that Chile continues to recognize both Palestine and Israel as legitimate states.

BEIRUT: Hezbollah is to remove structures it was building close to the southern Lebanese town of Rmeish following pressure from residents and Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, who accused it of encroachment.
The party’s Green Without Borders environmental organization has been told to remove all of the facilities, which encroached on properties owned by the Al-Ameel, Al-Alam and Al-Hajj families. The developments had angered local people, municipal authorities and religious leaders.

NEW YORK: After being arrested for creating antigovernment propaganda in 2010, the Iranian director Jafar Panahi was banned from making films for 20 years. Since then, he’s made five widely acclaimed features.
His latest, “No Bears,” opens soon in US theaters while Panahi is in prison.
In July, Panahi went to the Tehran prosecutor’s office to inquire about the arrest of Mohammad Rasoulof, a filmmaker detained in the government’s crackdown on protests. Panahi himself was arrested and, on a decade-old charge, sentenced to six years in jail.

ANKARA: Sweden’s Supreme Court decision to block the extradition of Turkish journalist Bulent Kenes is a “very negative” development, Turkiye’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, as Stockholm seeks Ankara’s approval for it to join NATO.

Mevlut Cavusoglu was speaking at a news conference in Ankara. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month singled out Kenes as a person Ankara wants extradited from Sweden as a condition for Ankara’s approval for Stockholm to join NATO.