Dubai

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Saudi court on Monday sentenced prominent women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul to five years and eight months in prison, local media reported, in a trial that has drawn international condemnation and as Riyadh faces new U.S. scrutiny.

Hathloul, 31, has been held since 2018 following her arrest along with at least a dozen other women’s rights activist.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab foreign ministers will hold a virtual meeting hosted by Bahrain on Sunday ahead of an annual summit to discuss steps towards ending a diplomatic row that has undermined‮ ‬regional stability and thwarted Washington’s efforts to form a united front against Iran.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed diplomatic ties with Qatar in 2017, accusing it of backing “terrorist” groups. Doha denies the charge and accuses its neighbours of seeking to curtail its sovereignty.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar’s foreign minister has called for a de-escalation of tension in the Gulf region and for dialogue between Arab countries and Iran, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and non-Gulf state Egypt severed diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Qatar in mid-2017 over accusations that Doha it supports terrorism, charges which Qatar denies.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates’ top diplomat has publicly acknowledged a so-far unexplained ban on visitors from Pakistan, which travel agents say also targets tourists and laborers from a dozen Muslim-majority countries amid the pandemic and the UAE’s normalization of ties with Israel.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, satellite photos obtained Friday by The Associated Press show.

Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jiddah suffered an explosion early Monday after being hit by “an external source,” a shipping company said, suggesting another vessel has come under attack off the kingdom amid its yearslong war in Yemen.

The Singapore-flagged BW Rhine saw all 22 sailors on board escape without injury, the BW Group said in a statement. The company warned it was possible some oil leaked out from the site of the blast.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain has announced plans to give the public free coronavirus vaccines, as Saudi Arabia said it approved an inoculation by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech to fight the pandemic.

The island nation of Bahrain, off the coast of Saudi Arabia, made the vaccine pledge in an announcement published late Thursday by its state-run Bahrain News Agency.

“A safe vaccine will be provided free of charge to all citizens and residents within the kingdom,” the statement said, without elaborating on which vaccine it would offer.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Wednesday a Chinese coronavirus vaccine tested in the federation of sheikhdoms is 86% effective, in a statement that provided few details but marked the first public release of information on the efficacy of the shot.

The UAE, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, conducted a trial beginning in September of the vaccine by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm involving 31,000 volunteers from 125 nations. Volunteers between 18 and 60 years old received two doses of the vaccine over 28 days.

DUBAI (Reuters) - An official close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has denied rumours on social media that the top authority’s health was deteriorating, the semi official Fars news agency reported on Monday.

“By the grace of God and with the good prayers of devotees, the Gentleman (Ayatollah Khamenei) is in good health and is busy vigorously carrying out his plan according to his routine,” Fars reported, quoting a tweet by Mehdi Fazaeli.

Fazaeli has worked in an office publishing Khamenei’s work.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The top U.S. Navy official in the Mideast said Sunday that America has reached an “uneasy deterrence” with Iran after months of regional attacks and seizures at sea, even as tensions remain high between Washington and Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.