World
Middle East
Netanyahu challenger pledges change with Biden but stands firm on settlements
Gideon Saar, who defected from Netanyahu's ruling Likud party to form the New Hope party last month, shares the Israeli PM's hardline nationalistic ideology.
- by Josef Federman
Latest
Egypt unveils 3000-year old coffins in latest archaeological discovery
The find, 3000 to 4000 years old, includes coffins and mummies, the funerary temple of Queen Nearit and a four-metre long papyrus that contains texts of the Book of the Dead.
Taliban blamed as two female judges shot dead in Afghanistan
The spate of almost daily unclaimed killings is thought to be largely the work of the Taliban, in what is feared to be in part a chilling new campaign to silence liberal voices.
- by Ben Farmer and Sami Yusafzai
Israel approves hundreds of settlement homes in last-minute push
The anti-settlement monitoring group Peace Now said that over 90 per cent of the homes lay deep inside the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as the heartland of a future independent state.
- by Josef Federman
France says Iran is building nuclear weapons capacity, deal urgently needed
Iran has been accelerating its breaches of the nuclear deal and earlier this month started pressing ahead with plans to enrich uranium to 20 per cent fissile strength.
- by John Irish
Egypt, Germany, France, Jordan in renewed push for Palestinian state
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry said the establishment of an independent Palestinian state should not threaten Israel’s security.
- by Samy Magdy
South Korean diplomat in Iran over seized ship, frozen funds
Iranian officials are pressing South Korea to release some $9 billion tied up in South Korean banks. The country says it needs the funds for COVID-19 vaccines.
- by Amir Vahdat
New coronavirus variant found in Japan in travellers from Brazil
It differs from highly infectious variants first found in Britain and South Africa that have driven a surge in cases, the Japanese government said.
- by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Ricardo Brito
'We're making history': Israel's vaccination drive accelerates
After months of lockdown, Israelis view a COVID-19 vaccination as a golden ticket that will finally allow them to get on with their lives.
- by James Rothwell
Saudi Arabia opens borders to Qatar, ending bitter Gulf dispute
The kingdom is seeking to grant the Trump administration a final diplomatic win, curry favour with the Biden administration and isolate its enemy Iran.
- by Aya Batrawy and Isabel Debre
Iran starts 20 per cent uranium enrichment, seizes oil tanker in strait
Iran has begun enriching uranium up to 20 per cent at an underground facility and seized a South Korean-flagged oil tanker in the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
- by Jon Gambrell and Isabel Debre