Author: Steven Sahiounie

RIYADH: Top Saudi banks demonstrated strong performances in 2023, with operating income growing by 9.5 percent, driven by non-interest revenue, according to professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal.

Kiev has no plans to prolong gas transit to the EU from Russia when the current contract expires this year, Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Sunday.

Romania has started work on rebuilding an airbase that will become the largest NATO facility in Europe, according to Euronews. The base is located near the city of Constanta on the Black Sea, around 130km from the border with Ukraine.

Ransacking homes and assaulting Palestinians, Israeli occupation forces have detained more than two dozen Palestinians overnight. Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained at least 25 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, including a woman from the Gaza Strip, a child, and a wounded man, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Sunday, citing the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. The PPS and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees said in a joint statement that Israeli occupation forces mainly targeted citizens in al-Khalil Governorate, while others were detained in Qalqilya, Beit Lahm, Jenin, Tulkarm, Ramallah, and al-Quds. …

Syria condemned a statement issued on March 15 by governments of United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany . “Over the past thirteen years, the governments of the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany have continued their hostile approach against Syria by using all the tools of war against it” Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. The Ministry added that Syria condemns the statement issued by the governments of the four countries on March 15, and considers it a continuation of their destructive policies against it, and a repetition of what they have persisted to…

Austria does not plan to send troops to Ukraine, citing neutrality, the country’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told the ORF TV channel. “I view such discussions as unnecessary. Clearly, it’s a ‘no’ from Austria. We will stick to our neutrality. There will be neither troop deployment nor supplies of military hardware, weapons and ammunition to Ukraine,” he pointed out. According to Schallenberg, NATO itself is still waffling on the matter. French President Emmanuel Macron said on February 26 that some 20 Western countries taking part in a recent Paris meeting on further assistance for Kiev had touched upon the possibility…

The UN children’s agency said on Sunday over 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s offensive, adding many kids were suffering from severe malnutrition and did not “even have the energy to cry.”“Thousands more have been injured or we can’t even determine where they are. They may be stuck under rubble … We haven’t seen that rate of death among children in almost any other conflict in the world,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” program on Sunday.“I’ve been in wards of children who are suffering from severe anemia malnutrition, the whole ward…

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that he and his supporters are ready to march on Brussels to defend their country’s sovereignty within the EU. Orban gave the warning on Friday in a fiery speech dedicated to an anniversary of Hungary’s unsuccessful revolution of 1848 against the rule of the Austrian Empire. “Brussels is not the first empire that has set its eyes on Hungary,” he stressed. The conservative prime minister told a crowd of around a thousand of his supporters that he’s ready to do everything to protect Hungary from what he described as attempts by the EU to “force” the country…

Israel’s continued atrocities in the Gaza Strip do not only disregard international law but also all humanitarian values, the Turkish foreign minister said on Sunday. “Israeli atrocities continue to trample not only international law but also all humanitarian values in Gaza,” Hakan Fidan said in a speech in northwestern Bursa province. Fidan underlined that Israel’s attacks extend beyond Gaza alone, with Palestinian lands in the West Bank being seized through “settler terrorism” against Palestinians. “As Türkiye, we continue to work at all levels to put an end to the oppression. We will never leave our Palestinian brothers alone,” Fidan added.…

The UN Relief and Works Agency for the Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that people in the besieged Gaza Strip are on the verge of famine. “UNRWA needs to be able to reach as many people as possible with critical aid. Delivery via land remains the most efficient and safest way, said UNRWA in a post on the X platform. “Safe, unimpeded and sustained access throughout the Gaza Strip is a matter of life and death,” said UNRWA. source: WAFA