GCC

The agreement will support the provision of COVID-19 vaccines and related supplies for low- and lower-middle-income countries DP World and UNICEF have announced a wide-ranging partnership to support the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and related immunisation supplies in low- and lower-middle-income countries.  The new multi-million-dollar partnership is the largest established to date to support UNICEF’s […]

A second COVID-19 vaccine now also appears highly effective in preventing illness following exposure to the virus that causes the disease. The biotech company Moderna, Inc., said Monday that its experimental vaccine was 94.5% effective in preventing disease, according to an analysis of its clinical trial. The news comes a week after Pfizer and BioNTech […]

Dubbed the “Manhattan of the desert” for its centuries-old skyscrapers, Yemen’s ancient city of Shibam escaped damage in the civil war — but faces collapse from disrepair amid rains and floods. Against a backdrop of cliffs looking like America’s Grand Canyon, the UNESCO-listed World Heritage site is strategically built on a rocky spur high above […]

Around 10,000 international pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah, after a hiatus of seven months, after the Islamic pilgrimage was halted due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the Kingdom and worldwide. According to Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah Dr Amr Al-Maddah, the 10,000 pilgrims arriving from abroad must first obtain […]

Saudi Arabia opened Sunday Islam’s holiest site for prayers for the first time in seven months, and expanded the Umrah pilgrimage to accommodate 15,000 worshippers as it relaxed coronavirus curbs. Mask-clad Saudi citizens and residents of the kingdom were allowed to pray inside the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, amid what authorities […]

Kuwait has entered a solemn 40-day period of mourning to commemorate the late emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah’s death, who passed away on Tuesday.  Kuwait’s Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah was sworn in Wednesday as the ruling emir of the tiny oil-rich country, propelled to power by the death of his half-brother […]

Lebanon on Sunday held a concert for the victims of last month’s deadly Beirut blast in the grounds of a 19th-century palace wrecked by the massive explosion. The August 4 blast at the capital’s port killed more than 190 people, wounded thousands and destroyed or damaged buildings across swathes of the city. “To be able […]

The two Gulf states, UAE, and Bahrain, on Tuesday signed a historic diplomatic pact with Israel at a White House ceremony that President Donald Trump declared will mark the “dawn of a new Middle East,” casting himself as an international peacemaker at the height of his re-election campaign. The bilateral agreements formalised the already thawing […]