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Arab-led coalition faces stalemate in battle for Hudaida

An Arab-led coalition has made no major gains in its offensive to wrest control of Yemen’s Hudaida port from the Iran-aligned Houthis, leaving it without the decisive increase in leverage it had sought against the group in U.N.-sponsored peace efforts. The alliance led by Saudi Arabia and the...

Saudi women allowed to become notaries for first time

Women in Saudi Arabia have for the first time been allowed to become notaries, with 12 granted permission to start working in the profession, the justice ministry said Monday. The move comes amid a reform drive in the ultra-conservative kingdom that saw the authorities lift a ban on...

Yemeni minister demands UAE close prisons

Yemen's state news agency says Interior Minister Ahmed al-Maysari demanded the closure of informal prisons in a meeting with an Emirati official, despite denials by the United Arab Emirates that it controls detention facilities in the country. The SABA news agency said he made the...

Kuwait jails lawmakers, activists for storming parliament

Kuwait's top court Sunday sentenced two serving opposition lawmakers and six former legislators to 42 months in jail after convicting them of storming parliament and assaulting police in 2011. The Supreme Court sentenced five opposition activists to the same term for the same offences,...

Unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia rises to record 12.9 pct in Q1

The unemployment rate among Saudi citizens rose to a record 12.9 percent in the first quarter of this year from 12.8 percent in the previous quarter, according to data published by the government's statistics agency Thursday. The government is pushing through economic reforms to develop...

UN rights office: UAE troops tortured, abused Yemenis

A number of Yemeni detainees have been subjected to ill-treatment, torture and sexual abuse by United Arab Emirates (UAE) soldiers, the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva said on Tuesday . "We have engaged with U.A.E. government on this issue and requested access to U.A.E.-run prisons in...

Coalition hits Yemen rebels outside Hodeida as push for city paused

Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have bombarded rebel positions outside Hodeida after pausing their push into the strategic Red Sea port city, government sources said on Tuesday. Hospital sources said 11 civilians and 43 rebel fighters had...

In Yemen, 46 detainees released from UAE-controlled prison

A Yemeni prosecutor says 46 detainees have been released from one of several prisons controlled by the United Arab Emiratis in southern Yemen where AP reporting has shown that widespread sexual abuse and torture of prisoners took place. Detainees provided the list of some of the 46...

UN envoy visits Yemen for talks on key port city

The United Nations envoy for Yemen arrived in Sanaa on Monday for another round of talks aimed at finding a solution to fighting in the key rebel-held port city of Hodeida. Martin Griffiths is set to meet with Yemen's Huthi rebels, who control the capital along with the Red Sea...

UAE announces pause in offensive on Yemen's Hudaida

The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday it had halted its military campaign against the Iran-aligned Houthis for control of Yemen's main port city of Hudaida to support U.N. efforts to reach a political solution. U.N. special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has been shuttling between the...

Yemen army suffers losses in Al-Hudaydah, Al-Bayda

At least 15 soldiers were killed Wednesday in Yemen’s Al-Hudaydah and Al-Bayda provinces. According to an army-linked website, seven soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a landmine in Al-Hudaydah’s Al-Khokha district. “The vehicle struck a landmine after...

Yemen: 9 civilians killed in Saudi coalition airstrike

At least nine civilians were “mistakenly” killed on Tuesday and another 11 wounded in an air raid by the Saudi-led coalition in western Yemen’s Hudaydah province, a local military source said. The coalition’s fighter jets struck a bus carrying displaced people near a checkpoint...

Saudi air defenses intercept missile above Saudi capital

Saudi Arabia’s air defense forces intercepted a ballistic missile launched by Yemen's Houthi militia over Riyadh on Sunday, state-run al-Ikhbariya television said on Sunday. The Houthis' al-Masira television said later that rockets were aimed at Saudi defense ministry and other...

Fighting moves closer to center of Yemen's main port city

Yemen's Houthis deployed additional forces in the main port city of Hudaida Sunday as an Arab-led military coalition moved closer to the city center in the largest offensive of the war, raising U.N. fears of a humanitarian catastrophe. The alliance launched its assault on the heavily...

Saudi women gear up for new freedom as driving ban ends

Women will hit the roads in Saudi Arabia on Sunday with the lifting of the world's last ban on female drivers, long seen as an emblem of women's repression in the conservative kingdom. The move, ordered last September by King Salman, is part of sweeping reforms pushed by his...

Iranian navy sends warships to Gulf of Aden

Iran on Thursday dispatched two warships to the Gulf of Aden, where for the last week fighting has raged between the Yemeni army and Houthi rebels over Yemen’s Al-Hudaydah province. According to Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency, Iran has sent both a helicopter-carrier and a...

37 Houthi fighters slain in central Yemen: Army

The Yemeni army on Thursday said it had killed 37 Houthi rebels -- and captured another 30 -- in fierce clashes in Yemen’s central Al-Bayda province In a statement, the army said several positions had been captured from the rebels in clashes that occurred over the last 24 hours....

Arab-led coalition seizes Hudaida airport

Fears of a humanitarian crisis in Yemen’s main port city Hudaida grew as fighting spilled into residential districts Wednesday after Arab coalition forces seized the airport from the Iran-aligned Houthis. Residents said coalition aircraft were bombing Houthi positions on roads leading...