A sandstorm has hit the Sakhir circuit ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix. As the sport left Shanghai and headed for the Persian Gulf’s island Kingdom, the local meteorological bureau warned of high winds and the risk of a thick sand haze. On Monday visibility was poor at the Sakhir circuit and the track, paddock and surrounding roads were ...

Nine Lebanese truck drivers kidnapped by the Nusra Front on the Syria-Jordan border earlier this month returned home Monday, ending a nearly two-week ordeal. Around noon Monday, eight Lebanese truckers abducted at the Nassib crossing in southern Syria landed at Beirut airport. Hours later, the ninth, Hasan Atat, crossed into Lebanon by land from Syria through the eastern Masnaa crossing, ...

Lebanese cultural and political figures mourned Tuesday the death of popular Lebanese Actor Issam Breidy, who was killed in a car accident one day earlier. Actress Mirani Panossian, who co-starred with Breidy in the Lebanese sitcom “Arous w Aris” (Bride and Groom), described the late-actor as a man with “a smile of hope and eyes of intelligence and ambition.” The ...

Cases of H5N1 avian flu have been surging in Egypt since the fall. Egypt has now passed Indonesia as the country with the most human cases in total since the virus was first found in Hong Kong almost 20 years ago. About a third of the 336 cases Egypt has reported to the World Health Organization since 2006 have been ...

An Arsal resident who was kidnapped by Islamist militants Monday afternoon was freed hours later, a security source said. Militants allegedly allied with ISIS kidnapped Saleh al-Hujeiri from the area of Wadi Hmeid outside Arsal and took him to the town’s outskirts at 2 p.m. Monday. He was released at 8 p.m. that same day, according to the source. The ...

Iran and Israel have been cooperating under the auspices of an international body set up to monitor a ban on nuclear bomb tests, its director said Monday. Negotiated in the 1990s, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty enjoys wide global support but must be ratified by eight more nuclear technology states – among them Israel and Iran, as well as ...

A court in Jordan Monday ordered six men jailed for waving ISIS’ flag and singing jihadi slogans at a wedding. The state security court sentenced two defendants to five years in prison for “carrying out acts that expose the kingdom to the risk of hostile acts and ruining relations with foreign states.” The remaining four were sentenced in absentia to ...

President Vladimir Putin Monday lifted a ban on supplying Iran with sophisticated S-300 air defense missile systems after Tehran’s landmark framework deal with the West over its nuclear program. A decree signed by Putin removed a ban on “the shipment from Russia to Iran” of the S-300 missiles and sparked fierce condemnation from Israel of Iran’s perceived newfound “legitimacy” on ...

A Chinese policeman has been caught on camera clinging to the top of a speeding car as it fled police. The car’s driver, Zhou, had been pulled over by police officer He Mingdao because his vehicle’s number plate was covered. Refusing to stop, Zhou took off reportedly driving one of the front wheels against Mingdao’s leg, forcing the officer to ...

Police in Cleveland, Ohio, say a three-year-old boy picked up an unattended gun inside a home and it went off, shooting a one-year-old boy in the head and killing him. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams told reporters gathered outside the home after the shooting investigators are trying to determine where the gun came from. Cleveland.com reports the one-year-old was taken ...