Middle East & North Africa

SANAA, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Houthi militia in Yemen launched a drone attack on government forces in the southern province of Shabwa on Wednesday, wounding at least four soldiers, a local military source said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Houthis used a bomb-laden drone to attack a military checkpoint near the complex of the 1st Brigade in the Al-Musina'a area in the southern part of Shabwa.

There were no immediate comments from the Houthi group, which rarely discloses its operations.

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese lawmakers failed Wednesday in yet another attempt to elect a president and break a seven-month power vacuum that has roiled the tiny Mediterranean country. The ongoing political chaos has blocked progress on a solution to an intensifying economic crisis.

The session — the twelfth try to pick a president — broke down after the bloc led by the powerful political party and militant group Hezbollah withdrew following the first round of voting, breaking the quorum in the 128-member house. All lawmakers attended the session.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait reached an agreement worth $367 million with Turkish drone giant Baykar to purchase its increasingly sought-after TB2 combat drones, the Kuwaiti army said.

The drone, Bayraktar TB2, boasts unmanned aerial vehicles that can carry lightweight, laser-guided bombs, and fly for up to 27 hours at a time, which, according to the company, was “a record,” it had set while testing the drone in Kuwait in 2019.

The announcement, on Tuesday, would set Kuwait to become the 28th country to procure the TB2 drones.

ISTANBUL (AP) — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments published Wednesday he remains firm on his unconventional approach to Turkey’s economy, but suggested his recently appointed finance minister will have leeway to move away from policies many have blamed for a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that NATO should not bet on his country approving Sweden’s application to join the Western military alliance before a July summit because the Nordic nation has not fully addressed his security concerns.

Sweden and Finland applied for membership together following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Finland became NATO’s 31st member in April after the Turkish parliament ratified its request, but Turkey has held off approving Sweden’s bid.

TOKYO (AP) — An 18-year-old army trainee shot three fellow soldiers at a firing range on a Japanese army base Wednesday, killing two of them, officials said.

The suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder at the scene in Gifu prefecture in central Japan, police said.

The suspect fired a rifle at the soldiers during a shooting exercise at the Hino Kihon firing range, police said.

The Ground Self Defense Force, Japan’s army, confirmed that two of those wounded were later pronounced dead at a hospital.

13 June 2023; MEMO: Iran and Venezuela want to increase bilateral trade to $20 billion, up from $3 billion, Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, said on Monday during a visit to Caracas.

During the visit, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand cooperation in petrochemicals with a view to carrying out joint projects, building on their already-close cooperation in oil, Reuters reports.

13 June 2023; MEMO: Israel exported a record $12.556 billion in defence products last year, with new Arab partners under the US-sponsored 2020 Abraham Accords accounting for almost a quarter of the business, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

13 June 2023; MEMO: Turkiye's state aid agency, on Monday, said it delivered medical equipment to a children's hospital in war-torn Ukraine, Anadolu Agency reports.

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) provided medical equipment assistance to the Rivne Regional Children's Hospital, which has recently been seeing an increase in the number of patients.

13 June 2023; MEMO: President Vladimir Putin said, on Tuesday, that Russia was considering withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal, saying that Moscow had been "cheated" over implementation of the parts of the accord that concerned its own exports.