A woman born in France to a Christian family was not an obvious candidate to become a trailblazing Orthodox rabbi in Israel, but 40-year-old former journalist Eliora Peretz has done just that.
After converting to Judaism and undertaking three intensive years of Jewish study, Peretz recently became one of the few women in Israel to receive an Orthodox rabbinical ordination.
Palestinians in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip are rediscovering the pleasures of the Mediterranean Sea, after authorities declared the end of a long period of hazardous marine pollution.
"It has been a year since I entered the water," said 22-year-old surfer Sabah Abu Ghanem.
"As soon as I enter the water and ride the waves, I feel free and happy; all the negative energy is replaced with positive energy," she told AFP.
Marine pollution has worsened in recent years in Gaza, where insufficient wastewater solutions have turned the Mediterranean into a dump.
Covid vaccines prevented nearly 20 million deaths in the first year after they were introduced, according to the first large modelling study on the topic released Friday.
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, is based on data from 185 countries and territories collected from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021.
It is the first attempt to estimate the number of deaths prevented directly and indirectly as a result of Covid-19 vaccinations.
Lebanon's lawmakers designated incumbent Prime Minister Najib Mikati to form a new government Thursday, more than a month after parliamentary elections that yielded no clear majority.
The 66-year-old billionaire, who had been widely expected to keep his job, secured 54 votes during parliamentary consultations, giving him a clear edge over other potential nominees.
President Michel Aoun subsequently asked him to form a new government, a task analysts fear could take weeks, if not months, despite the economic emergency facing the country.
Veterinarians are called in to inspect the sheep at an abattoir ahead of one of Islam's major holidays in Dubai, where the municipality is encouraging residents to use smart apps to order the sacrificial animals.
Muslims during Eid Al Adha, which falls in July this year to mark the end of the hajj pilgrimage season, traditionally buy a whole sheep to be slaughtered and distributed among friends, family and the poor.
Iran said Thursday that it remains "serious" about reaching a revived nuclear deal with major powers that ends economic sanctions and to which the United States is again a party.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was speaking at a joint news conference with visiting Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov as talks between the parties in Vienna remain stalled.
"The nuclear negotiations train has reached difficult stops as they near the end," Amir-Abdollahian said.
Firefighting aircraft from both sides of divided Cyprus were joined by Israeli and British planes on Thursday battling a blaze that has scorched mountainsides and forced the evacuation of villages.
Fanned by strong winds, the fire spread rapidly overnight after breaking out earlier in the week in the Kantara area of the Kyrenia mountain range in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet of northern Cyprus, media reports said.
There has been no immediate report of any casualties.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Thursday replaced its intelligence chief Hossein Taeb, who had held the position for more than 12 years, the Guards said in a statement.
"The Guards' chief Major General Hossein Salami appointed General Mohammad Kazemi as the new head of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation," Guards spokesman Ramezan Sharif said in the statement.
Salami also appointed Taeb, who is a cleric, as his own adviser, according to the statement.
Israel's incoming prime minister on Thursday thanked Turkey for thwarting an Iranian assassination plot against its tourists in Istanbul that prompted an urgent call for the Jewish state's citizens to return home.
The comments from Israel's visiting Foreign Minister Yair Lapid -- set to assume the helm of a caretaker government in the coming days -- came after Turkey reported detaining eight members of the alleged Iranian cell.
The global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine will kill millions by leaving the hungriest more vulnerable to infectious diseases, potentially triggering the world's next health catastrophe, the head of a major aid organisation has warned.
A Russian naval blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports has stopped grain shipments from the world's fourth-largest exporter of wheat and corn, raising the spectre of shortages and hunger in low-income countries.
